When the former Soviet Union finally crumbled under its own weight, America as well as the rest of the west was finally free to pursue its dreams. We could turn inward and work on completing the task of eliminating prejudice, poverty and homelessness, assure that everyone had adequate access to healthcare and that no one would enter old age with nothing but a can of dog food for the evening meal. But it didn’t happen that way. We missed the enemy we had grown dependent upon and so we turned our need for that foe inward upon ourselves. From there, we divided and subdivided our nation between the neocon and liberal, the Christian and the atheist, the straight and the gay and of course, black and white. Our efforts begat domestic propaganda machines the likes of which Stalin or Goebbels would truly envy. We found comfort once again in our polarizations, happily pronouncing our neighbors worthy of the noose over shallow notions of race, lifestyle, religion and politics.

We’re not slaves to these things because we are bound by any clanking, ghostly chains. We are slaves because we choose to be.