Except that they do have power even if you ignore them. I don't think anyone can argue that environment is not vital to a persons's development. The government,

Except that they do have power even if you ignore them. I don't think anyone can argue that environment is not vital to a persons's development. The government, NSA, piracy, patent trolls, etc. all happen to be a part of the environment that we're in. In fact, many other things happen to be a part of that environment and have a more direct impact on children and their development. One example would be something like this: http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/11/entertainment/la-et-ct-piracy-education-20131111 http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/11/entertainment/la-et-... . I'm neither condoning or accepting of piracy in this statement, I'm only stating that the MPAA is a part of the environment and it affecting education. Then we can take a look at some of the "cultural" (I am lacking in words at this moment) factors that are in government when watching some of Lawrence Lessig's talks about removing the influence of money from government. Because of that influence of money corporations can influence legislation which can fundamentally change the rules that the market abides by. An example of this would be reverse engineering. Without which, I might add, the computing market would look dramatically different today. Or does no one still remember the thing with DVD players? I know I had to pony up in order to play Blu-Ray(R or TM) on my computer. Those kinds of headlines one _should_ expect from a community. A community should seek to protect itself and inform its members of threats both real and imagined. If I don't see any articles about threats in the future I'm going to think I'm in some kind of dystopia and they've managed to infiltrate HN.