Phil:   
   There's a story told about the Emperor Napoleon: when a particularly   
   inept general was accused of treason by his colleagues, Napoleon   
   replied, "Never attribute to malice what is adequately explained by   
   incompetence."  (I don't have the original French quote handy.)    
   ===================   
   Well, there you have the dichotomous arguments about the world's ills - They   
   are either due to deliberate malevolence or systemic dysfunction. Or both   
   together. There is a third view, held by the Greeks, but pretty much out of   
   favor today - namely,    
   possession by bad daemons. These non-material creatures, "daemons of the   
   Kosmos," are good and bad. The Greek word, eudaemonia, means to have a set of   
   good daemons.    
   So, how can we explain Napoleon going off to Moscow? Incompetence? Desire to   
   destroy his army? Neither.    
   And, like Napoleon, we seek the simplest explanation - that there was a   
   daemon, and that daemon got him by the ankle.    
   jb   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)