Spiegel has a story today with the title "Paradise Lost: Paranoia Has Undermined US Democracy". Here's an outtake from the article:
While far from a dictatorship, the United States has employed a number of paranoid tactics that delegitimize its democracy.
It is often assumed that intelligence agencies are worlds of their own, and that they sometimes act on their own authority. However, they are also an expression of the societies in which they exist, especially of their fears. In other words, it is quite possible that there are not just paranoid agents, but also paranoid democracies that act in hysterical ways out of fear. They are characterized by a strong freedom myth, which leads to paranoia. It, in turn, poses a threat to freedom. The United States is currently in a late phase of this cycle.Lookin' good, America. U!S!A! U!S!A!
