and I'm reading Benjamin Barber's
Jihad vs. McWorld. "Yet Jihad and McWorld have this in common: they both make war on the sovereign nation-state and thus undermine the nation'state's democratic institutions. Their common thread is indifference to civil liberty. Jihad forges communities of blood rooted in exclusion and hatred, communities that slight democracy in favor of tyrannical paternalism or consensual tribalism. McWorld forges global markets rooted in consumption and profit, leaving to an untrustworthy, if not altogther fictitious hand issues of public interest and common good that once might have been nurtured by democratic citizenries and their watchful governments." Something to think about on the day when a country that has given so much to the world, in spirit if not action, celebrates it's beginnings.