"The Democratic and Republican parties both know, through careful research, that the American people prefer tyranny over liberty."
An interesting analysis of the present state of US politics by Atheist Ethicist.
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The American people have turned a free country into a sheepish country whose leader-shepherds instruct their people about morals, the convenience of following such ways as to enable them to acquire bigger and bigger fortunes whilst the people patiently wait for the crumbs to fall from their leaders' tables.
And unlike we do here in Europe, no massive protests are carried out to try to dissuade the shepherds from going through unsafe paths.
"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion : the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission, which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history; the stage of rule by brute force."
- Ayn Rand - "The Nature of Government"
Oo, I wouldn't have thought the Queen of Selfishness was on your pet reading list! A bit of a change from Chomsky.....
Ayn Rand was more than just a "Queen of Selfishness", just as Chomsky is more than just a "King of Dissent" :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_%28Ayn_Rand%29
Was it like this for Britain in the 19th Century, when Britain was out front militarily and had a booming economy? (Not that the US economy is so good, or that we're really out front militarily, but many perceive us that way....)
No, I don't think it was. The British were never a sheepish country. In the 19th century they took their military and economic success too much for granted [as Americans do now], and did not realise the shakiness of the foundations on which their temporary pre-eminence was built. Being first in the field with the Industrial Revolution gave a delusion of permanent superiority.
But the mass of the people, indifferent as most of them were to the Empire, were never sheeplike. Study the struggle for free speech, for civil rights, and for improvements in workers' conditions through trade unionism etc.
The USA, I fear, YD, is heading for a much bigger military and economic fall than even you realise - and I genuinely do 'fear' this, anti-American though you think I am, because power abhors a vacuum and if America ceases to be the world's most powerful country who is going to take her place?
"if America ceases to be the world's most powerful country who is going to take her place?"
Don't worry -- somebody will step up to the plate!
Yes - but who? My own bet is on China. Therefore we should all be doing our best to encourage the Chinese to democratize - not Murdochize!
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