Roger Waters Live Last Night in Glendale,AZ

Yet, americans are going about their lives as if nothing is going on, as the media and the politics are not letting them know how desperate things are.

What makes you say that?  I talk to my fellow Americans (of all political persuasions) and I can tell you from my experience that there exists a good bit of angst at, first and foremost, the nature of politics in our own country. The "current affairs" interest right now is American/micro-, not globally/macro-.   That said, if you think Americans are simply..... oblivious..... to world affairs because we're not out marching the streets (which is what I get out of your commentary) then you are sadly mistaken and would serve yourself well by re-evaluating your opinion of us.

I would start by taking a close look at some of that media you're using to "inform" your opinions.  I agree with the comment above re: the wholesale dismissal of the "mainstream media".  It's not hard - for anyone devoted to the practice of critical thinking - to siphon off the left or right editorializing from any solid, long-standing American media outlet (NYT, WaPo, WSJ).  Contrary to what you might believe - and it certainly comes off this way - by and large we're not stupid.  However, I will agree that there are a WHOLE lot of people bumbling around the good, old USA who I sorely wish didn't have voting cards, but I digress.  In my experience with "alternative" media sources, I have reached the well-informed (and well-educated) conclusion that they are hardly the sources to use to honestly and objectively inform one's opinion.  They are replete, often chapter and verse, with partisan distortions, half-truths, outright lies, and a burgeoning affinity for simply re-defining words to fit whatever narrative is being pushed.  Language isn't new, and words mean things.  They have for a long time, and personally, I see little value in spending time on outlets who subscribe to "alternative facts" under the guise of being a "real" or "honest" alternative to the "mainstream media".  That's synonymous (to me, any way) with a "parallel universe", where up is down and back is white.  When a "media source" feels compelled to play that card in their struggle to control the narrative (or create one out of whole cloth)...they've lost me.

I think you're hyperventilating a little bit.  Breathe. 

@hartf36

"However, I will agree that there are a WHOLE lot of people bumbling around the good, old USA who I sorely wish didn’t have voting cards, but I digress."

It’s been said that Democracy only works as well as the mean sanity level of a society. If you take a sample group of the "most tethered to reality" and offset that with an equal number of misfits, it’s the rest of us that need to have our act(s) together. This group is circling the drain at present and pretty close to the event horizon where there’s not sufficient numbers to push back against the forces of the Weapons of Mass Division, and misinformation.

Rigid partisanship is a factor here. And, I believe we can establish a scale where the more rigid the partisanships, the less willingness there is to seek the truth. Add to this the element of "risk tolerance", and you have air-tight bubbles where the only information that makes it past the "toll gate" is a digital bitstream of misinformation plugged directly into our brains to confirm our biases.  We're no longer concerned with "protecting Democracy".  We're only concerned with protecting the party.

"Free speech" is more "free" to some than for others. Wealth and celebrity has it’s privileges.

@teo_audio It appears you’re quite passionate about your ideas. My "hot button" is the fragility of our common links and connections, and distain for those who benefit from intentionally breaking them. "Division pays dividends".

I’m glad this thread is still active. I’ve learned a lot from you guys.

@hartf36 + 1

@teo_audio 

"Yet, americans are going about their lives as if nothing is going on, as the media and the politics are not letting them know how desperate things are."

Quite true. Thanks for that well thought out post.

However, there might come a point where the political actors can no longer distract their audience from the fact that the theatre is on fire.

What particularly bothers me is the seemingly irreversible increase in the national debt of countries such as the UK and the US.

At some point the interest repayments threaten to become unmanageable.

What happens then?

The old plan of invading other countries is becoming very difficult to sell these days.

As for the dangerous situation in Ukraine, it's disheartening to see that the western governments seem to have no interest in any attempts to broker peace.

Nor in the welfare of their own people.

Even during the darkest days of the Cuban missile crisis Kruschev and Kennedy managed to maintain a line of communication that eventually saved the world.

The situation here in the UK is now approaching critical as this weeks events illustrated.

We need more people of Waters' calibre inviting debate, not less.

Entertainers these days are no longer obliged to perform as the band on the Titanic once had to.

Saw "The Wall" in Phoenix with my son in 2012 - was it really that long ago?  I do not recall it being saturated with his world views.  Enjoyed it enough to see him again in 2017 because my wife had not gone in 2012.  Found an email to a friend about his 2017 concert in Phoenix.  Said I wouldn't go to another concert of his for the same reasons as you, so at least he's consistent.  Your comments confirm my decision to vote with my pocketbook this time when I chose not to go.   On the other hand, I have driven to LA and made it a long weekend to see David Gilmour....