If you’ve read any national and world news in the last couple weeks, you have probably thought to yourself, “What the hell is going on?” So far this spring, we have the Tea Party being criticized by Democratic faithful as “seditious” and racist, an Arizona immigration law and hints at federal immigration reform complete with biometric Real ID’s (see the Believe System), two New York (non)terror attacks and proposals by Bloomberg and Lieberman to revoke the right of gun ownership and citizenship for those with suspected ties to terrorists, Iran sanctions, the Gulf oil explosion, the dawn of the global tax, the Greek/European debt crisis, black Thursday on Wall Street, the “fat finger,” the FCC moving forward on net neutrality, the CFTC criminal probe into JP Morgan Chase for silver manipulation, a trillion-plus dollar Euro bailout, financial reform and let’s not forget a nominee to our highest office of national judgment, Elena Kagan, who has literally no judicial record, and intimate ties to Goldman Sachs (yes, it’s still being investigated for fraud). The public sphere has reached capacity. An exasperated Jon Stewart proclaimed last Thursday, “I don’t know what to tell you. The world has exploded…but we can’t do it, man: $#!# is flying everywhere.” It is healthy, in times like these, for the public to critically equip. Naomi Klein writes in Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism that corporate control is achieved through massive collective shocks which disorient the public. As Milton Friedman of the Chicago School explains, “Only a crisis, actual or perceived produces real change.” John Brown welcomes comments at [email protected].