But to hope that they will understand how their activities contribute to their government's problems well, that doesn't seem so crazy. The rise of the professional transfer-seeking economy, with its breathtaking ability to mobilize antagonism and neutralize enemies, is, of course, a problem. In its mindlessly mechanical way, the transfer-seeking game is clever. By now, you know where that leads. Blaming some villain for what is in fact a systemic problem is a guarantee that the real problem will not be confronted.
Monkeys ransack the forest for medicinal plants that kill intestinal worms.
Dogs gnaw through fur and flesh to rip out ticks or fleas. Not villainous lobbyists or crooked insiders or crafty foreigners. Look in the mirror. For the public to get its mind fully around its deep complicity in government's debilitation will, no doubt, be a process of decades. But then, we have decades, and understanding can make a big difference on the margins, which is, after all, where the action is going to be for the indefinite future.