"All kinds of things rejoiced my soul in the company of my friends -- to talk and laugh and to do each other kindnesses; read pleasant books together, pass from lightest jesting to talk of the deepest things and back again; differ without rancour, as a man might differ with himself, and when most rarely dissension arose, find our normal agreement all the sweeter for it; teach
each other or learn from each other; be impatient for the return of the absent, and welcome them with joy and their homecoming; these and such like things, proceeding from our hearts as we gave affection and received it back, and shown by face, by voice, by the eyes, and a thousand other pleasing ways, kindled a flame which infused our very souls and of many made us one. This is what men value in friends."

--St. Augustine

> i wonder... just something i am wondering... if this is more
> prevalent in capitalistic societies? or is this a universal? i
> realize that lots of different govt do this -- communist,
> dictators, etc etc... but does it reach so far down?
> m.

Interesting question. The first thing I thought of was crested lizards. I saw an episode of the Crocodile Hunter where he explained that, when threatened, the lizard puts up the crest and opens his mouth as if to say, "Look how big and scary I am. I am no good to eat. Stay away from me. I'm bad news. This is, essentially, a lie. The animal is promoting his agenda - you don't want to take me on, I am not interesting as food - when, actually, they are probably quite a nice bite. Tastes like chicken?

Then I got to thinking about other examples of animal propaganda. A male peacock's tail. Chameleons. Stick bugs. Human pheromone cologne.

I am not sure where or how this developed into political propagandizing, but I am sure there must be some connection. Survival instinct. Intellectual survival.

I am reminded of a book I read where the world was evolved as if lizards remained at the top of the food chain. The lizards thought of humans the way we might think of lemurs. They take a human captive and he cleverly learns some of their language. So instead of killing him they keep him as a pet.

Now, the thing about these lizards is, their communication is a complete combination of spoken and physical - their bodies give away the real meaning of what they are saying - with a flush. So the best they can hope for if trying to appear nonplussed is total stillness and control to prevent detection of disapproval. Outright lying is not possible for the lizards. Then one day, the Dick Cheney lizard figures out that the human is capable of saying untrue things without any indication that he is lying.

Dick has the human pull a classic "Hey, look over there." maneuver during a hunting trip and Dick shoots George with an arrow while all the other lizards are looking over there. Then the human says he saw a human hunter shoot George. The coup is achieved. Except, of course, that the lizards are matriarchal so it is more like Denise and Georgia.

Which is the CKate with cats in cows asses
And which is the KCatherine who weaves, which wears glasses

I know at least one of them gardens, or two
And one of them's married to Snoball? or Hoo?

I know at least one takes photos, one cooks
At least one scribbles writings worth entry in books

But they are more clever than Mrs. McCaves
They've self assigned nicknames, our tracking this saves

We've iKat and seajay and twoshoes and Krynn
Though Krynn concedes Cathy could be on the in

And Catherine abdicates Catherine at all
While Kate stays du Nord should Cate come to call

And iKat , good heavens, katerina della cucina
she's names 'nuff for many our dear skaterina