The Capital
of Fools
Government would be much easier if governing were the only thing happening there.
The Capital of Fools turns political ambition, institutional self-importance, public performance, and the machinery of government into the raw material of satire.
Politics promises leadership while rewarding attention. Institutions promise stability while developing elaborate methods for protecting themselves. Public servants speak solemnly about responsibility while everyone quietly calculates who will receive the credit if something works and who can be blamed if it does not.
In the capital, every crisis creates an opportunity, every committee creates another committee, and every simple problem becomes more sophisticated once enough important people are assigned to solve it.
Intelligence matters. Experience matters. Principle occasionally matters. But confidence, visibility, access, loyalty, timing, and the ability to sound certain while saying remarkably little can prove equally useful.
Through political absurdity and institutional contradiction, The Capital of Fools examines the strange ecosystem that develops wherever ambition, bureaucracy, ideology, ego, media, and public authority are forced to occupy the same few square miles.
It is satire about politics, government, institutional behavior, ambition, leadership, and the timeless human talent for turning serious responsibility into an elaborate competition for status.
