Are the Great Machines in America out of control?

Mainstream America has, and is suffering in ways and to an extent that is difficult to genuinely assess. Two preventable wars abroad, two million jobs lost in the last year, home values have plummeted, retirement nest eggs have been decimated, national debt that is astonishing by any standards, and unprecedented loss in the value of the US dollar.

What has become of personal responsibility? To institutional and political accountability? To simple honor in this land of America that has long extolled such high ideals? Is it truly plausible that this disastrous sequence of events is accidental - and unforeseen?

Be sure that few sporting contests will go unwatched and unattended. Television programs such as American Idol and Deal or No Deal have no fear of losing viewership - nor do the makers of the latest blockbuster movie. Our obsession with the newest electronic gadgets and celebrity gossip ensures that we are distracted, trusting the mechanisms to guide the Great Ship America.

We are well entertained and amused as the country that so many take pride in drowns in debt - is mistrusted around the world as never before - while corruption and greed infects our institutional and political mechanisms setting the stage for future disasters that are difficult to fathom.

Or are they?

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