Just for a moment, can we all just forget our political affiliations, our patriotism, our favorite corporations or gaming companies, rid ourselves of all types of fanboyism, pre-conceived notions, and former loyalties and just THINK. Think and observe as independant, free-thinking individuals.
Yeah? Ok now look at our society that we live in, from an outsider's perspective. An extra-terrestial in a flying saucer, observing our society from the cosmos.
A large portion of the population will soon have, in thier living rooms, a live camera and an always-listening microphone fixated on thier families gathering marketing information, our daily behaviors, our habits, our conversations, our life. A large portion of the population is okay with this. After all, it's nothing new.
In the course of the past decade we have given our government the right to surveillance. Any phone, laptop, iPad etc. can be accessed by the govermnet if they have a need to. If they consider the individual a threat to national security, a terrorsist etc. (See the Patriot Act) and they would be able to detain these individuals with no due process, no innocent until proven guilty, because it would be a national security threat (see NDAA Senate Bill 1867). For the majority of the population that is okay. Terrorists are bad, frighteneing people and any measures that can be taken to combat them, should be taken.
The kicker? No where in any of the afforementioned legislation does it define what a terrorist is. A terrorist is any individual or group of individuals that are deemed a threat to national security. The kicker? No where in the afformentioned legislation does it define what a threat to national security is. So, it would be determined by the president. Again, this is okay with the majority of the population. After all, they have a fair democratic system in which the PEOPLE decide who is in power and the PEOPLE can tilt the direction of the country. No way, could they be fooled into electing someone who would abuse that power.
The Kicker? The People have seemingly lost control of that crucial power. They are divided, mostly into two groups. They impassionately debate and fight which side is correct, which side is morally right. They defend thier team and villify the opposing team, at all costs. If one team gets caught in a scandal or an unpopular policy decision, instead of focusing on the issue at hand, they blame the other team. They say things like "Well it's not any worse than when your team did this!" or "If you're team was in charge they would have handled it even worse!" The result? Both teams are able to lie, deceive, and cheat and the public is left heartfully defending, what they so openly admit, is the "lesser-of-two evils"...so at the end of the day, the morals and rights that the public so passionatley stands for are channeled into one-of-two cesspools of lowered expectations that gives way to an enormous blame game to which nothing of importance is ever accomplished. The only things that are ever accomplished are things that both the teams agree on: FIGHTING TERRORISTS!! (increased surveillance, increase military power etc.)
The public doesn't see it this way. That is because whenever an unpopular decision is made, one of the teams acts as an advocate for their frustration, a beacon of light that says, "Hey, we agree with you! This team shouldn't do that!" and then it happens anyways, and it just adds fire to the blame game. It all gets lost into the murky past of lies, apologies, and half-truths of the politicians; most of which remain in power anyways. The society looks to the media and says, "There is no way anything evil or immoral can possibly happen because we have free press! The press, of course, would expose any violations of ethics and would never allow a government to function that way!" And in many instances, the press does exactly that. The kicker? The public doesn't care enough. Time and time again the same people are re-elected into thier positions of power. Past lies forgiven, mistakes forgotten, all in the name of the "lesser-of-two-evils"
....
So I guess that's my point. I could go on and on about corporations and how they, and they alone, influence our lawmakers decisions and policies (see Lobbyists) and how Money can accomplish anything. He who owns the money owns the world. I could go on about where are Money comes from (Federal Reserve) and how no branch of the goverment can check them, audit them, mandate them to do anything.
I guess I am just asking all of us to take control of the society we live in. Be aware of the dangers of allowing or government too much power. Read up on some dystopian novels such as 1984, Brave New World, Farenheit 451, and see the shocking parallells that these worlds have in common with our own. Be proactive in our thinking and stop relying on others to do all the thinking for us. Take a stand, become aware, become a responsible citizen. It was Ben Franklin who said (paraphrasing): "A people willing to give up a small bit of liberty for a small bit of security understand neither and will loose both" it was Thomas Jefferson who said (again, paraphrasing) "A crucial part to any democracy is a revolution every couple generations" They, our founding fathers, understood Tyranny. It was a very real thing to them and they founded this country in hopes of preventing it.
So yeah, we have incredibly blessed amazing lives, let's not get lost in all the pleasures and take a moment to THINK.
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