My conclusion about the 'soberness' the Europeans display is probably based on the fact that the U.S. society (unlike European) is an entertainment oriented giant that does not like to have to put forth personal effort. We have more free time on our hands than peoples of other nations and I believe this has led us to accept an attitude of "live to party, party to live." We therefore have abandoned standards of decency, morality, honesty, and integrity (because these take effort) and are/have becoming/become a crude, rude, greedy, ungodly, pleasure-seeking, uneducated, unthinking people.

Proof of this is that our entertainment industry makes up the majority of our spending. and our entertainment industry continues to delve deeper and deeper into areas that are proven by history to be degrading to a society. This interferes with areas of life that are vital to our survival as a free nation

The Herd Wants a Nanny

I feel this party-til'-you-die attitude, which has fostered a ''herd mentality', has given rise to many dangerous problems, a few of which are mentioned below: First, a government-nanny attitude has arisen and is nourished by our non-thinking. This mind set leaves us as little children who blindly hand over personal freedoms to government control. While we party and 'let things take care of themselves" the government takes over the responsibilities we should personally be taking care of. I do not lay the fault at the feet of the government.

The fault is with our society as a whole. Most people have blindly become so locked into a system that they do not take the time to think. I cringe to think our society is positional such that government is the one telling our children (MY child - not theirs!) to wear a safety helmet while riding his bike. What is next? Will we become so personally lame the government will need to demand a monthly menu from each household to make sure we are serving the proper meals so our children will grow up healthy? Will we prove so personally incapable that our government to tell us what to watch on TV, where to go to church, where we buy our food, what radio stations are OK for us, which doctor and dentist we choose, whether our ailments are worthy of being treated?

Second, it is not hard to see that the liberal media sways public political opinion by continually feeding the blind masses questionable (if not openly false) information. This left-slanted information easily sways voters towards liberal agendas. The values our country was founded on is what has brought us to where we are. History has proven that erasing these values causes a society/civilization to die. The liberals in places of power probably understand and know this, but it appears their agenda is simply driven by a lust for money and power. They tend to use the media to play on the emotions of their followers. If they can get people focusing on emotion, rather than reason, the party-hardy attitude is maintained; the masses blindly follow what 'feels' right/fun/easy; the liberal leaders get more fame, admiration, followers, money, and power. Proper values, unborn children, 'undesirable' people, the environment, or any thing else that gets in the way of their agenda is trampled. As an example of this, do some honest research on the concept of 'separation of church and state.' You will find the liberal media has twisted the concept to be exactly the opposite of what the founding father's of the U.S. designed it to be.

Third, advertising agencies backed by big business engineer their presentations to feed off the non-thinking masses. The herd mentality is a powerful tool that allows whomever desires it to pluck the money from the pockets of the masses. Too many people are caught in the non-thinking rut that "name brand is always best," or, as the labels on so many products read, only certified technicians should service this equipment another way of saying, 'we want your money - so bring it to us instead of doing it yourself)' ." There are obviously some things we cannot service ourselves, but a lot of things need no technical training - just common sense, curiosity, and a desire to learn.

A typical example of greed being prevalent in business occurred when I was using a computer I was unacquainted with. A diskette got caught when the auto-eject system was activated. It shocked me when the 'technician' at the shop told me it would cost 'only' $40.00 for him to retrieve the diskette. I'm glad I took the time to wonder what the little hole by the opening of the drive was; and (with the power off - we are discussing common sense here - aren't we?) cautiously stick the end of piece of wire into it. I quickly discovered the manufacturer had included a manual ejecting mechanism for their technicians to make a fast $40.00 from!

We live in an amazing time of history. Our present day world is developing technology at a pace that makes it hard to keep up with current trends. Our Internet technology has put almost unlimited information at our fingertips. Computers become outdated after only a year of use. People expect (not hope) things to always become more technologically advanced, We expect science will improve everything we have. Things will always be smaller, better, more technologically sophisticated, more powerful, and cheaper to run. This is not a bad attitude (although its validity is questionable) as it keeps us ever shooting for higher plateaus of knowledge. But as things become more advanced, we also need to combat the natural tendency of mankind to become a lazy, complacent people, and to guard against the use of our knowledge as a means of personal gain at the expense of others.

Puppeteers and Pied Pipers

The sad part about our society is that a large number of the people have no concept that they have lost freedoms/money by falling into this lame way of life. These people, like marionettes, are having the system pull their strings. Just like the non-thinking puppet, their actions and way of life become dictated by the master puppeteers. The puppets never realize they have not tasted life.

In my opinion, there are many culprits milking the party-hardy generation for all their worth. These puppeteers thrive in the massive rational-thinking void. Not only are they puppeteers, but like the "Pied Piper of Hamlin," they lead us where they want us to go. I will discuss but two pied pipers since they relate to the purpose of this publication.

It has been noted by those who watch and think for themselves (instead of accepting just what they hear from the media) that our economy has always slumped whenever there has been an increase in gasoline prices. Why do I call the oil industry a pied piper? I believe this industry is dishonest, and since they know they have us over a barrel (pun intended), they milk us for all they can get without totally crashing our economy. Here are three brief, but convincing, arguments that the oil industry is not truthful with us as to gasoline pricing:

1. Gasoline containing lead used to be produced and was called 'regular gas.' Unleaded gas was sold as a more expensive variety. The majority of people thought that unleaded gas was obtained by doing some special process to regular gasoline to eliminate the lead in it. This supposed "de-lead-ing" process cost the company money to perform and therefore justified the higher price of unleaded gas. However, just the opposite was true! Regular gas was produced by the addition of lead to unleaded gas! Unleaded gas was actually the cheaper of the two products, so the companies were charging more money for the cheaper product! When the public found this out, the price of unleaded did not drop, but they raised the price of regular gas instead! Finally, they did away with regular gas altogether.

2. Gasoline is a by-product of plastic production. Why then do not the prices on all plastic product go up and down as the gasoline prices do? Everything plastic should follow suit and raise in price each summer! Can you imagine the chore of calculating what you had to budget for groceries if all the plastic packages/wrapping/bottles/bags in the grocery store fluctuated like gasoline prices do?

3. Why has the cost of a quart of motor oil remained basically the same over the years while gas prices have risen sharply? Again, remember that gasoline is a by-product of the oil refining process. They actually used to throw gasoline away as waste before the birth of the gasoline powered automobile!

I hope these three facts tell you something. The flute of the oil industry has been blowing a long time. I also believe that if gasoline were fairly priced, our economy would be much better off than it is.

Another major industry that I believe plays a tune for us to follow is the auto industry. I still find it unbelievable that people actually swallow, 'hook, line, and sinker [maybe the reel, and pole too!]" the idea that cars can get only 20-30 miles per gallon maximum. What happened to our belief that science could cure all problems so prevalent in all other areas of our lives? The gasoline engine has remained about 20-25% efficient since its creation!