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Pastimes : Clown-Free Zone... sorry, no clowns allowed
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To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (130277)10/19/2001 2:47:59 PM
From: Tommaso  Read Replies (2) of 436258
 
"Slowly and surely the US is transforming itself from a free society to a military type of state"

The US at this time does not have any kind of compulsory national service. In the "neutral" and "Socialistic" country of Sweden they have it.

Things may change, but society in the U. S. is about as far as it is possible to go in the direction of lack of regimentation and still preserve social order. There's not even as muich of the diffuse social pressure that De Toqueville noted so long ago as an abridgement of freedom.

There does seem to be a conspicuous and abrupt abridgement of one's freedom to scatter talcum powder around a room, however. I do not recommend doing it.

And there are rather severe penalties for various kinds of political incorrectness. It is no longer possible to teach one of Joseph Conrad's best pieces of fiction because of its title, for example. But there are compensations. One can talk as nasty as one wants and get away with it in most company, so long as one sticks to excrementious and sexual language. On the whole, this may be an improvement over the acceptability of using racist epithets with impunity. As a child, I was taught not to use discriminatory language, however, and maybe some children are being told not to use the four-letter words. But not many, from what I overhear.

I would say that the year 1952 was about the low point ever for true freedom within the United States and there would have to be a lot of changes made to get back to that.
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