A large part of industrialised western society has already fallen into a state of passive hedonism, it's nothing else but habitual self-gratification for many outside their work and other obligations. Despite the NSA's clumsy attempts to imitate Big Brother, I think that the fall of the Soviet Union and the recent uprisings in the (less economically) developed world have shown that the easiest way to placate the people is to keep their heads in the feeding trough and ensure that they have no reason to bite the almighty hand that feeds them. Letting the people keep their pleasures roll around themselves in the mud is much more efficient (and cheaper) than having a dedicated government body controlling the people. When we are pouring all our rage into consoles and celebrities and when we blow relatively straightforward trials out of proportion while conveniently ignoring the US/UK axis of information hijacking, you know something's off. I think that governments much prefer it when we are the ones that oppress ourselves.