Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV And you think you're so clever and class less and free But you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see
The U.S. consists mostly of suburban peasants. They may have the hi-tech gadgets, but basically they think (or not) like peasants.
The positive paranoia of peasants normally revolves around the specialness of the farmer who must curry favor with a host of forces --like the weather, locusts, tax collectors, and lthe well being of livestock-- in order to survive.
The positive paranoia of U.S. citizens revolves around their specialness in a country whose imperial character is at best dimly perceived while surviving the shifting tides of labor markets and shrinking social nets.
Because of extreme social isolation and relentless brain-washing, most Americans have absolutely no understanding of history and can only visualize grand forces that involve "God" mixed with some flavor of sentimental and largely meaningless heroism. I think the word empire is meaningless to them. It's just a grand word.