Beware the Demagogue!

About the Book

The primary purpose of the three-part fictional story in this book is to graphically illustrate, on the one hand, the dangerous impact that can occur in their lives should the old and the young allow themselves to be politically seduced by the plaudits, promises , and entreaties of those power-hungry individuals demanding their support for their own selfish, self-serving reasons. In this book, an explanation is given on how one originally well-meaning, extremely wealthy individual evolved into becoming such a personality and what happened to him and others around him as a result. On the other hand, it outlines how such wealth in the right hands can effectively benefit both the unemployed and underemployed members of North America’s increasingly multicultural society. This has been effectively illustrated in the United States by the unbelievably generous gifts of incredibly wealthy individuals, such as the world-famous founding guru of the Microsoft computer empire, William “Bill” Gates. Past examples of the destructive impact of the first type of demagogue are legendary, as amply demonstrated by Huey Long, the governor of Louisiana in the “dirty thirties,” whose power-hungry march to the United States White House dramatically ended with his assassination. His appeal to the numerous underprivileged voters in his state was effectively created by his repetitively preaching catchy phrases like “You’re a hick, I’m a hick who will look out for you!” Also in the world depression thirties, there’s Adolph Hitler promising Germans a return to world power of a world war one reparation paying bankrupt Germany and Benito Mussolini promising Italians a return to the glory days of Rome. Today we have a prime example of the use of vast sums of money as an economic weapon by a money rich but natural resource limited recently established economic giant. Its granting of huge loans seemingly established it as an instrument of its foreign policy, providing governments in need with incredible-sized debt repayment obligations. In one classic case, it helped raise its national debt to a staggering level of trillions of dollars. Added to this is, it’s buying up vast amounts of other countries’ natural resources, property, even entire industries.

About the Author

Edward Mastronardi spent eighteen years in the three Canadian military services (the navy, the army, and the air force), four years in the Canadian aerospace industry, followed by twenty-one years working for the Canadian federal government. He earned the Military Cross for Valor by Great Britain, investiture into the Order of Saint George, the Canadian Forces Decoration in Canada, and the Order of Military Merit by the Republic of Korea, its highest military award for valor and courage. Now retired, he is also the author of Government Policy-Making and Issue Management in 1988, Mock the Haggard Face: A Canadian War Story in 2014, Dancing around the Hill in 2015, and Stories of Life in January 2016.