Originally Posted by
cbn42
I would think it's the exact opposite.
But of course.
We're really going off topic here, aren't we? I'm hope the mods will indulge us a bit while we're being reasonable about the
how aspect of that.
I think you've got the tone (below) right. But I would disagree about the substance. I agree that many Americans believe exactly what you say. That's how the perceive themselves. But I don't think that's the reality. (Obviously I don't or I wouldn't have written what I did
)
Americans are indoctrinated from birth to question their government on everything. They are taught that they have all kinds of "rights" (which may or may not actually exist), that the government is out to oppress them, and that they are supposed to keep the government small and weak in order to ensure their freedoms. They are taught that the government might become "tyrannical" at any minute, and the right to bear arms is their line of defense.
They are taught to worship the free market and question socialism, communism, and anything else that is un-American in any way, mostly without having a clue what those terms mean.
OK, I do agree with that part just above.
This skepticism of the government is why the US lacks a decent health care system, better environmental protections, and many other things that are taken for granted in most other developed nations.
I'm not convinced that that's the reason on those ones. I think that it might well be the reason
these days with the extreme right screaming as loud as it can about how it's "being repressed" & the "liberal media" is to blame, yadda yadda, pick-your-stalking-horse. But that, IMO, is just the modern effect/reason. Historically, it's a simple outgrowth of the form of government the US has. The distributed federal system of the US makes progress in a technological context more difficult in so far as the system of government simply isn't scalable IMO. It breaks down when the parts become large
and able to communicate effectively. The system was designed to cope with a lack of communication, not a surplus of it. The money and power sloshing about as well just serve to attract the sharks faster and they make sure it's doing their bidding and not "the people's."
To bring all that back towards the actual discussion, I think that's one of the reasons why TSA & DHA (& modern US government in general) is so ineffective. It's
so large and has
so many inputs that it can't generate a coherent output. People in the US don't actually want (or at least about) their government departments being small and effective, and yet it's complicated enough and large enough (in terms of people, money, physical distance, etc) that it is still easy to hide/get away with all sorts of things. The cumulative effect of all the inputs over the last ~150 years is the modern US government & population: distinctly bipolar. All IMO, obviously.