How far are we from a dystopia?
Not that far...
As children of democracies, we assumed too quickly that our environment was democratic. On which basis? Our pertaining to the league of the West? The champions? Compared to what? The other oppressed countries? What is oppression? Isn't it an individual and subjective concept? As well as freedom? In the current situation, are we oppressed or free? When a dictator takes control of the reins of a country, we know what to expect. What about a disguised democracy? Who can look in my eyes deeply and assert of a country of liberties (the use of the plural is conscious since its singular, regrouping all liberties, is shrinking and therefore aims at its abolition)? Are we facing the reconceptualization of the definition of democracy to make us believe that it is still a propos? If our votes were the expression of our concern, they elected the hands that are handcuffing and shackling us, that are walling us in and up? As a result, the individual (a commodity that will wither on the human market) will ponder whether once, we ever lived between the confident walls of democracy or was it ever an optical illusion adaptable at will? Is the idea of state interventionism shouldered by our president, the maternal womb symbolized in its idealistic protective obligation or the renewed version of the nightmarish matrix (developed for movie theaters)?
To the example of the allegory of Plato's cave, the U.S. citizens always believed that two simple pieces of paper, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would guarantee ad vitam eternam the people to live in a democracy, the entitlement of freedom. It is to deny the superpower of the legislative and of the corporations. To the prisoners trapped in Plato's cave, the shadows shaping the outside world deformed their reality, distorted their perception without their knowledge. What were human beings passing by, with the game of light, became indicible and indistinct forms to them. We were always taught that our country was the epitome of democracy, that as soon as any boat entered Ellis Island, the statue of liberty and its ideals would embrace anyone reaching the shore. What is the difference between the prisoners in Plato's cave and us? None. Both perceptions were false. We are prisoners of a machine that stuff us with lies like those geese in Southern France to be served as foie gras to the regalian tables. Is it our destiny? To be served alive to the greed and hunger of capitalism?
From the famous Patriot Act to the suspicious H.R.347, to the daring CISPA, will we ever see an end to the implacable process of our enslavement? Which pill are they going to provide us to sedate our brains? Obama's charming smile, again? Will Al-Qaeda's ghost be due before election day to motivate our failed brains to vote for the party that will ensure national security? Which Manchourian candidate will our "protectors" send on the field to slaughter children in the ir kindergarden or have a carnage at the premiere of a movie theater? Will their agenda ever cross the U.S. citizens' path? In our dreams. You see where it leads people to dream? Ask Martin Luther King or Kennedy? The race against time and other nations' wealth to secure "our" national energy dependence, will force us to go along with any reforms or policies to be enforced in their favor. The pawns we became since September 11 assessed of our disposability.
Given the weakness of our governments, it is our duty as citizens not to forget. We are transformable at will, at the order of our commander in chief, himself at the mercy of the elite. A part of our youth will be melt in lead to advance on whatever military front, the other part will be standardized like any product at the end of the organizational structure of a Ford supply chain. Are we that far from the Aryan or Eugenist vision of the world, all blue-eyed, white-skinned, bright IQ, pure from any degeneration in our DNA code...? The poorest will simply be sacrificed. Collateral damage for the greater good will they brainwash us. An aseptic society is waiting for us where formol and ether-based programs will keep us in our established cubicles, rows. You open your mouth like Manning and Snowden and our "patriots" will ban you forever.
What we did not see afore, what we did not want to see before the involvement of the government in September 11: the use of the national army for private interests, the class and interests conflicts..., it is obvious now that the democracy that once existed or we thought existed, is not, that our vision of democracy is clashing with the one of the very superior whip creamed layer of the society. We are heading toward a sclerosal society where our unique power will be to protest or/and to vote. The power to protest is already jeopardized, we know what will be next! Our power to vote. As an electron, every human being aspires to freedom. What will trigger formations of protestation to rise if not the deprivation of freedom?
The society that was designed for us in the name of freedom responded to the people's urge to tackle the British empire taxation, to refrain an abusive mainland authority treatment of its so-called subjects. Nowadays it is more a reflection of a fortified autocracy hidden behind its crenellations on the lookout to the people's rebellion to shut down than any drawn contours of any democracy. In order to see our world the way it is (need to subdue people, simulated democratic system) and not the way we want it to be (a democracy) either we open our eyes, either we close them. Your pick. As for me, the ugliness of our society inspires me revolutionary thoughts and behavior (when time will come). The matrix will be beaten willy-nilly.