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James Graham Ballard, British novelist and short story writer, died on April 19, 2009. He was a writer who focused on dystopia. Among his more well-known works were Crash and Empire of the Sun. Ballard explored the modern world wherein capitalism displaces religion, wherein cult of celebrity and commodity supplant the sacred, wherein image becomes more important than message. In 1967, Ballard wrote the pamplet, Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan, an early attempt at exploring the concept of “media politician.” He later explained, “it struck me that Reagan was the first politician to exploit the fact that his TV audience would not be listening too closely, if at all, to what he was saying, and indeed might well assume from his manner and presentation that he was saying the exact opposite of the words actually emerging from his mouth.” Ballard was an interesting writer and thinker.