You guys really hit Steemit with the heavy stuff. A lot of things a minnow would never dream of saying.
The only thing i disagree with is your portrayal of "government as a sentient entity" trying to brainwash us. Its not the government brainwashing us, its the pop culture. Government is just extremely adaptive and acting in order to sustain itself and survive taking advantage of the external effects on the individual.
How does the populace act and how can we in power take advantage of that.
Imo, media and various mainstream ideologies are more to blame then the government.
As i said, the government is just acting opportunisticaly exploiting the circumstances as it always did. During the roman times, fascism, communism, capitalism, etc. Made no difference.