What is America? Is it the arbitrary geographic boundary in which the 50 states reside? Or is it something more–a principle? The Founders thought that America was something different than the typical nation state in which a ruler or group of rulers dominated the serfs. America was the principle that a free people would lead the world to prosperity.

For a while, America was free. But increasingly, we have seen our freedoms being stripped away and government ineptness combined with the (wrongly) presumed authority to harm its citizens gaining ground.

The terror attacks in Boston could be just another everyday psychopath and his friend wanting to cause trouble. But it could be something much much worse. After all, what’s more terrifying, knowing someone might want to bomb a public square or having legions of paramilitary style security forces invade your city yelling “if you want to live, turn off your cell phones“?

Former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanual was once caught saying, “You never want to let a crisis go to waste.” Well, his former boss Barack Obama and his predecessor George W. Bush surely didn’t let any crisis go to waste. They’ve overseen the greatest expansion of federal power in the history of the world.

Could the Boston Marathon bombing be the catalyst for the expansion of the police state? This is guaranteed. You can be sure you’re going to be seeing more from the TSA’s blue-gloved dehumanizing searches after this incident. But one should ask a more troubling question: If government grows every time there’s a crisis aren’t they incentivized to create or allow such crises?

A healthy sense of skepticism should accompany everything involving the federal government, especially since there are serious questions about the current crisis that the mainstream media are blacking out.

Don’t be a sucker to the games of Big Brother. Stay vigilant and aware. The whole idea of America relies on it.