Lex's Talk

In Alan Grant's Smallville: Curse (New York, 2004), pp. 122-127, Lex Luthor addresses Smallville High School sophomores. His performance would need to be longer to be a real talk. It is in two parts.

First, he asks what is the "essence" of business, religion etc. "Essence of..." seems to mean "the single, indispensable feature of..." With some discussion, Lex and the sophomores compile a list:

business - trust (whereas "profit" is the motivation);
religion - faith (= belief without rational proof);
politics - deceit;
law - also deceit (not justice);
IRS (tax collection) - coercion.

Putting together "politics" and "IRS," Lex describes taxation as:

"...a bunch of liars use the threat of force to steal my money..." (p. 125)

- and gets a laugh from his audience.

Secondly, he advises them:

"Think for yourself...The only person you can rely on is yourself." (p. 126)

- and explains why. I fully agree with his second half. Further, thinking for myself leads me to question the source of what Lex describes as "...my money..."!