In fact, the general prosperity of the United States, lasting more than half a century, has coincided with the destruction of traditional moral values, the breakdown of the family, a weakening of community, the degradation of intellectual culture, the fraud of our public schools, and the splintering of American culture. The most basic political questions are no longer asked or answered by politicians. Since the country became a shopping mall regime, politics has been about the redistribution of income with the assumption of ongoing prosperity. In other words, we have sacrificed our children’s future, our national security and our common sense to the shopping mall gods – to hedonism and a destructive series of assaults on authority (i.e., patriarchy). As a nation, Americans have turned to hedonism, solipsism and narcissism.Good synopsis of the way things are, the way "we" have allowed them to become in "our" quest for expediency and the easy way out. No wonder people of the character described here do not see the need for soberly assuming the responsibilities of free men.
[Via Paul W. Davis]