It goes much deeper than just manufacturing and the economy. So many things in our lives are the way they are because of past decisions and past actions. What worked 100 or 200 years ago is not the same as today. We are a fundamentally different world today. Instant communication with any other human on the planet is an immense challenge that we now have as reality. Electoral College? WTF? Chads... paper ballots... counting by hand, give me a break. We could change the world but the powers at be see that as a risk to their empire and wealth. They do not care about the layman they are in a different world a world that revolves around them. At the end of the day we are all the same collection of cells that combined to create the homo sapien. All this "unreal" power and control is bogus. We are all free beings. Ones status in society should not make them artificially better than another person, it should be through our actions and how we conduct ourselves that show people who we are, not an arbitrary position at some company or government. They can not toy with our lives like it is nothing, my life is just as important as the presidents, even though society does not think that way. That is why I never understood war... all the money and resources to kill other humans just seems like a 100 waste of resources and it is. When you are taking revenge against killing x amount of people how is killing x + 1 people fix or accomplish anything but the subjective feeling of revenge, which has no real bearing in society, ie it produces nothing but a small feeling that fades fast. Call me a nut, call me stupid, but all this seems very rational to me, there is a force keeping the world from change, and the force is trying to keep the world exactly how it is, if not take it back a few steps.
"...the illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."
- Carl Sagan
