Some days, reading the news of our poor sick nation is like reading a parable about a poor idiot giant cutting off pieces of himself to ward off shadows until he is no more. News that NSA has been spying on American citizens is perhaps not as chilling as the realization that oversight of our nation’s deepest secrets has been privatized. How long can a nation last when it trusts mercenaries to watch over it’s deepest secrets? How long before the mercenaries standing guard over the nation’s main artery are given a better offer? Are we like Rome in it’s last days with no one thinking to ask, “Who is watching the watchers?”

And still, no one sees this as the inevitable end game of unfettered capitalism. In a nation where pursuit of profit is the highest value, at some point, everything is for sale.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/11-1