So far as I am concerned, the last word as an end in itself is meaningless. As for my worldview, compare the nation as we know it to the nation as it was in generations past.
1. Exercise of constitutional rights was under most circumstances not infringed, particularly regarding the Bill of Rights. This did not cause the sky falling scenarios we are told would result if we were left in actual possession of our rights, which are properly ours.
2. We had a robust and growing economy in which a person could use and develop his talents as he was able. While still technically possible, a bewildering array of regulations, a byzantine tax code, and liability issues in which even the most stupid of people can sue the productive to collect on their own stupidity make it anywhere from improbable to impossible.
3. In the past, it was a safe rule of thumb that if you paid your taxes and lived by the Ten Commandments, there was no need to be concerned about the law. Now, we have to worry about predatory law enforcement, especially in the event that there is anything of value to be confiscated/stolen.
4. In the past, we had a solvent government which, prior to the FD Roosevelt administration, largely limited itself to performing the duties delegated to it by the Constitution. Today, we have a bloated, insolvent government with its nose into everything, Constitution notwithstanding.
5. While this is really a restatement of points 1 and 2, in generations past we were free to exercise our rights without any official permission to do so--which is a critical distinction between a right and a privilege. Exercising a right does NOT require permission.
Yep. Our society has certainly changed in major ways in the past few generations. The question I have for you, which I've reprised in another thread, is: Where are you going to go to regain those conditions previous to today? Seems to me our choice is to emigrate to another place that seems more free to us, or to attempt to push back at the cultural changes which have allowed our current society to exist in its present form. Do you see another choice?