On the spectacle that is Washington, D.C.

Nearly 60 years ago Frank Chodorov wrote that the affairs of state would be vastly improved if the people stopped worshipping Washington, D.C. He eloquently summed up the hold our nation’s capitol has over us, and the detrimental effect it carries.

Here are the opening paragraphs of a piece he wrote for Reason magazine in 1954:

It’s June in Washington. It’s June all over the country, of course, but to the capital city the month has special significance. It inaugurates the annual trek of gaping sightseers from all over the country to this American mecca.

Soon the vacationing schoolteachers will be ah-ing and ohing before the wondrous temples of government, while prizewinning high school students will pay their worshipful respects to the pompous dignitaries and official hirelings who carry on the affairs of state. Honeymooning couples, already taking one another for granted, will transfer their admiration and adoration to the indicia of political power, while farmers, satiated with the wonders of nature in their native habitats, will be propitiating the gods of government in their air-conditioned apses. In summer, it is the proper thing for Americans to come to Washington and view with awe.