your papers, comrade
This heartwarming story of TSA officials confiscating airplane meal utensils from a pilot is a pretty hilarious example of what I’ve long been thinking of as the Soviet-ization of America.
A less hilarious example is the recent craven capitulation of Congress to President Bush’s every whim on the whole warrantless wiretapping thing. Way to not stand up against an overwhelmingly unpopular president on behalf of the American people and the Constitution, guys! Did you remember to deliver the bill to the White House on your knees and avert your eyes in the presence of His Bushness?
The summative problem of the Soviet Union is that it had a powerful government that served a select few while remaining insulated from most of its citizenry. Much of our cold war rhetoric was predicated on the idea that central economic planning was the main problem… but it seems clear in retrospect that central economic planning was merely an implementation detail. Don’t you think America’s stumbling economy, celebration of mediocrity, military worship, and descent into Panopticon-like surveillance state give the place a sort of retro-Russky feel? Maybe it’s time to replace the eagle and pyramid on the back of our dollar bills with snapshots of a tank and a decaying concrete housing block.
