The current rhetoric from conservatives about the deficit is used in a precise way. Talk about deficit reduction deflects from a real discussion about the economy, unemployment, and the increase in income inequality. While the emphasis on deficit reduction has been used to blame the economic crisis on the working class and the poor, the reality is that corporations and large banks caused this crisis. The logical conclusion is that income inequality must be addressed first and foremost. Here is a series of graphs illustrating the structural problems that the nation faces.

 
Corporations are taking more and more risks in terms of finding resources and financial speculation. This risk taking illustrates the relationship between limited resources and the need for economic growth. Here is a great talk on the subject of economic risk and its association with the pursuit of growth, and how neither is sustainable for the long-term.

 
Before the development of cities and dense urban areas in the formation of civilization, the more decentralized mode of tribal societies fostered a greater desire for freedom. In tribal societies it was harder for hierarchies to form, and this social structure stimulated specific genetic personality traits that expressed autonomy and resistance to dominant authority. When centralized urban areas were created, and political hierarchies could easily develop, the selection for genetic traits changed and a toleration for dominance emerged.

 
The process of emancipation is where an individual becomes independent from a structure, group, or other individuals and able to engage in self-determination. For a few centuries, it was supposed that education can be one of the best methods to develop emancipation. But education as it has been practiced implies that the teacher will have more information than the student, thus inadvertently reproducing dependent and unequal relationships. Jacques Ranciere has proposed that a new form of education and emancipation must begin with an initial assumption of equality, and that any method must verify that equality rather than make unequal individuals equal. Starting with equality can insure that no new dependent relationships are formed, and that new subjective identities can arise.

 
The existence of power in non-state societies is quite different from the type of power expressed in states. In modern states, power is arranged in a hierarchy where coercion is exercised by one group on another. In non-state societies, power is equally distributed through ceremonial roles and duties. These roles and duties are maintained by unequal exchanges that form long-term social relationships. There is no permanent concentration of power that would cause the society to become a state.