Mind control helmet

You can probably most accurately view this country if you see the structure of the government and the corporate aristocracy as a sort of "mind-control helmet" overlaid on an otherwise normal populace.

Most of the readily available avenues of information in and out of the country (and the public minds), and thus the bulk of the opinions held by the populace, are largely controlled by the corporate media - and the government.

Those same corporations are now starting to take control of the public schools in order to cultivate compliant corporate citizens (the 3 Cs).

Marketing rules the US. Long live marketing.