I was drawn to an article in today’s WSJ under the headline: Kim Overture Draws Trump Praise. Having earlier read a translation of Kim Jung Un’s year-end message, I was intrigued by how anyone could wax ebullient over this “new peace overture”. (It was a 30 minute ‘fireside chat’, 2/3 of which was devoted to the PRK achieving economic and energy independence. The balance dealt with North Korea’s development of a high-tech combat weapon and the hoped-for détente with South Korea.) But a former U.S. intelligence officer, now an ‘expert’ on North Korea’s secret regime and a fellow at the Stimson Center (a Washington think tank) was quoted: “I am confident that the U.S. will probe this and unpack what the North Koreans mean,” he solemnly said.

Whaat !!  Sounds like another giant leap for mankind.

During a needed coffee break, I Googled What do think tanks do?  Now, more informed, though no wiser, I know how these ‘thinkers’ spend their days –They smoke legal marijuana.

The “think-tank” label became popular in the 1950s, by which time there were already plenty of such organizations in existence. Many of America’s most venerable tanks, including the Brookings Institution and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, were founded in the early 20th century. Britain’s Royal United Services Institute was created in 1831 by the Duke of Wellington. But modern think-tanks blossomed in the second half of the 20th century when universities began churning out graduates who were unqualified for employment that would contribute to the country’s GNP.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania reckon there are now approximately 6,850 think tanks worldwide.

These tanks aim to fill the gap between academia and policymaking. Academics grind out authoritative studies, but at a snail’s pace. Journalists’ first drafts of history are speedy but thin. A think-tank attempts to help the policymaking process by publishing reports that are as rigorous as academic research and as accessible as journalism. (Bad ones have a knack of doing just the opposite.) They flourished in the 20th century for two reasons. Governments, ignoring historical reference, were expanding everywhere, meaning there was lots of demand for policy expertise (Enter the think tanks), and the arrival of 24-hour news created an insatiable appetite for informed interviewees to spin the new information, now called breaking news. The same trends are now causing think-tanks to take off in developing countries.

Yet the world may have reached peak tank. The Pennsylvanian researchers found that in 2014 the number of new tanks declined for the first time in 30 years. One reason is that donors nowadays prefer to make project-specific grants, rather than funnelling money into mere thinking. Another is increased competition. Professional consultancies such as McKinsey publish a fair bit of brainwork, and members of opinionated “advocacy organizations” can make for more compelling interviewees than balanced think-tankers. So the tanks are rethinking themselves. The Pew Research Centre describes itself as a “fact tank”, focusing on information rather than policy recommendations. And the Sutton Trust calls itself a “do tank”, putting its own recommendations into practice.

Voila!  A whole new industry has self-spawned.

So, how do these guys/gals/trannies spend each day while earning outsized salaries/fees, mostly paid by philanthropists (think Soros, Steyer and Gates) or, by taxpayers?  Do they, like me, stare at the ceiling while drifting off on afternoon naps, or lying in a chaise longue by the beach ogling thongs and spaghetti halters?

Now, dear readers, you know why recreational marijuana is legal. It has become taxable soul food for the thinking but unemployable elites graduating in great numbers from Harvard, Brown and the Seven Sisters (or brothers or trans or whatever the hell they are.)

One moment, please. I think I hear a rocket engine powering up, somewhere west of here.

You are welcome.

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