I don't think I believe this, but it's weird enough to share

Nothing like a little paranoia to chill your bones: I got to thinking the other day that as oppressive as the federal government has gotten, with a big help from snoopy corporations, we do still live in a country where we can say and write, "Hey, things are getting pretty oppressive out there these days," and I drew some temporary comfort in the thought that freedom of speech and the press is still alive, albeit on life support.

The paranoia came in when I started thinking about novels like Ender's Game and Asimov's Foundation trilogy, where folks behind the scenes are manipulating events in a way that inevitably leads to a certain conclusion. Then I started thinking about something I heard a Clinton administration official say about 10-11 years ago, sounding almost guilty that America has become the last and biggest superpower. It seemed to me Clinton spent a lot of time shoring up China, as if to fill the void left by the USSR's collapse. Then I started thinking about George H.W. Bush's New World Order, which his son has adopted with such vigor even if he doesn't use the term out loud much.

And finally I started thinking that if the idea is to set up a New World Order with a huge, sprawling centralized government, why is dissent tolerated to the degree it is? I mean, we who cling to the principles of freedom are not in jail. And then the paranoia kicked into high gear.

What if the folks playing the chess game with history are thrilled with the idea of a decentralized U.S. government because they have something else to fill that void? Have you noticed how powerful China has become?

Don't get me wrong, I still believe people in general are happier in smaller groups. The bigger the organization, be it a government or a business or a church or a Kiwanis club, the less importance each individual has. The founders of the American experiment clearly meant this to be a united group of free and independent states - and I believe they meant for those states to be independent of each other, not just independent of the British Empire, with the federal government there to accomplish a few administrative tasks in their common interest, like protect the shores and deliver the mail, not to lord it over the states.

But there's a paranoid little thought rolling through my head that it would be easier to assimilate 50 small countries than one superpower, and maybe nuthatches like me are allowed to keep chirping because making Washington less powerful would serve someone's interest at the same time it would bring us closer to the original purpose of a group of united but independent states. The question is who would be doing the assimilating, the New World Order or China?

Now how paranoid is that? I choose not to believe in vast conspiracies, but it would explain why a growing evil would permit opposition voices to continue our yapping more or less unabated. On the other hand, maybe after all these years I finally have the seed of that Great American Novel I've been meaning to write.