There I was, writing about Nihilism ("Nile-izm," as I pronounce it) and I mentioned the helmeted astronaut in passing (probably Neil Armstrong; with that whole thread created or reported by Geoff Cohen that "Nilammon" in TBOTNS is a corruption of "Neil Armstrong"), and it occured to me that, yes, nihilism can be pronounced "Neel-izm," and how odd that is. Peters is trying to research "where it all began" and he gets the image of Chesire Cat/Neil Armstrong--and that is all he gets.
A more important point which has not been articulated (though it may be well known): the corporations of "Hour of Trust" are not generic mega-corps, say McDonald's or Ford Motor Co, who have somehow acquired the Pentagon, etc. The corporations are specifically the military/industrial complex, the weapons makers, who have amassed enough wealth and power as to consume their socially decadent host, yet they are incapable of fulfilling their new roles. So they can produce such durable goods as warplanes, for example--not that they have also picked up these war factories for cheap, but rather these war factories have been their cash cows in the 50 years after WW2.
=mantis=
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