I haven't read Infinite Jest yet, but the way you describe it makes me think of Fight Club. So far the only thing I've read by Wallace is his essay “E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction.” I discussed that on the Refractor Blog about a year ago: http://supraterranean.com/blog/2009/02/17/the-s...

But it sounds like he was kind of a big deal, so I'll have to read his other stuff eventually. And I'll definitely watch The Corporation. I'm a total documentary nerd. And yeah, First Amendment rights are taken for granted almost universally. Part of why I emphasized that I hadn't learned about this stuff until grad school was to point out that our education system is not providing the information people need to be active citizens in a functioning democracy. Just keep putting American flags on your cars, people. Tell 'em that “freeduhm ain't free” and it'll all work out!

I also recommend The Corporation by Joel Bakan, which is both a documentary and a book. The book explains how corporations have come to be regarded, by the law, as individuals, and exposes the ramifications of this messed up interpretation.

The First Amendment and those ideals behind it still resonate with me as well. More people need to protect their right to speech instead of parroting demagogues' b.s. I'm sick of hearing people talk about how we should get back to what our “forefathers” had intended when they're willing to give up their rights for security and now, for what? Comfort? A cheaper product? Because they don't even know? Or maybe they don't care as long as they can get the radio version (family friendly, of course) of the next American Idol for cheap.

Thanks again.