ABSTRACT
Cowboys epitomized the original and now romanticized American ideal of the independent, tough, don't-fence-me-in life. They were the heroes of 1950s TV westerns—the predecessors of the tough-cop, tough-FBI, tough-mafioso roles of the more urbanized America that took over. For Americans, maybe it's time to recognize that conservatives and libertarians are not going to cut big government down to size as promised by their rhetoric; the weight of the federal footprint is far too great, and their own power is far too dependent on the very system they ideologically oppose; and populist or liberal sentiment is not going to equitably redistribute wealth, if doing so requires the consent of the wealthy who control the democratic process. The most critical task, for those who want humanity to survive and thrive, is to disengage from our tech thraldom, and shift to a conscious management of our evolution in which people use technology to enhance skills and strengths rather than erode or supplant them.
