February 10 New Symposium: A Revolution to Decentralize?

          Over the past few years, state governments and local communities have pushed back against federal laws and regulations in numerous areas, including: marijuana production and consumption; health insurance coverage; assisted suicide, immigration; minimum wage; energy mandates (wind and ethanol); grazing rights; and a myriad of work-place/business regulations.  Is this unease a symptom of more abstract forces, a “cooling” of our loyalty to or affection for the nation as the political and economic powers become more internationalized/globalized?  If so, what are the psychological and sociological forces at work in that cooling?  And what does the future hold? Will “the people,” the am-ha-arez, take/be given more control over their personal lives and “sins,” as long as the globalists are making money?  Are the "Hunger Games”our future? Is ethnocentric retreat (many small, unofficial “nations” of people who receive our greater loyalties) increasing?  Though federal laws proscribe discrimination on many bases, are peoples’ prejudices and social-psychological separations growing?