Revive or Expire.

From my reading today, which has made me tired, and I fear, none the more optimistic:

"They have made the happy discovery, that the way to silence disputes, is to take no notice of them. Let us too give this experiment fair play, and get rid, while we may, of those tyrannical laws. It is true, we are as yet secured against them by the spirit of the times. [...] But is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Is this the kind of protection we receive in return for the rights we give up? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecutor, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion." -- Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia Q.XVII, 1782.

Also, on an almost unrelated note, is it just me, or does the new Star Trek Film make it seem like there will be little to zero improvement in the quality of life in the US in the year 2258, despite huge improvements in energy and construction technology, along with the opening of the interstellar raw material locker? Outside of Starfleet, (and possibly the police force) all I saw was some flashing lights to distract the kiddies while they were away from their studies and labors. Hell, the only nice things I saw on earth, that wasnt owned by the government, were antiques. Good lot that says for the fate of liberating technology. Now mind you, Im not taking the scenery in some Hollywood flick as prophesy of the future, but Star Trek itself was born out of the idea of showing the full potential of humanity, and as anyone who has ever watched "How William Shatner Changed the World" knows, it inspired a good number of great minds to reach for that envisioned potential. This... This is mindless distractions and college barfights and dirty dockworkers paying god knows what in taxes to build the most expensive versions of the USS Ronald Reagan ever conceived. 

As Yeats said: "How far away the stars seem."

Im going to bed.