For the last generation, the United States and other capitalist countries have been on a steady trajectory towards despotism. With 9/11 and the resulting return to the Cold War’s atmosphere of perpetual conflict, a change appeared in the prevailing aims of the capitalist governments. Whereas capitalist societies generally assumed they could look forward to an increasingly liberal future after the breakup of the Soviet Union and the easing of war tensions, but what’s happened throughout the 21st century is a shift towards less and less freedom.