"(we) are told what to think, not 'how' to think!!..Remember, right wing and left wing are on the same bird..(and its not our eagle, either)"

Dead right. Right smack on target once again. I remember so well...that is exactly what pissed me off about the "social studies" (read: political indoctrination) classes I took in New York State in the 60s...and, for that matter, about almost ALL the stuff I was being taught in school.

I was not being taught HOW to think...I was being taught WHAT to think. That's what is always done in a controlled-from-the-top-down-by-an-elite-oligarchy type of society...what you might call a great totalitarian state in the making. They tell you WHAT to think about everything. You say it all back to them like a parrot, and they give you a good mark. You do this until you're an adult, and then maybe you get a job as another unthinking link in the many links of the great chains that bind you.

It all sounds a bit like Mordor to me, only not quite as obvious to the naked eye, that's all. It's Mordor under a clever marketing scheme with nice consumer goods to fill your house up with.

There was a time when people were thought how to think, but such times are rare in human history. There was a time like that once in Athens when teachers like Plato and Socrates were alive. To have a healthy and functioning democracy you need to teach your young people how to think independently. Then they can think for themselves.

I found out how to think for myself when I was a kid, but not in school!   No, I found out how to do that out at home, by reading hundreds of books and considering thousands of possible alternatives to the standard conformist "party line" I was being spoonfed by the ruling system in society, and I have never stopped questioning that party line most stringently.

Those 2 big political parties are a sick joke. Like "voice of Sanity" says, they are two wings on the same bird, and it's a vulture, or something worse than a vulture.

Is there any use in choosing between them, Riginslinger? Is the exercise totally pointless? You asked that. Well....I guess if it comes down to the point that there is no other chance of casting a vote that's going to accomplish anything, then one chooses between the Big Two. Or one doesn't. You have to follow your own best instincts on that. Yeah, I would choose between them at this point, but not with any huge expectations.

This time around I would vote for the Democrats. I know they are a corrupt party, I know they cannot be trusted at all when in office, but I would still vote for them this time because I could not stomach rewarding the similarly corrupt Republicans for the damage they have done in the past 8 years.