Washington, DC, USA. In this, our all so post-modern world, the left and right extremes, the political base of Democrats and Republicans respectively, treat reality as if truth is freely exchangeable, in whole or in part, with some fantastical gospel that conforms to their own self-fabricated artifacts and fables.

Left and Right, Right and Left, following their own drummers in a march, humming hymns and anthems, chanting repetitive slogans, and waving their splendid banners and gloriously constructed flags while expecting the rest of us to stand at the curb urging them with cheers.

Washington, DC, USA. We have grown accustomed to hearing gunfire in the streets. Casually launched personal attacks are routine in the half-civilized, lawless existence that is the internet.

Rather than some shiny exemplar of modernity, the internet is more like a sprawling jumbled mass of huts, tents, cabins and saloons. A small town; in many ways, a very strange small town.