General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Broken Government [View all]H2O Man
(73,320 posts)since I joined this forum in 2003, I have never enjoyed a response to an OP more than I do this one. I'm not sure if you were thinking, "That old H2O Man sounds like he's thinking accurate thoughts about the USA, so I'll invest the time required to pick his spirits up," or what. But thank you so much.
Rather than writing a longer, single response that attempts to address most of the important points I will respond to later, I want to start with what may well be the most important one. It's found in paragraph six, where you note authoritarian power demands that people yield willingly.Now, that is something that people really need to think about.
It's not enough to have a population that lives in fear, and obeys for self-preservation, despite hating the oppressor. For that type of tyrant (be it an individual or a system) is common place in comparison to what you speak of. That type of authoritarian rule is terrible, but it is not of the type that almost precludes understanding.
Our culture has produced enough soft citizens -- those who are not unlike the grade school tattle-tale .....that kid who was motivated to tell on his classmates, watch them get in trouble, and have a smug, self-satisfied shit-eating grin on his mug, while basking in his glory. Yet, this is far worse: these fools would gladly drop dime on themselves. Their sense of identity is tied up closely with that of their oppressor, in the most de-humanizing manner.