third world America

In these grausame, dwindling times in my country, there are two quick descriptions that strike me as summing things up without too much head-scratching:

1. There was a Somali intelligence office who once observed in a TV interview that the piracy practiced off his country's shores amounted to, "If you do not share your wealth with us, we will share our poverty with you."

2. In the 17th century, the Baron LaRochefoucauld observed that "the intelligence of the group is inversely proportionate to its number." [Just because a lot of people agree does not mean what they agree on is necessarily true.] 

It is between these two observations that everyone needs to seek out a balance. Not a perfection, but a balance for which individuals -- and specifically, this individual -- might take responsibility. 

PS. LaRochefoucauld also wrote, "We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."