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The United States has been fortunate to have had many refugees togive us 'fair warning' of our negative trends. One of the most famous of the last century, especially to FReepers, was Ayn Rand (Alice O'Connor's pen name) 1905-82, who fled the Soviet Union in 1926. Her antagonism to the Collective / the Swamp was made clear in such books as "Atlas Shrugged", "The Fountainhead" and others.

My favorite quote from her (Atlas Shrugged) delineates bureaucratic power seeking;
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with.”

So very similar to Stalin's NKVD Chief, L.Beria, with his "Show me the man and I'll show you the crime." Now we have the Swamp, the Washington permanent uber-class and its policing minions in academia, media pop culture and corporations, making criminals of us all as they read 1984 as guidance rather than dystopian!