Snowden; others; society; humanity
Never used this term before, but the "USSA"(*) has gone seriously off-track. It looks more and more like the "Commie Bastards" (which was always a dubious term) that it has slagged off since the 50s McCarthy witch hunts.
There have always been good things, some very good things, about the USA. But the revelations about the way it's been heading - controllers vs. citizens, its own and everybody else's - has brought as much shame upon the nation as slavery, apartheid and torture ever did.
Which president talked about the Military-Industrial complex(?)?
And "capitalism" has come to mean screwing over the ordinary, decent, citizens that have always been around, in favour of the corporate greed and gun-slinger mentality that has always lurked in a minority, but a very powerful minority, of minds.
And the UK? Is it very different?
Once, I think, it was (as was the USA, I think, but perhaps I was too young to understand what goes wrong, then).
I have continually increasing admiration for the authors of "1984" and "Brave New World": authors who saw how absolute power corrupts absolutely (http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/absolute-power-corrupts-absolutely.html), how the scent of power, however well-intentioned, can become a drug.
They had the insight and foresight to see and understand the dangers that threaten the vast majority of (basically) honest, decent people when the unfortunate (mis)understandings of the few are in the ascendency.
Ultimately, though, history shows that good and bad powers rise, and fall. So, perhaps, there is hope for our descendants.
(*) I believe that the "U(S)SA"'s inhabitants, and those of all other nations, are fundamentally well-intentioned, and less than perfect. Humans are not bad, though they do bad things, sometimes; and good things, sometimes.