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I don't think it's a sense of entitlement at all but rather decades of trust (and reliance) that was built after World War II when the only thing standing in th

by smackay 13y ago

I don't think it's a sense of entitlement at all but rather decades of trust (and reliance) that was built after World War II when the only thing standing in the way of Soviet domination was the USA. It was always a little naive to think that the USA had everybody's best interest at heart but now it is now clear and unambiguously painted in big bold letters that the USA* are in it for themselves and only for themselves. All the talk of shared values and common purpose, spreading democracy and freedom, etc. etc. all rings rather hollow. It's seems stupid that given recent events that the uproar over whether the US government is reading your Facebook posts has rammed the point home to many people but I guess this is just the final prod that woke a lot of people up. *Purely from the perspective of the government. I've nothing but admiration (mostly) for large parts of the culture, attitude and hard work of the good citizens of the 50 states.

adventured 13y ago
You're correct about the US of today, but you're making the common mistake of thinking the US of today has much in common with the US of 1950 (etc). We're a radically different nation today, even than what we were 15 or 30 years ago. This kind of rapid change isn't uncommon in our history, the US of 1840 was vastly different from the US of 1890. There have been at least four or five major epochs for the US, which saw fairly substantial changes (good or bad) to the rule of law and social cohesion. We started as a constitutional republic and nearly laissez-faire capitalism; then we had a massive federal explosion post civil war, that saw the power of the states greatly diminished; we shifted to a mixed economy, welfare state with a heavy bent toward democracy; now we're speeding toward police state socialism with oligarchs, the facade of property rights, and blended government-corporations, aka fascism (or as some call it in our incarnation, corporatism).

by smackay 13y ago

adventured 13y ago

You're correct about the US of today, but you're making the common mistake of thinking the US of today has much in common with the US of 1950 (etc). We're a radically different nation today, even than what we were 15 or 30 years ago. This kind of rapid change isn't uncommon in our history, the US of 1840 was vastly different from the US of 1890. There have been at least four or five major epochs for the US, which saw fairly substantial changes (good or bad) to the rule of law and social cohesion. We started as a constitutional republic and nearly laissez-faire capitalism; then we had a massive federal explosion post civil war, that saw the power of the states greatly diminished; we shifted to a mixed economy, welfare state with a heavy bent toward democracy; now we're speeding toward police state socialism with oligarchs, the facade of property rights, and blended government-corporations, aka fascism (or as some call it in our incarnation, corporatism).