"Imagine the Worst" is an article on the likelihood of the reelection of Ronald Reagan in the 1984 United States Presidential Election published in Mother Jones in October 1984.
Summary[]
Ronald Reagan, 1981
Reagan will likely be reelected and continue to be an actor who pretends to steer the United States with a ship's wheel connected to nothing, his every act reported by the media as if it were important. The real power resides "in the hands of anarchist money managers and militarists", and not Reagan, who simply wanted the biggest acting job possible. Most American voters already realize that their job is no more than selecting "hams sent over from Central Casting", and everyone can agree Reagan would certainly be more entertaining than Walter Mondale.
An example of "anarchist money managers": years ago, when Vonnegut made "a lot of money... for me", a money manager at Chase Manhattan Bank told him how he could continue to make his money grow, "even as the planet became poorer". If the United States was no longer economically viable because workers demanded "high wages and expensive social benefits", then the banker could move Vonnegut's money elsewhere. Meanwhile, militarist anarchists frequently spend the money of future generations, "no matter how foolishly or wastefully or crookedly". According to the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1971, Japanese militarism of the 1930s—which led to America's own militarism—was the result of civilian powers losing control of the military as they granted it greater concessions, much like the CIA in Central America in the 1980s. But Reagan will continue pretending to steer.[1]
- ↑ "Imagine the Worst," Mother Jones, October 1984.