coercion unhinged (avner) offer, a transplanted israeli who came to oxford after serving as a soldier in the 1967 war, said that the effectiveness of an ideology is measured by the amount of coercion it takes to keep a ruling elite in power. reality, when it does not conform to the reigning ideology, he said, has to be 'forcibly aligned.' the amount of coercion needed to make society adhere to the model is a 'a rough measure of the model's validity.' 'that the soviet union had to use so much coercion undermined the credibility of communism as a model of reality,' he said. 'it is perhaps symptomatic that the USA, a society that elevates freedom to the highest position among its values, is also the one that has one of very largest penal systems in the world relative to its population. it also inflicts violence all over the world. it tolerates a great deal of gun violence, and a health service that excludes large numbers of people.' as larger and larger segments of society are forced because of the declining economies to become outsiders, the use of coercion, under our current model, will probably become more widespread.' - chris hedges 171208 ... xx is usually from evil 211122 what's it to you? who go blather from