Surprised to find myself so overwhelmed by grief at the US election result. I hadn’t expected this result, and certainly not my reaction to it. Three decades ago the Americans found Richard Nixon more than they could swallow, and spat him out. The system demonstrably worked — eventually. Not so with George II. Lie to us, we don’t mind really. Frighten us with bogeymen and rouse us with drums. Play on our worst instincts, shovel money to the rich and wink at corruption. We prefer it all to ‘nuanced’ John F-ing Kerry. Bertrand Russell said it in 1914 when refusing to go to war: “Most men would rather die than think. Many do.”