Weak Minds

The only thing Ronald was good at was getting what he wanted, regardless of the methods used or who it hurt. The ends justify the means is his mantra and it is how he approached every task. Laws, morals, and a sense of right from wrong only applied to people who might have wronged him. He should be allowed to do as he pleased, others needed to follow the rules. It was no wonder Ronald chose politics as a career.

Early in his career, it was evident that particular socio-economic groups identified with the way he conducted his life and business. The lower on the economic totem pole his sycophants ranked the more ardent their support. That was fine for a base group, but to be truly omnipotent he needed a broader group—that’s where chemistry professor Walter Black came into play.

Walter fits the stereotypical college professor profile from the tweed sport coat to a white shirt and bow-tie. He spent all his adult life attempting to teach chemistry 101 to students who only took his class because they needed a science course to fulfill a degree requirement and his class was offered at a convenient time. Walter compartmentalized this, Hamster on a wheel, part of his life because it allowed him access to what he enjoyed most—experimenting with chemicals.

During one of Walter’s experiments, mixing several compounds and heating the mixture, a colorless, odorless, nontoxic gas was created. What made this gas so unusual is, when inhaled, a person becomes extremely susceptible to suggestions. Walter, the consummate scientist, experimented with the gas on his students. He opened a valve on a canister of gas, positioned a small fan so it blew the gas away from him and toward the students and observed. The results were the same with each group of students. Euphoric rapture radiated from their faces as they hung on his every word. Only the students with a strong mental constitution were able to resist the gas’s effect.

Giddy about his discovery, Walter shared the results of his findings with a friend from the political science department, who in turn told a colleague who worked for Ronald. Later that week one of Ronald’s lieutenants paid a visit to Walter’s lab and asked for a demonstration. Walter happily obliged. One-week later Ronald owned all rights to Hypno-gas.

At his next rally, Ronald had containers of the gas installed in the event hall’s air handling system. Only he and a few selected associates were positioned in such a way that the gas would not reach them. As he delivered his speech the crowd cheered, booed, and waved their placards on cue. As the camera panned the faces in the crowd it became obvious, they were all stoned. Several people in the crowd left the gathering befuddled over the reaction of their fellow attendees.

Unexpectedly, a small group of anti-Ronald protesters began chanting, “Ronald is a fraud!” The blank-faced attendees closest to the protesters took up the chant and before long the whole convention echoed the chant. The rally turned into a total disaster and Ronald had to be escorted from the podium.

Sitting at home in front of his TV watching the rally disintegrate, Walter Black smiled and chuckled to himself. Everything had worked according to plan. Ronald had cheated his father, a small contractor, out of thousands of dollars in unpaid invoices. Now it was Walter and his family’s turn for payback.