I was enchanted when I first read in the Pensées … about how magistrates and rulers had to be garbed in their ridiculous ceremonial robes, crowns, and diadems.  Otherwise, who would not see through their threadbare pretensions?  I am conscious of having been ruled by buffoons, taught by idiots, preached at by hypocrites, and preyed upon by charlatans in the guise of advertisers and other professional persuaders, as well as by demagogues and ideologues of many opinions, all false.

–Malcolm Muggeridge, Jesus Rediscovered