Before we start another day heaping invective onto the bad guys (Bush et al), maybe we should try to see the bigger picture. When you wonder where all the color in your face went, just remember that somebody had to have invited the fucking vampire in in the first place.
This climate of fear, hate, stupidity, endless war, torture, and on and on didn't just form in a vacuum. It formed because vigilance has been replaced with laziness. We've stopped trying. We buy lies because it's easier than looking for the truth. In terms of entertainment, we're offerered a false choice: watch CSI or Special Victims' Unit, or whatever. Both are overly produced with impossibly high production values. They bristle with music that creates a faux poignance, they are both mean-spirited and most of all, they are both bullshit regurgitations of drama. It's a drama-ish,bloated, yawn-inducing hour of self-fulfilling prophesies and dilemmas that are "auto-solved." There is more suspence in championship wrestling. But these are the two most watched shows on TV. And the awful thing is that WE KNOW IT'S BULLSHIT. But it's easy and god knows I work hard enough, and I should be able to watch a goddamned stupid TV show if I want after a hard day. So there are two lies we've bought: that CSI has redeeming value and that we deserve something.
This same scenario can be superimposed to every other area of our lives. The savvy and impossibly rich corporations, in their reverence for the bottom line, have offered us choices between one mediocre show and another, while the media have convinced us that the easy choice is the only choice and that we deserve a break today.
And it's easier to be scared than not. The Department of Homeland Security, with its dorky sci-fi-inspired moniker that smacks of good Americans resisting the Klingon scourge, does absolutely nothing except make us feel that we're being protected.
The televised talent exhibitions have us buying more lies. The American Rock Star show, that ostensibly has America voting for the next big "rock star" is another lie that is offered for sale and purchased without thought. But it's total fucking bullshit. The essence of rock-n-roll, correct me if I'm wrong, is about fucking and self-destruction. Putting this highly personal, primal stimulus into public exhibition is like the church lady furiously masturbating with one hand while simultaneously cleaning up the mess with the other.
I could go on and on, and so could most of us. But the truth is that before the rabid conservatism of the status quo could have flourished, the environment had to be in place to welcome it. While it would be hard to fashion a cause-and-effect, there is at least a correlation between what we accept as entertainment and the diminution of vigilance against the mediocrity of profits.