There are so many ways to look at the situation and describe what is wrong.  There is the 1984 scenario, in which a corrupt government has programmed the people into mindless sheep.  There is the Atlas Shrugged  scenario, in which the looters are permitted to bring down the country, because the producers simply disappear.
The left loves to talk about how Orwellian our current situation is, but they hate Ayn Rand because she doesn't hesitate to call them and their ideas about business and what business should do evil.  They reject that they too could be the problem instead of the solution.
I constantly try to check myself to make sure that I'm not following some misquided path.  Sometimes it takes a while to see the error of an idea, mainly because the real truth is hard to find through all the static.
Matrix, Equilibrium and the 13th floor are also good movies for questioning reality.
Several years ago, when I had more leftists as friends than I do now, they'd constantly come up with the wildest concepts I've ever heard (at that time).  One of them married a man who had some degenerative eye disorder, and he'd eventually go blind.  It was her opinion that he had a right to free medical care, because it wasn't his fault that his eyes were going bad.  At that time, I had just been introduced to the concept of natural rights as an adult (these are items that are mentioned to you in school, but that you promptly ignore in favor of trying to get the attention of the early developer in the class), but hadn't yet discerned the idea of "rights" that come to people living in a civil society, aka civil rights.  No leftist has ever explained to me that they believe that free medical care is or should be a civil right.  It was something I had to figure out for myself, because they can't explain their beliefs worth crap.  I'd constantly hear "That's just my opinion", which would make me see red.  Why would you think so little of your beliefs that you'd belittle them by calling them ONLY an opinion?
IMO, if the majority of people were introduced to the simple classes of "producer", "moocher" and "looter", it'd go a long way towards solving a lot of problems in this country.  People aren't accustomed to seeing a need and then working to fill it.  Plenty of people see a need, but then they wait for somebody else to fill it.  However, as mentioned above, those who believe society should do certain things for the people living in the society will reject with a quickness the idea that somebody who isn't producing is possibly mooching.  People do not like it one bit when you call them a looter or a moocher.