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to develop a “deepening of the sense of social solidarity and quickening of appreciation of our common interests,” both of which are “indispensable to the realization of any program of social reform.”49 “Only by a change of attitude and change of heart on the part of the whole people can we hope to curb our rampant individualism and achieve those common ends which we all admit to be desirable but which are only attainable through our united efforts. As soon as we begin to think of government as something more than an agency for maintaining order,—as organized machinery for advancing our common interests,—we appreciate how far we still are from being a truly civilized society.”50 Hence there must be a counterrevolution in which the psychology of the American people and the nature of their government are radically transformed.

Again and again, Seager targeted what he considered the greatest obstacle to “social reform”—individualism. “The gospel of love has as yet influenced very little our views on public questions. In business and in politics we are still individualists. We habitually put our individual before our common interests, and even when we are conscious of common needs we hesitate to intrust them to our common government. To correct these national characteristics is … the most important next step in social advance. And as we correct them, as our sense of social solidarity is deepened, and our appreciation of our common interests quickened, measures of reform will seem obvious and easy that now seem visionary and impracticable.”51 “Let us not be frightened by phrases, by the bugaboo of ‘destroying local self-government,’ … of ‘undermining individual thrift,’ or of ‘socialism.’ This is the truly scientific attitude toward a field of phenomena where all is change and development.”52 Seager makes no effort to conceal his attack on the nature and spirit of the individual. Importantly, Seager’s views were influential on President Franklin Roosevelt and his brain trust.

In her book Dependent on D.C., Professor Charlotte A. Twight explained how Social Security was decisive in promoting the psychological and political transformation of the nation. She wrote, “Contrary to conventional wisdom, the public did not desire the compulsory old-age ‘insurance’ program that we call Social Security.… It was passed [in 1935] and later expanded despite initial public opposition and strongly prevailing ideologies of self-reliance. Social Security’s history unfolded as a montage of political transaction-cost manipulation that included governmental use of insurance imagery, incrementalism, cost concealment, information control and censorship, suppression of rival programs, and a myth of actuarial balance. Its primary targets were the program’s congressional opponents and, especially, the voting public. In the end, these strategies moved Social Security from being regarded as a dangerous socialistic invasion of American life to an almost sacrosanct institution.”53 In fact, “as late as 1934, five years into the Depression, ‘a bill had not yet been introduced into Congress for compulsory old-age insurance’ because ‘there were simply no significant demands for such a program.’ Even after the administration’s proposal was introduced, ‘no groundswell developed in support of social insurance programs because they did not affect the major problems of relieving the victims of the depression.’ Depression conditions did stimulate public sentiment favoring needs-based (that is, means-tested) public assistance for the aged poor, but President Roosevelt instead sought a broader ‘contributory’ program of compulsory old-age insurance. When a widely supported bill to provide needs-based public assistance for the elderly neared passage in 1934, Roosevelt strategically urged its deferral.…”54

It serves the purposes of the utopian masterminds to enlist or ensnare as many people as possible in their cause. The objective is to cut generational ties with the past—society’s traditions, customs, and beliefs—in order to transform and restructure society. The common