This was my posted response to a NYTmes article about the proliferation of hidden cameras in stores (In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers) and how this has become acceptable as good business practice:
I sometimes laugh (or cry?) when I recall the concern folks once had about the future as depicted in Brave New World and 1984. That was dictatorship, control, and the Soviet Union (for the ‘50s and ‘60s). Now it’s happening here, and most everyone takes it for granted. A half century ago, there would have been outrage. How truly these books now appear to be predicting our future. Details differ (changes in technology and where the power resides), but the trajectory is unmistakable (post #49).
Here are some other ideas for consideration:
We are citizens of the world, and our country is this earth.
“America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy.” John Updike
“Yes, we love peace, but we are not willing to take wounds for it, as we are for war.” John Andrew Holmes
Does good always triumph over evil? Only because the winners get to tell the story.