[David,]

I think Mark Twain said that people deserve a government as bad as they are willing to tolerate...this whole argument is yet more interesting (and holds even more true) when considering the most primitive societies, a la Hobbes / Mad Max. Even though societies develop more of a sense of inertia as they increase in size, opinion still remains the key element.

The scary part is how easy it is to "create" opinion through propaganda (Napoleon was great at this). Fortunately, free press is an effective remedy for propaganda, so long as it remains truly free. The greatest danger in our present time, place, and culture is to insure that unpopular opinions still have a voice, as the means of expression (i.e. the TV networks and major publications) become contolled by ever fewer individuals. The Internet, we must remember, is only accessable to about 20% of the population ... the other 80% get only what is filtered by a handful of conglomerates with vested interests.

[Steve R.]