I disagree.

I think we're witnessing the end of the control system. Just twenty-five years ago, I would have instinctually accepted the vast majority of pronouncements from the authorities (government, universities, media) as probably true. Now it's none, zero, zilch, nada... and I'm certainly not alone.

As a result of this failure of confidence, the system is freaking out and clamping down. It's true that some do not want to be extricated from control and never will be. Look at how many Russians still yearn for the Soviet Union and bemoan its end. These were usually the nomenklatura and we have our own in the United States in the form of the aforementioned authorities.

But there are more and more who don't believe a word any more. They will never trust the system again. With each passing day, that number grows and it does not shrink. The damage that the system has done to itself will take generations to reverse, if ever. The transitional period, however, is going to suck as those who are in the system, believe in the system, profit from the system, are going to hang on by their teeth and nails, but that cannot last forever.