before watergate and vietnam, the american people had total implicit faith in their leaders and in their government. perhaps in some abstract sense power could have been abused, but it never had been up until, i think, 1967. but after the naive idealistic youth of america got a gander at, perhaps, spiro agnew, we sank into cynicism, disillusionment, and disco. thank god for jerry ford, who restored america's traditional, completely uncritical enthusiasm for state power. ah, it was a difficult time. but it was a time that has receded into a few crisp, though idiotic, sentences.