WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUEI say we had best look our times and lands searchingly in the face, like a physician diagnosing some deep disease. Never was there, perhaps, more hollowness at heart than at present, and here in the United States. Genuine belief seems to have left us. The underlying principles of the States are not honestly believed in (for all this hectic glow, and these melodramatic screamings), nor is humanity itself believ'd in. What penetrating eye does not everywhere see through the mask? The spectacle is appalling. We live in an atmosphere of hypocrisy throughout.Walt Whitman, "Democratic Vistas", 1871The two top advertising icons of the twentieth century were the Marlboro Man and Ronald McDonald. If one envisions from that dynamic duo a seeming lack of intellect, let alone a potential sociable health hazard, then may I suggest Ramblings From Remnants. To paraphrase from the past:If Brian Bex is to be adopted as the holy father of our political-economic-cultural faith, and this work is to be considered as his "Papal Bull of infallible virtue", let us at least examine what it contains.