Reddit reviews The Age of Acquiescence: The Life and Death of American Resistance to Organized Wealth and Power

Our constitutional right to assembly means nothing if people don't use it. And they don't.

There are entire books devoted to the subject of why, but you don't really need a book to tell you why: the system is set up to keep Americans complacent.

Give them cheap entertainment and they'll stay at home. Crush the labor movement and workers won't have the power to shut down factories to protest. Ensure that the social welfare network is flimsy and self-perpetuating, and then everyone will be afraid of landing in it. Find other reasons to arrest protesters when you can't violate their 1st amendment rights. Convince school-aged children that our government is the greatest in the world, that patriotism is one of the highest virtues, and that the proper way to effect change is through the democratic process. Create an enemy out of an ideology (e.g. socialism), so that you can paint anyone aligned with that ideology who foments dissent as an enemy.

The entire system is set up, intentionally or not, to keep the masses passive.

The problem isn't just your father, but how many people believe they will be your father and how many people are unwilling to protect themselves from your father.

As a son of a family which also has private banking and used to do organizing, I can safely state that the American working class will fail, and will collapse and perish when we are both old.

I would read this book, for peace of mind. http://www.amazon.com/The-Age-Acquiescence-Resistance-Organized/dp/0316185434

The author, a historian, says we have nearly nothing in common with the population that built america in the first place... It's almost pleasurable reading how awful Americans are today