Societal ignorance, Governmental fascism, and Societal intolerance all go hand-in-hand, and feed off one another. the more fascist a government becomes, the more ignorant the people, the more intolerant the people, the more fascist the government. there's no avoiding it, and there's almost no reversing it. You can see it now in America. people blindly totting bible quotes to say gays have no rights, or that this person is this, and that group is that. Reality TV focusing on all the faults of everyone, entertaining the masses with mindless drivel, all the while the viewers don't realize that they're really just looking in a mirror. a government taking away our freedoms for our safety ("Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin). and the "not my problem..." attitude of America (unless it involves crude oil, then we're the only one who can help "save" the people). When will we wake up? every problem you see is your problem, from the homeless man sitting on the street corner, with the multimillion dollar pent house above, to a war. America hasn't won a war since World War two for a reason, our hearts, minds and spirits aren't in support of it (I'm not advocating war here). Our society has become focused too much on the "Me" (Twitter, blogs, and pod casts are a prime examples, who cares if you just saw someone really hot on the corner, or your favorite way to make this, or fix that?) It is these lethargies that Jefferson was referring to, not the physical laziness, but a mental and social laziness. where "someone else will do it" become the standard answer. well, if everyone is saying this, then who's going to do it? Jefferson was advocating for the people to never forget that there aren't enough bullets to kill them all in a revolution, and there's nothing that a government could effectively do to stop them if the masses decided to move against their government. And then he was warning the government to not forget that fact, and to be willing to hand over power on a regular basis, for the amount of blood (both literal and figurative) that will be spilled shall remain the same over time, it just depends if you want to do it all at once, or a little at a time. He was also promoting the radical change, as a revolution implies a complete reversal of nearly everything a society once stood for. it is time for America to enter the flames, and emerge from the ashes, stronger, and rejuvenated.