The Long March Through the Institutions

For years I have toyed with a plot for a novel, I guess, that would be along the following lines: three or four radicals in the early '70's, realizing that they were not going to accomplish radical change through Weather-style activity, sat down and made a pact. They would go back to the educational worlds they came from, and work their way up through institutions. (This long march through the institutions idea did not originate at all with me - I heard a lot about it at the time.)

Fade to the early 21st century. One of them, say, is a university president; one a CIA manager; one an appellate-level judge, and one has made his way through politics, and now is up and running for Vice President.

OK that's the gist...

I never worked out whether the next step would be a collaboration sparked by post-hypnotic suggestion - or maybe led by one of them, a real Svengali, the judge? - or just based on their adherence to their original pact. And would it be interesting to explore the possibility that some would have second thoughts, based on the decades they had led straight lives?

All this came back to me recently, with the emergence of William Ayers, a very famous Weather Underground fugitive, in the presidential campaign. A plot twist I hadn't imagined: the Svengali would recruit a brilliant, but desperately-seeking-father-figure young politician, and achieve his agenda through a national political campaign that is almost a coup d'etat.

Ahhh.... time for a cocktail. This election is getting to me.

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