Dear America

Congratulations on 231 years of independence and freedom from the abuse of executive power, class privilege, religious and cultural hegemony, oppressive central government, excessive taxation to fund colonial wars,... oh, wait... Sorry. I'm confused. What are you celebrating again?

by means of ever more effective methods of mind-manipulation, the democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms — elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest — will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of non-violent totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old days. Democracy and freedom will be the theme of every broadcast and editorial

--Aldous Huxley, 1958, Brave New World Revisited