It's been proposed that Americans have sacrificed their intellectual lives for their social lives.  If this is true, does it then makes sense that people will be willing to give up certain civil liberties to protect such a social structure?  It's been seen that people are quite willing to give up some civil liberties in the name of security.  They trust the government too much.  Our government is not a democracy... it is not a government of the people.  It is a government of the aristocracy--the nobility if you will.  Granted, I'm allowed to write such things against the government.  But for how long?  Maybe I'm a little paranoid here, but will the day come where speaking out against the government is classified as "supporting terrrism" or "inciting" or "disrupting the social wellbeing of the community?"  Would the citizens of our nation be willing to fight for their supposed "inalienable rights?"  I will answer with an emphatic "no."  When was the last time a war was fought on the continental soil?  We may count it as a blessing that it's been a long time since we've seen war on our soil... but we're so conditioned to our peaceful lives we wouldn't know what to do if a war was on our soil.  Would the average person be willing to pick up arms and fight to remove a corrupt government if it tried to usurp power?  Sure, you'd have militias, but they would be relatively small. 

Something that make me think recently:

Looking back at the last presidential election, many of those who voted for Sen. John Kerry claimed they did not do so because they particularly liked him as a candidate, but rather because they thought that it couldn't be any worse than President George W. Bush.  (I was one of them.  I know.)  But something that I've learned studying history:  dictatorships have always arisen whenever the consensus of the people is "it couldn't be worse!"  Now this is not that John Kerry would have become a dictator... by no means.  But the example goes to show how people think in this country. And it is a well known fact that when people don't know history, they are doomed to repeat it.  Looking back, I think John Kerry would have been a terrible president.  (Granted, I'm no Bush-fan either.)  And I know more people are concerned about some of the power Bush seems to be usurping from the other governmental branches than anyone was about Kerry doing something like that.  But the point is that there is a definite detachment from the people of this nation and reality when it comes to our government.

Now I know if you've read this far you're thinking, "Wow, this guy is some conspiracy theorist."  Well, yes and no.  I don't think that the government we currently have is planning some sort of coup or anything like that.  But it may occur within the near future... perhaps to our children or our children's children.  But a vast number of our citizens don't know anything about the government...  They are too concerned with their social lives to concern themselves.  I found out recently that 1/3 of teens can't find Louisiana on a map.  SICKENING!  Why can't they?  Probably because they spend their ever waking lives on Myspace.com (when they should be on Mindsay.com reading our wonderful blogs .)

These "kids" are our future... What a scary thought!  The more kids you know, the more discouraging it is, and the more credence the statement "they've sacrificed their intellectual lives for their social lives" gets.

A big war is brewing in the Middle East presently.  I think personally that it is the beginnings of the next World War if it goes off like it's threatening to.  That won't help our nation...  It might make us desperate.  And desperate people do the stupidest things with government. 

Thank you for reading my rant...  I wish I could have made it more cohesive... but I didn't feel like it.  Oh!  And this is my 700th post!  Huzzah!