Experience all over the world has demonstrated, I fear, that the distance between stable, orderly government and one that has been taken over by force is not so great as we have assumed. Indeed, the plot that Butler exposed - if what MacGuire claimed was true - is a sobering reminder to Americans. We were not immune to the sentiments that gave rise to totalitarian governments throughout the world in the 1930s. We make a serious mistake when we assume, "It can't happen here!"
i.e;...Profoundly discouraged populations are extraordinarily gullible...that's why I rail against superfluous speech so much. It's a regrettable historical fact that those societies prone to verbal 'firing for effect' are the most vulnerable to large scale political upheaval over time. So far, America has managed to maintain a tenuous balance between mild repression in the name of Security & Tradition and anarchy under the guise of Libertarian Principle & Eroding Personal Freedoms.
The only way we can continue to 'benefit from dissension' is to continually expose and deride errant speech by strongly illuminating those benefiting from it. One should never forget that Free Enterprise is based on Greed...and that Exaggeration is Profitable. All that's required is a gullible audience.
Gullibility is the result of ignorance.
Ignorance is the progeny of poor education combined with information control by the State.
U.S.C. 223(h)(1) sez U can't annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass anyone on the Net & elude punishment for same.
