66% (Coz)

Dear Coz,
° I’d just finished bushhogging the Downs, newly sharpened blades, slick cut. I’d reset the mowing height for Path maintenance. And I was cutting and tugging and unwinding the tough stalks of fescue and orchardgrass that had entangled themselves about the pto shaft. All neat, all clean. I moved to replace the secateurs in the toolbox and--
° --and found myself rooted to the ground!
° No, I hadn’t had a stroke. Instead, the hydraulic system had slowly and naturally bled and had gently settled the edge of the halfton mower onto my right foot. What a place to be marooned, no one ever comes to this barn, I could call and call and only the North Hill would echo me, and--well what a place to be marooned, is all.
° So I decided then and there that it was time for me to pass down to you all my lore.
° And here ‘tis:

How to Predict the Future with Unfailing Accuracy

° Simple as pie. Whenever a Plan of Action is presented to the American People by the American Media on behalf of the American Ruling Class, watch for the poll numbers. If 66% of the American People favour the action, you can not only predict eventual disaster then and there, you can, Rhett Butlerlike, buy the appropriate contrarian futures.
° Moreover--and this is just cream--you can also predict with unfailing accuracy that within 5 years 66% of the American People will not only oppose the Plan of Action, they will everyman Jack of ‘em swear they always had opposed it.
° And that is all I know, Daddy taught it me, I teach it thee.
° (The theory is, of course, that 33% of the American People have so little prudence and foresight that they will keep on hammering their own thumb forever, once they’ve started, they don‘t connect the pain with the metal; and that 33% of the American People have so little prudence and foresight that they can only recognise pregnancy after the delivery of a squalling infant; while the remaining 33% of the American People have so great prudence and foresight--no, it must just be simple contrariness.)

§§§§§

° Yes, you might object that no sooner had the Media announced on behalf of the Ruling Class the Plan of Action to attack Iraq than precisely 80% of the American People were polled as favouring the Action. 80%, not just 66%.
° Well I reckon you see what that portended.

§

° Would it be a good idea to take an opinion poll as part of the electoral process? So that any voter who supported a Plan of Action that subsequently led to a VietNamlike disastrophe would be disenfranchised for life?
° Couldn’t hurt.

° Prognosticatorially, Giac.