America the failed state. First draft

[alfredo]

The Seven Factors that lead to a failed state.
These key "failure factors" are:
1. Restrictions on the free flow of information.

2. The subjugation of women.

3, Inability to accept responsibility for individual or collective failure.

4. The extended family or clan as the basic unit of social organization.

5. Domination by a restrictive religion.

6. A low valuation of education.

7. Low prestige assigned to work.
(above from http://www.carlisle.army.mil/)

How many of these signs are found in bush's America. This is my take on them. You can agree or disagree and you can add to or subtract from the list, or write your own opinion of the seven signs. I think there should be others like the culture of corruption of the ruling class and the concept of war without end.

1. Bush's secrecy, paranoia, and control of much of the corporate media has kept us functionally illiterate when it comes to politics, science, and art. Government spying on private communication, intimidation of journalist, and spiking of unfavorable news by pro bush media conglomerates have a damping effect on information.
Religious zealots using boycotts, the courts, and intimidation also cause the media to self censor their news.

2. Though women enjoy freedoms unknown in much of the world, there is a danger to those rights posed by the Christian Reconstructionist.

3. You can see that every time someone from the bush administration and the corporatist media.

4. The best example of this is southern exceptionalism, and cult like political religions like the Southern Baptist Convention, LDS, and some Lutheran groups.

5. Kevin Phillips has stated that the Southern Baptist Convention is in effect the state religion of the old Confederacy states. To understand this better, read "American Theocracy." Their control of our government could hasten our journey into a failed state.

6. Anti intellectual forces have always been with us, but now with the Straussians in control of our government, education is being priced out of the reach of the middle class. This is by design, not just market forces. Attacks on science, social studies, and history and the very concept of public education have accelerated under the bush administration.

7. Out sourcing, in sourcing, union busting, and downsizing has turned the motivation from an honest days work for an honest days wages into of working your fingers to the bone out of fear of losing your jobs. Workers are not valued, and their work is never good enough. It's not the workers who devalue work, it is the employers and the ruling class.