james burnham
The Byzantine quality that became noticeable in the Nixon Administration last spring has grown more pronounced since the election. Byzantine more, perhaps, in the style of the third than in that of the second Rome. Secretive, enigmatic, indirect, revolving more and more closely around the person of the ruler; palace intrigues within intrigues; periods of seeming stasis suddenly interrupted by furious outbursts of energy; the great lords with independent titles banished from court in favor of the ruler’s bound liegemen; decisions taken in seclusion, and put into effect without explanation of premises or aims; even Henry Kissinger as a mod Rasputin.
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