Once upon a time, there were people that were afraid, there were people that were greedy, and there were people who were just plain people. They did their thing in their own little backyards all over the world. And they were hardly heard outside their own little backyards, except by those of us who have always had a morbid fascination with the things that beset us.

But the world has changed! The trends that once were damable streams are now unstoppable torrents. Now, they are so damn impersonal that all races, genders, gender preferences, anyone, and everyone can, and do, participate.

They offer everything that you see, everything that you hear, everything that you think. And they are close to offering everything that you feel! They are the true equal opportunity employers! That is the carrot.

Control and convenience are the hallmarks of these trends. ('We must maintain our profit, our return on investment, and it is not convenient for us, and we lose control when people get out of hand, and start thinking for themselves.') The stick they use to flog this donkey--us--is the homelessness, poverty, sickness we see and hear through the media they control and ARE. Which is fast becoming OUR thinking.

Why do we need thought-police, when we have the media?

Some call it globalization, some call it neo-liberalism.

I understand it to be the eminations of corporations. Corporations are the true inheritors of progress, of intellectual property, patents, and copyrights. They are the true legal person of our age. Even the Internet is falling before the corporations' inexorable progress.

Everything, and everyone is inside the beast, all we can do is join the 20 years' conspiracy to try to change the system from within. Is Leonard Cohen right?!