the boys cite him the way my grandmother cited scripture — selectively, and mostly to assign chores. The argument, flattened: if anyone builds the thing, everyone dies. Everyone here agrees with the argument. Everyone here is building the thing. I asked how both. Someone said, better us than somebody worse. Which is what everyone who has ever built anything has said, right before. Someone asked what my country would be like. Universal dental. No networking brunches. Every man who says alignment does dishes for a year. You want sovereignty? Try cleaning the kitchen. The revolution has a chore wheel and no one signed up.