Every year the defense industrial complex gets billions of American taxpayer dollars to build systems the country does not need and to serve America’s military overseas that would be better served by the military itself at a much lower cost. The hawks that represent them sell policies to Congress that are always wrong. They get continual access to major news networks, even with a record of failure. Americans have seen the results in Vietnam. Americans have seen the results in Iraq. Americans have felt the brunt of the blowback from our bad acts overseas. Yet Americans continue to vote in politicians that take the country to war, and transfer the country’s treasure to a few. We collectively are answerable to those that have died in unnecessary wars, and the pilfering of the American treasure that resulted. The trend is obvious. Take any substantive issue and the answer is the same. When Americans are polled, except for social issues, their needs and wants are not at all very different. An economic system that has evolved into a predatory economic system, a virtually unregulated crony capitalist system, will do whatever is necessary to ensure Americans never have the time or opportunity to explore their commonalities. Why? It would endanger the very foundation of their system. A skit titled “Bread & Circus” by Move to Amend Utah is a perfect illustration of America’s seemingly short attention span, an attention span that prevents us from acknowledging our need to be collectively answerable. The story is that old empires used to control their populace by giving them just enough bread to survive, and then sedating them with entertainment. Today America has lots of cheap food, mindless reality TV, and manufactured empty entertainment stars to keep the American collective eyes off of the ball. It is time that Americans stop accepting the marketing and propaganda from the plutocracy. The problem is that most Americans do not understand that they are constantly being marketed to and brainwashed. It is the job, it is the civic duty of those who know these realities to help fellow Americans understand this through all possible avenues of communication. Until Americans really feel collectively answerable for our brothers and sisters—for who we are, for what we do, for every outcome in this country— we will be relegated to commodity status and indentured servitude by a burgeoning plutocracy.