David Brin has made the point that lots of the Mass Media consumed in the US carries the propaganda messages of Suspicion Of Authority and Toler Ance ([z2002-10-15-Brin Libertarian]). This theme is so prevalent, and so obvious, that even though you can probably see where I am going with this - and hate the inevitable conclusion - you aren't going to dispute the core fact. You have to sit there and accept one of the most galling things that a bunch of dedicated individualists can ever realize - that you were trained to be individualists by the most relentless campaign of public indoctrination in history, suckling your love of rebellion and eccentricity from a society that - evidently, at some level - wants you to be that way! But another theory is that this is more of a release valve, like the princes in Saudi Arabia giving money to the Extrem Ist Is Lam schools to try and buy some peace...