[Alberta's Child]

Most people AREN'T entrepreneurs and have no wish to be. And that is just plain reality. Most people are security driven and saw Bush's Social Security proposals as adding to the insecurity of their lives. Particularly that well over half of the American workforce that has seen its socioeconomic security eroded by globalization.

There's nothing wrong with that kind of outlook, but it does represent an inherent danger to this country. In the early history of the United States it was generally accepted that only those who owned property were permitted to take part in the process of electing leaders. This was done precisely to avoid having the political process corrupted by people who are "security-driven" by nature, because these were typically the people in the Thirteen Colonies who were most likely to accept the idea of living under British rule.

[Sam the Sham]

You assumed that "security driven" is weak and submissive. It is nothing of the sort. To be a parent is to be "security driven" because your responsibility for the security of your children comes before "actualization" or "self-expression" or "what's right for me".

It is the very "security driven" nature of America that is its strength. A "security driven" culture will be suspicious of elitist intellectuals with a vision of the perfect world. That is why revolutionary utopianism never caught on here.

[redgolum]

In the early history of the United States it was generally accepted that only those who owned property were permitted to take part in the process of electing leaders. This was done precisely to avoid having the political process corrupted by people who are "security-driven" by nature, because these were typically the people in the Thirteen Colonies who were most likely to accept the idea of living under British rule.

We were more of a republic aristocracy then. We are long past that, and it wasn't so great anyway.