They're lost.  These old men of the "elite."  They're lost.  We'd better not follow them.

This time, the people are going to have lead the way out.  Too many of that generation of the American elite--of an age now that they could, if they were any good, be showing the way out of the American miasma-- just don't know who or where they are.  George W. Bush, 71.  Rex Tillerson, 66.  Just two of the many lost, so-called elite.

Two American excuses for wise old men.  What happened to that generation of the "elite"?  A former president; a former head of the largest publicly traded oil company in the world.  Tillerson, an Eagle Scout--was supposed to, as the Scout motto says, "Be Prepared!"  But he wasn't prepared to be an effective Secretary of State, and he wasn't prepared for the man who hired him.

Many regular Americans were not surprised at the way the president turned out.  They knew before he was elected that this person never stopped lying, and they knew because they had learned it growing up naturally in America that big liars are not trustworthy, and you have to keep an eye on them.  And there were plenty of other warnings, but the Eagle Scout and former CEO of Exxon, a man deemed by the elite to be one of the most successful men in America--a paragon of American elite leadership--somehow did not pick up on the importance of any of that.

Rex!  Wake up!  You're lost! Don't be giving speeches Rex, until you find yourself.  You're like a man talking in his sleep right now, Rex.  Shut up, then wake up!  Gather yourself.  No more speeches Rex until you wake up and understand who and where you are.

You're King Lear wandering crazy on the plain right now Rex, except that you are not a great character like King Lear.  It seems that your generation of the American elite will not produce many of great character.  Still, you have one chance left, Rex.  Wake up! Realize where you are and what you have done, and like that other Texan of no greatness, you have one last chance to redeem yourself.  Confess Rex!

Obviously, Rex hadn't anticipated that it would turn out the way it did, humiliated on the toilet, and twice-humiliated when another paragon of that generation of the American elite, the class-act John Kelly, 68, tattled to everyone that Rex had been fired on the toilet.  That's a come down, even for a teenage Eagle Scout, but for the former CEO of Exxon...

Rex.  Why didn't you see it coming?  The CEO of Exxon is supposed to be, at least according to the self-valorizing American elite, among the best America has to offer.  In America, the definition of the best used to include a certain street-savvy, an ability to instantly recognize character:  Harry Truman met Billy Graham and afterward deemed him "one of those counterfeits," and the facts since brought to light show that Harry had seen something in Billy that was definitely there.  If Tillerson had made a similarly, instantly accurate assessment of the president, would he have gone to work for him?  It seems obvious that at the time Tillerson accepted the president's job offer he did not really understand the president as well as many non-elite Americans already understood the president.  And because he had not properly understood who the president was, Tillerson during his brief tenure as Secretary of State had to learn on the job many things about the president, that, surprisingly, surprised him, and because he was surprised, he was irritated.  At that point in his life Rex thought he understood and had mastered the way the game was played in America, and that by becoming Secretary of State, he would collect another honor, another validation of his status among the elite of the elite of his generation.  But it didn't work out that way, did it Rex?

Rex, you would not in frustration have called the president a "fucking moron," would you, if you had understood that coming in?  No, you would have been prepared for that, and like a good Eagle Scout would have had a plan to deal with it, so you wouldn't have been frustrated to the point of crude profanity, but instead your confidence would have been redoubled because you had seen it coming and you had a plan to deal with it.  You would have smiled gently, Rex, instead of blurting the f-word in the company of people who seem to have only one thing in common: they leak.  Because you did not know who or where you were, and consequently were not prepared, you allowed the president to bring out the worst in you as he seems to do with everyone who associates with him for longer than briefly.

The president hurt your feelings, Rex, and your dignity was hurt, but this wouldn't have happened if you had kept in mind who you are and where you are.  Because somewhere between earning your Eagle Scout badge and becoming the CEO of Exxon, you lost track of who you are and where you are, you forgot your Eagle Scout training: "Be Prepared!"  Now you're wandering crazy and alone on the plain, no Fool by your side, because the Fool is you.

You can't make this better Rex by giving a speech at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in which you claim the moral high ground of truth.  It's not open to you anymore to say as you did in your speech,

If our leaders seek to conceal the truth or we as people become accepting of alternative realities that are no longer grounded in facts, then we as American citizens are on a pathway to relinquishing our freedom.

You are right Rex, that Americans are on a pathway to relinquishing their freedom.  But in truth, Rex, you are one of the last people in America who can advise your fellow citizens about the danger of concealing the truth or accepting alternative realities.  That is one of the options you gave up on your journey from Eagle Scout to CEO of Exxon.

The Scout Law places Trustworthiness at the top of its list of 12 commandments, and certainly, Rex, trustworthiness implies that the Scout tells the truth, even when it hurts, otherwise how can the Scout be trusted?  But you rose to the top of the ranks at Exxon over a period of 41 years, and throughout those decades Exxon lied to the American people about its own knowledge of the climate effects of burning fossil fuels.  Exxon has known the truth for decades, but didn't do anything about it, except try to hide from the American people what it knew, and spent millions of dollars year after year more or less successfully attempting to keep the American people from finding out the truth for themselves.  That's called climate change denial, Rex.  It's a lie, and you had to have known for decades that Exxon was lying about it, yet you aspired to be CEO of this corporation that continually lied to your fellow Americans.  And after you became CEO, Exxon continued to lie about the role of fossil fuels in climate change; when you became CEO you assumed full responsibility for the lie.  By that time you had long before given up any claim to trustworthiness.

The Scouts affirm that once an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout; there are no former Eagle Scouts.  But do you think you are still an Eagle Scout, Rex?  Do you think you have been trustworthy?  Your speech at VMI in which you lectured others about the importance of truth suggests that you believe that you are still an Eagle Scout and are trustworthy.  But that just proves, Rex, that you don't know who you are.

The Boy Scout oath is said to contain three promises: In order of importance: first, Duty to God and country; second, Duty to other people; and third, Duty to self.  The book that you claim is your favorite, Atlas Shrugged, proposes a reversal and revision of this order so that self comes first; no duty to God because God doesn't exist; country is a restriction of individual liberty and there is no duty to consent to a restriction of one's liberty, and there is no duty to other people, but instead the only just relation among worthy individuals is one of mutual exploitation.

No wonder Rex that you became confused along the way.  No wonder you are lost!  To succeed at Exxon you had to give up truly being an Eagle Scout, but inside yourself you had to replace the Scout code with one that allowed you to do what you needed to do at Exxon.  And because you have always been essentially a follower, and never a thinker, you did not follow your own thoughts, but adopted an ideology that for decades has been popular among those in America who feel a need for a different moral justification for their attitudes toward their fellow human beings.  Christianity must not have supplied you with that justification, and the Scout code did not provide you with that justification, but that fat Bible of bogus philosophy must have worked for you Rex, and isn't that why Atlas Shrugged became your favorite book?

You're lost Rex.  You don't know who you are or where you are.  You think you are the kind of person who can assume the high ground of truth and warn others of the dangers of "leaders concealing the truth," and of accepting lies and "alternative realities."  Rex, you're not qualified to do that!  You were a leader who concealed the truth.  You were a leader who promoted the alternative reality where the burning of fossil fuels is not a danger to the planet.  You were the Eagle Scout who in self-interest turned his back on the Scout code.

Where are you, Rex?  I'll tell you because I know you don't know.  You are in a country whose democracy is in mortal danger.  You are in a country where people like you have done far more than your share in bringing us to this point.  You probably only began to get an inkling that you were not in Kansas anymore when your adventure with the president ended so ignominiously.  Because you had known only success in that country you thought you lived in, (but that was a country that existed only in your imagination) that must have come as quite a jolt.  But the take-down of our democracy has been going on for decades, Rex, almost as long as you worked for Exxon.  You didn't know about that though because long ago you threw away your first code of conduct, the one that didn't put you first, and adopted the one that glorified selfishness and self-absorption.  Self-absorbed, you didn't notice what was happening to your country.  Soon, you didn't know where you were.

The jolt the president gave you might have awakened you Rex, but it didn't.  Instead it disturbed your sleep, and, babbling absurdly, you walked in your sleep up to the stage at VMI and gave a speech that you were not qualified to give, and in no way entitled to give.  If you do ever wake up and realize who and where you are, you're going to be embarrassed about that speech in Virginia.

There is only one way for you, Rex.  It's the same way W. has to go for redemption, but for a reason similar to the one that makes it unlikely that W. will ever confess to what he has done-- taking responsibility for failures has horrifying as W.'s might be beyond any human's courage--it is unlikely that you will ever confess to what you did at Exxon.  But it's the only way for you, Rex.  And it's the only way you can still help the country that you forgot about.

The Boy Scouts still think you're an Eagle Scout, but if you wake up and realize who and where you are you will know that you haven't been that for a long time.  For you to confess, you will have to remember what it was to really be an Eagle Scout--to put your country before yourself, to put others before yourself.  You will need to walk to another stage, fully awake, knowing clearly who and where you are, and you will need to confess, not point elsewhere.  Confess, Rex.