How can a tree stand when it is being eaten out from within? The hollowness of modern life, democracies without true leaders, the scapegoating of the weak and persecuted by the men of power and gold - all point to the futility of building a society where it is not the wise who rise to the top, but reckless parasites instead have their way with our world. Pompous, thin skinned leadership is taking the once-promising democracies to the precipice, and the very class responsible for most of our woes purport to be the ones who can drain swamps and fix it all. Dictatorship is the next logical step for the wealthy-and-connected. Can one poem say it all?