This will take a bit to get right. Let me outline factors, then connect the dots, then argue my point. These are in no particular order.
1. Email monitoring at federal level without oversight
2. Phone tapping and monitoring without due cause. "terrorism" is not a blanket of due cause
3. Pouring bottled water out before getting on a plane
4. Lawsuits dismissed in the name of National Security
5. Reclassifying public records from 30 years ago to "secret"
6. Random car searches on a weekday on the only highway between Topeka and Manhattan
I work with people that defend these actions as necessary for a secure and functioning country.
These abuses will not stop until the citizens--you and me--leave work and take to the streets.
Have they stopped teaching history? I know the oath of office mentions the
Constitution, and there was even that movie "National Treasure" (yeah, I thought that was a horse too) that shows that we as a people had a backbone once. That our answer to job security wasn't the Great Wall of Mexico, but instead innovation. Our answer to spilled coffee used to be to clean it up, not sue. Planning for retirement used to mean more than buying a lottery ticket every week. Rewriting history, doublespeak, and newspeak were once the province of paranoid futurist authors, now they have their own departments, in every corporation(and the USA Inc). What was our budget for Iraq Propaganda? 20 Million this year? Propaganda used to be synonymous with Wartime Lies, now some of the best paying jobs in journalism are all about spinning, and retouching, and overdubbing footage...
I believe civilizations act like titration in chem class -- the green liquid stays green even as you add the clear drops until that one drop turns the entire beaker red. How will the green of our civilization turning red manifest?
Revolt?
Bio disaster?
Armed lock down?
I do not believe the USA will continue its slow downward slide into a gated community for the 1%...Rome's fall was slow because there was no tech.The "hyperpower" called the United States may be 6th or 7th on the tech ladder, but we still have the nukes--and the zealotry to use 'em.
I agree with your post. Unfortunately most people dont care about any of those issues, at all. The drone of TV controls the mindless masses. Why watch "news"(i use that term loosely when it's on TV)when you could watch MTV or VH1? There is another reality on every channel that meets the needs of the watcher. Any reality besides their own.
ReplyDeleteOn a somewhat related note, I think you would find this very interesting. You need this program to view it. It is still a very long ways from being completed, but it has more than enough substance to get the idea across. It is obviously too much work for one person. I would like to see if it is possible to apply the concept behind wikipedia to such a project.