It's been 11 years since the US buried the Soviet Union and declared victory in the Cold War. Don't you think "they" would have gotten around to creating a police state by now? I know the prisons and slums are bad, but they were bad during the Cold War, and don't change the subject. With no Soviet Union, who's holding "them" at bay? The nonexistent left?
A "sinister" police state is more like Germany under Hitler or Russia under Stalin or Chile under Pinochet or the Occupied Territories under Sharon or Iraq under Saddam, exempting the Kurdish area which is protected by the US/UK no-fly zone. Maybe we just need a nice long recession with a dash of terroist atrocity?
Peter