Before the HZ I had never associated with people who were immune to reason, whose powers to be rational had been completely replaced by ideology and who would truly support any twist and turn their leaders would tell them to. They have no hesitation or resistance, only blind compliance. I had read of it in foreign countries as they moved from freedom to fascism, and marvelled - it could never happen here.

I believe I've come to understand how democracies can be subverted with the aid of their own citizens, under the guise of patriotism. People willingly given up rights and freedoms, ostensibly to be a bit safer.

Benjamin Franklin: "They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

And it's been the Conservative agenda to use big government to infringe upon personal liberty to ostensibly provide security. So far they've gotten away with it. As usual, everyone thinks it's the other guy the government is after. It could never be them, it's the folks who are different.

And along the way a core of support is created by convincing the religious that this big government will create a theocracy. That in a land founded to ensure religious freedom.

Arf