I read what they said, Starmer and Macron, and it struck me that they said nothing. They stood on a podium or on the floor in Parliament and their mouths moved and sounds came out but when they spoke they said nothing. Politicians have this gift. They speak but say nothing and with that nothing comes no action.

Trump built his message to voters on “Make America Great Again.” MAGA. These four letters did the same work Weyl described in his paragraph. Trump knew the trick.

One narrow passage. No redundancy. Absolute dependence. And now a country that has learned it can hold the world's economy by the throat with twenty drones and an insurance market.

The Pope stood at a window of the Apostolic Palace. The square below was full. It was Sunday and the light was on the stone and the crowd waited. He was seventy years old and the first American to wear the soutane.