When Nikita Khrushchev came into power in the Soviet Union, he inherited a country where creative thinking was in short supply. It seems that under Joseph Stalin’s rule, fear, which kept people inline, also suppressed the kind of creative thinking that is necessary for a nation to thrive.

By anyone’s measure, the US prospered most during eras when it promoted free thinking and minimized oppression.  The 60’s may have been plagued in some ways but it was also the era when we went all the way to the moon and we haven’t been outside of low Earth orbit since.

For people to create a better reality for themselves, they first have to dream it, then they can move forward to build and realize it.  But in a country where your every move is watched, people are afraid to even dream.  And in a country where the future is so uncertain, even those with dreams are afraid to invest themselves in building.

We have become a country where people go to work, drudge through the day without even a hint of what that drudgery is for, save for their own short-term existence here, then come home and turn on the television to numb their brains until they pass out.

This is not the kind of country I want to live in or the existence I want.  I want to live in a country where people achieve great things for the common good, not a country where people slave for the ruling elite.