How Fucked Are We?

Sitting here at work, and I stole a few minutes to poke around google news and I came across an article that just about made me puke on my keyboard.

Americans say they are pretty comfortable with expanded government surveillance.

Read it, and if you're okay with what it says then stop reading because you're part of the problem.

Basically, it says that a majority of Americans are now O.K. with all the shit the government pulls to keep tabs on "terrorism"

Now first off, let's set some argumentative ground rules.

1. The government uses "terrorism" to justify anything and everything it does. Simply because all they have to do is invoke that word and people shit their pants and turn into helpless infants curled up in the corner.
2. Americans are by in large a bloodless, lifeless band of consumer drones who need the world, or the small part of it that their massive asses occupy to be safe from harm so that they can play Xbox or PS4 and order from Amazon without having to worry about taking any responsibility for themselves at all.
3. Americans have delegated to the US government a million things that used to be the exclusive purview of the individual, or at least a responsibility of citizenship, and Americans will jump at the chance to hand over any tasks or responsibilities they have left, so they can lay back down and watch the Real Housewives of Orange County.

Now that's what I think of your average American citizen. Not real high on the evolutionary scale. Devolving even. Luckily, if you've made it to this point in this post it means that you have an attention span that is at least 60-240 seconds long and in this day and age that is pretty impressive and would most likely put you into the top 1 or 2% of the population.

Moving on, I could quote Benjamin Franklin and the old standby of liberty for safety deserves neither, but there's not much point in that when there are probably a good portion of the public who have no fucking clue who Benjamin Franklin is.

So I'm just going to put it my way.

What a bunch of spineless pussies?

Now I realize that the government is charged with keeping us safe. And to a point I can run with that. We need cops, and feds, and prisons and all that goes with the Justice system. There is no doubt about that. But the extent to which the Justice system has grown is out of fucking control. If you think that's an exaggeration, the Federal prison system population has grown by 790% since 1980. Its gotten almost 8 times bigger since I was 2!!! (Look it up, I didn't believe it at first either)

So if there's 8 times as many prisoners, think of all the extra laws, lawyers, cops, courts and yada yada yada...

Now, basically what I'm saying is we're gladly handing over control of our lives to the G. (government)

And that's spineless, its lifeless, and its what a bunch of pussies would do.

Don't get it twisted either. I am by no means advocating anarchy. That's just as dumb. What I'm telling you is that like everything else there's a happy medium. There's a place where law and individuality can meet without one getting hacked up for the other.

But we've lost the gumption required to protect those last vestiges of individuality that we've got. The government has been laid bare lately. They're spying on us. They're spying on all of us. Its proven. There isn't much room for debate. They're keeping track of who you call, where you call, and how long you talk to them. And if they're doing that how far behind can all the other shit be, where they are actually recording every move you make, every dime you spend, every email you send. They probably already do that, but they had brains enough to implant a small thermonuclear device in the hearts of everyone who knows so if they ever utter a word about it...BOOM.

And they're going to keep doing it. Because this story with Snowden and his whistle-blowing or treason or whatever you want to call it will be a story for about a week or two and then it'll go away. It'll fade from memory and America will go right back to sleep anesthetized by whatever technological I.V. they like to hook themselves up to.

A couple of days ago I was asked a question, and the question was this;

Why does the government keep on doing this stuff? Why are they so incompetent? Why haven't they been fired or disciplined or arrested?

The answer was simple. Its because we allow it. As a society we allow it. This is the best we've been able to do. We obviously don't want our government to change, incumbents get elected something like 92% of the time. 

So if you support incumbents, which statistically, a whole bunch of you do, and you say that you want the government to change...YOU ARE EITHER FUCKING STUPID OR A LIAR.

Personally, I think incumbents get elected because its easy. Its easy to go with a name you know. Its easy to check the same box as you did last time. Its easier than learning who the other guy or gal is. Its just simply easier and it doesn't take as much time away from Candy Crush.

And again, there's the problem. Its easy...

There was a time when Americans didn't care about what was easy. They just cared about what was right. 

There's that old saying, if it was easy everyone would do it. 

I got news for you folks, EVERYONE IS DOING IT.