“Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor. (I see the better way, and approve it; I follow the worse.)”

Well, Ovid was, after all, exiled by Augustus to a distant fringe of the Roman Empire for his free thinking. He was a 60s kind of guy - admirable in a way but, in the end, not well tolerated by the moralizers.

Perfect. The American electorate to a T. Americans are indoctrinated with liberalism and the ideas of equality and freedom from birth, and what do they end up supporting more often than not? A bunch of right wing fundamentalist bigots whose every action is to enrich and empower themselves at the expense of the very people who vote for them!

Spoken like a true American!

Deep C. - LOL - Not much has changed in human nature since Ovid's time, has it? -but- I'm not so sure we're ACTUALLY indoctrinated with the ideas (or ideals) you list despite our lip service to the notion that we are. What's clearly absent from our curricula is the teaching of critical (Ovid-like) thinking.

Sometimes I, too, succumb to this common trait.  Why do we do that? ;-)

Archer, in deed — why? From the cat, I resemble that remark ;-) I have to make a conscience effort to not fall in that trap. Of all the life styles I pursue and attempt to be (Christian, liberty, etc.) the social animal seems to eek out an existence here and there.