When one discovers a friend has lied or an associate has stolen, a trust has been violated and the pre-existing bond is broken - often irrevocably.

Such is the case with our current government versus U.S. citizens allied with people aroud the world.  Each day, new revelations detail how our government has spied on its own citizens, foreign leaders, and allies.  Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who covers the Edward Snowden story, is rumored to be preparing a story how the U.S. government assigned the CIA to spy to benefit U.S. multi-national corporations on matters not affecting U.S. security,  In essence, spying for fun and profit.  This was made legal during the Clinton administration but it was never made ethical or honorable - nor was it made widely public.

The U.S. government has lost the moral high ground in the eyes of the world and, even worse, in the hearts of its citizens.  If one cannot believe in a set of basic principles or live under guiding tenets, then the social contract is broken.  Without the social contract, the inherent and unwritten trust two or more parties share is gone and the effortless ability to work together is lost.

The most dramatic evidence is the Secretary of State's pronouncement that the Syrian government's alleged gassing of its own people is "morally unconscionable".  The outrage is muted as we recall the U.S. government's relative silence regarding Iraqi gassing of Kurd civilians and gassing Iranian combatants in 1984.  The collective urge to retaliate is subdued because we've been deceived with the U.S.S. Maine, the Lusitania, the Gulf of Tonkin, weapons of mass destruction, and similar "Wag the Dog" scenarios.  Every generation has its fallacious call to arms and every generation responds because it lacks the memories of prior generations.  The problem now is there are so many lies that we remember them in a single lifetime.

The U.S. government has broken its social contract with its people.  We are more likely to look askance at unverified evidence, unsubstantiated statements, and obvious moral double standards.

As a result, unemployment statistics are doubted, economic data is questioned, freee trade agreements are understood to be a fraud upon the people, the "Clean Water Act" allows more pollution, NSA spying keeps us safe but it is a national secret when we ask "safe from whom?", and "Trade Promotion Authority" subverts our constitutional protections in the face of odious legislation.  All of a sudden, everything they do is just noise.

So where's the outrage?  It is a deliberate policy to overwhelm the people with issues.  It divides the constituencies or causes people to throw their hands into the air and surrender as if that is a workable solution.  There are so many injustices upon which light must be shined that the light becomes diffused.

The readers has two choices:  Affect change or roll over and acquiesce. If rolling over is the choice, leave your wallet open next to your prone body.  Someone will be along shortly to relieve you of your cash and ID.  Then they relieve themselves upon your rights and dignity.  Edward R. Murrow famously warned, "A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."  If affecting change is the plan, do it and do it now.  Pick two issues and participate.  Just show up.  The only way to fight the money is with voices - lots of them.  Until then, it's just noise. Their noise.