TV will rot your brain...

I turned on the television today, I was asked to watch one of the "best new" shows out there... something about "Homeland Hero's" or some such nonsense... I in no way want to take away anything from people that serve their country, nor do I want to belittle their jobs and the importance of law enforcement and security.  But something about all of this bothers me.  I thought about it for a while, and I have come to the conclusion that I do not want to ever see this show, I hope that it fails, and I think that in a way this show is an example of what's wrong with America.  Oh yeah, I just said it, there is something wrong with America, and it has to do with this "Homeland Security" stuff.  My problem is this... When I grew up, I was taught that the United States was a 'beacon of hope' the example of freedom, what everyone would want to strive to imitate.  We now have a department in the federal government that answers to the president called Homeland Security.  To me there is some sort of disconnect between being the 'city on the hill' and feeling a need for a department called homeland security.  We have a military force, you would think that this homeland security would be carried out by them. No.  Their job is more law enforcement.  Well we have relatively well funded police forces all throughout the nation, is that good enough? No.  Okay, we have a military force to defend our borders and police forces to maintain the peace, how about their combined efforts, is that enough? No, we need an entire leg of government to basically do what is already being done, and give it a name like homeland security so that no one can dispute what their job really is.  And the name homeland security bothers me too.. America, the bright shiny example of freedom in the world has, whether we like it or not, become an empire.  In order to preserve empire, we need our military forces carrying out invasions and occupations of foreign lands, and an entirely new force to ensure that the Home Land is Secure... Right before our very eyes, we have become the thing we were supposed to not like, the bad example of a dominant society, we have become an expanding empire willing to fight wars and conquer foreign lands to build a sea of wealth and "maintain the American way of living".  We are now one and the same with Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire, the Soviet Union, the same Rome that had Christians fed to lions, the same Persian Empire that threatened the livelihood of Greek society.  We are all of those things and probably more given modern technology and the insane amounts of impact our weaponry could have on the planet and civilization.  So it's less that the show looks to the overtly racist COPS as an inspiration, and it's not so much that the show will be broadcast into millions of homes on network television, it's more the fact that our society today feels the need for a program or department called homeland security.  There was something great about America in that we once believed that we did not need to involve ourselves with the politics and wars of the 'old world' and that our strength and greatness could be achieved through alliances, diplomacy, trade, and sharing ideals.  Now we have two wars raging, both more than 5 years old with no end in sight, and these wars are being fought with the intent of "preserving the American way of life"  and what we really mean by that is the desire to consume more than could ever be confused as necessary.  Topping that off, we now have the department of homeland security to keep us safe here at home while our "defense" forces are aggressively engaging in conquering and occupying foreign lands.  So I do not intend on ever seeing this show, and I hope we can someday stand up to possibly our greatest enemy... Ourselves.