That's the point I'm trying to make. Take any leftist revolution, was there ever one without leaders? Did these leaders ever fail to use total authoritarianism to kee their "newly minted" state in line?

Sure if you want to look at the success of the GOP over the past ten years or so you can try and paint it as, "We're bad - we'll keep you secure from the bad guys!" and to a certain extent a considerable amount of political strategy will exploit such human traits as fear and need for leadership. But the tactic is not just a conservative one. Look closely at those jockeying into position for power on the left and you will see a mirror image of the same tactic, namely: "The right is out of control and stealing your freedom, elect me and I will restore things to the proper order!"

The fact of the matter is not much has changed under conservative leadership. There are few new restrictions on our freedoms and most of those involve air travel. Too be quite honest too, there has been little increase in the sheer "quantity" of bugging American dataflows from the Clinton Presidency to the Bush years. It has been reallocated mostly, from organized crime such as the mafia, and shifted to wild-eyed terrorists. And to be also more honest, Americans concerned about privacy need worry more about things like Google Earth and private firms selling public sector data collected, than anything the government is doing.

That is the problem Robert. The REAL dangers come from things outside EITHER political party. The attack on your mind and mine comes from all sorts of companies, groups, nations and most importantly - ourselves as we try to interpret and process all these -isms, allegiances and goings on. It all comes down to this bias, I mention. If we allow a messed up homeowners association to give us an ulcer - it is the combination of that association and our bias of it that is the biggest danger to us. Not some Al- Qaida terrorist or some political figure head. However those too can be a threat to us if we bias them.

Do you see how it works? It's almost a Matrix-esque realization - that our minds are both our key to eternity and our greatest threat.

All these books, blogs, -isms and things vying for your belief can only aid you if they help bring you balance - if they do not - if they engender strong biases - then they are a liability, or more properly, something to master and something which until then will be your master and a thorn in your side.

I'm not, as I have been labeled, a neo-con or a conservative. In a post to Art I mentioned why I vote conservative. Parts of me would be aligned with left or liberal thought. I'm not religious. My beliefs are off-the-wall by conventional measures and would be interpreted as scientific moralism - with the tiny sinewaves of energy that comprise me and my mind, as my 'god', and whenever any of these are imbalanced, I adjust my life to restore it to balance. It's that simple. If it's out of balance it needs to be balanced. My participation here is under the same working guideline - I post generally on topics that strike me as imbalanced - the things which compel a response based upon my own beliefs, understandings and experiences.

Life is like walking an endless tightrope - all these new experiences and personalities will jostle us, but we must make adjustments and move forward or we fall off the rope. If we do fall off, we need to posthaste climb back up on the rope and balance again and master that jostle, for if we do not - the journey is over.