I skimmed it, and this guy is an idiot... just as much of a "sheeple" as anything he's blabbing about.
First, it lacks any cultural or historical perspective. You think average citizens in Roman or Greek times, or any other large civilization, were some well informed, self actualized, society of philosopher kings? No, large populations have always been somewhat "stupid." If you want to put it like that. In reality, day-to-day life, most people just don't care about the sociocultural intricacies of the civilization they live in. The majority of people since the dawn of time, just want to work, get paid, feed their family and enjoy the down time when they can. Thats, not some American malfunction, thats life as a human in a civilization. You can find writings of ancient historians and philosophers reporting the same things, through all time. Socrates talked about it so much they put him to death.
Are things perfect? No, they never are. Will America last forever? No, nothing ever does.
Lets look at some of his particular ******edness:
Let us briefly careen off into one of these paradoxes. For instance, that we can taser our way to domestic security and tranquility. Yes, it's ugly business, but tasing the citizenry must be done. And besides, in these days of high unemployment, it's a paycheck for somebody -- usually, the guy who sat behind us in grade school happily eating chalk.
This guy is so guilty of the insulated, biased, cultural blindness he's railing against. Development of less lethal ways to handle bad guys is some conspiracy to subjugate the American populous to the will of.... what exactly?
Would he rather police just shoot dead threatening suspects? How many police states let suspects treated wrongly sue the authorities for millions of dollars?
Libya is dropping bombs on protesters and won't let reporters leave their hotel... but the UN was about to put out a report on how wonderful Libya human rights was. Iran hangs rape victims. China executes more prisoners than anyone else in the world, and bills the family for the bullet. Think you can get the daily show, or this guys inane ramblings from inside China? If we're a police state, we must be the most ineffective police state in the history of civilization.
Does this guy have any perception of what life is like outside Western democracies?
We're a country of 300,000,000 people (out ranked only by China and India) living better than 99.9% of the planet... and this guy complains about it, like he's missing out on some better alternative.
Even compare us to the rest of the western world, France, with only 65 million, seems like it has another riot every few months. They let old people die in nursing homes from heat waves, because overtime is illegal. Currently their prosecuting some drunk doofus for saying he likes Hitler... but its the US with the thought police?
The UK (61 M) try going somewhere in London without being watched on CCTV. Don't like the service you get from your Doctor? Too bad, you can't fire him, the Government is the only business in town.
Does this guy understand the complexity involved in maintaining a society this size at this level of comfort? And all done without some dictator or comisar calling all the shots and micromanaging society. Its a self sustaining system based on mutual agreement and rule of law... looking at human history thats really an amazing thing.
It is a form of cultural ignorance to believe that at some point or other, we were more in charge and that our government was somehow more transparent in the past. Societies declining into obsolescence understandably resist looking forward, and hang onto their past mythologies. Consequently, both liberals and conservatives in America feed on myths of political action which died in Vietnam. The results are ludicrous. Tea Partiers attempt to emulate the 1960s protest gatherings by staging rallies sponsored by the richest beneficiaries of the status quo. For the average TP participant, the goal, near as I can tell, is to "start a new American Revolution," by wearing foodstuffs, screaming, threatening, and voting for nitwits. Media pundits proclaim the Tea Party "a historic populist movement."
The first part is right, the idea that government used to be more open and transparent, is totally false (and I don't know anyone that thinks that.) Government is more open and transparent today than ever. Can you call up the CIA and ask them for details on their secret operations? No. But we know more about what goes on in the halls of power today than ever before.
And, where does he get this idea the 60's were some magical time? A bunch of stoned hippies blabbing about non-sense in between orgies? Seems to me, the hippies and actions in the 60's weren't much different than the tea parties of today, except in their ideology of preference. The hippy movement collapsed, because eventually everyone realized, existence takes work. You can't smoke pot and drop acid all day, and expect society to feed and cloth you.
What America really needs is a wall-to-wall people's insurrection, preferably based on force and fear of force, the only thing oligarchs understand. And even then the odds are not good. The oligarchs have all the legal power, police, jails and prisons, surveillance and firepower. Not to mention a docile populace.
And this takes the cake... close to fascism. People rise up and violently attack the government... for what exactly? Because you don't like reality TV and NASCAR? Go to any grocery store, look at aisle upon aisle of cheap affordable food. Imagine taking some poor Egyptian (most of who live on 2$ a day) and putting him in there, he would be blown away. Can't afford it? The government will buy it for you. Wanna blow all your cash on crack or beer? The government will still buy your food.
When is the last time anyone had a loved one kidnapped and held for ransom by drug cartels? Who here has had a loved one ran through a wood chipper, dumped in a garbage bag and dropped on their door step? You ever hear of anyone starving to death in the US?
What exactly is the problem? The president won't take your phone calls? 40 hours a week is just too much? The police tazed the nut running around naked on PCP instead of shooting him in the head?
Read some history, get some perspective. At no time, ever, in the history of humanity, has life been this easy and free... We sit at the pinnacle of human history, and bitch about it.
The mere fact someone can rant like this guy, safe in his home with clean running water, a full refrigerator, electricity and internet, without having government goons kick in the door, should tell you something.
Guys, and thinking like this, just make me soooo angry!
