[adventured]

There are a lot of targets of blame these days... politicians, bankers, parents, teachers, you name it.

At the core, I believe it's my fellow Americans that have become frightening. They represent the rotting culture that accommodates our increasingly violent, extralegal form of government, the one now almost entirely unchained from the Constitution.

The sheer apathy; the willingness to hand over fundamental liberties with little to no fight; the willingness to defend perpetual war; the willingness to suffer any indignity (eg molestation at the airport) just so long as one can go home at night to the couch and watch Leno; and so on.

People joke endlessly about America's expanding waistline, mismanagement of personal and national finances, abuse of prescription drugs, and terrible education scores. It's all part of the same sickness, that goes hand in hand with the governmental abuses: it's a populace that has willingly become numb, and is ready for an iron boot to its neck, and no coincidence that's exactly what it's getting.

Show me a people unwilling to be vigilant about their liberty 24/7, and I'll show you a government happy to lord over them with absolute power.

[floobynewb]

"Every nation gets the government it deserves." - Joseph de Maistre. Thank you, this quote suddenly really clicked for me. I had interpreted it as an indictment of apathy. It's actually a statement of fact, the government refelects society.

[kipple]

And the society reflects the corporatocracy. Our culture and way of life have been deeply shaped by marketing. Producers producing too much are finding ways to make more consumers. So we're stuck in this endless cycle of consumerism that's _just_ comfortable enough we don't complain. Government does a lot, but fundamentally it's becoming a Punch & Judy show between Democrat and Republican extremes while the groups with money divide and conquer global resources.

Oh wait, shhh settle down and pass me that KFC bucket, my favorite TV show is about to start.