Patriotism in Unites States is wrong. It is blind devotion to the state. If the government is worshiped and its actions go unquestioned then the patriotic become puppets of the government. This blind devotion to the state occurred during the National Socialist movement in Germany.

What one should love is "freedom" or "liberty" and not a government. The United States government was created in order to provide liberty to its inhabitants. It is just a tool and a means to have and maintain liberty. If it does not fulfill these ends then it does not deserve our love. This is of course stated in "The Declaration of Independence" when it says that Governments are created by us in order to maintain the God-given rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. And if any Government does not provide these things for all its citizens, it is the Right of the citizens to remove it and install a new government.

Excerpt from The Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The rich just kept on getting richer. The poor were getting poorer. With poverty, comes crime. In order to counter-act increased crime, our liberties were taken away. When it came that poverty reached even me, I had no means to combat the tyranny that was keeping me in such low means. I was desperate to feed my family and to feed myself. I would have done anything. But with the constant eye of the cameras and with no weapons to speak of, my fate was sealed. Everything was regulated. Everything was owned by the wealthy. We could not even sell ourselves into servitude. With the efficiency and machinery of today, human power is not needed to the extent that it was in our ancestor's days. We were obsolete.

It is not possible to set out to make a positive difference in this world. This is for the simple fact: you have no idea what effect your actions will have.

You have no idea whether your action will result in something that ultimately ends up being positive or negative. You also have no idea what making a positive difference really means. You may think you know, but "a positive difference" is a very relative term.

Plus, you can guarantee yourself being completely wrong by having a strong conviction in your belief that what you are doing is making a positive difference. It is irrational to unwaveringly believe in something that you cannot possibly know the outcome of. Humans are fallable, and any idea or interpretation that they think of has a chance of being completely wrong. You have to accept that fact and thus you cannot have an unwavering conviction that what you are doing will make a possitive difference.

Thus, in summation, it is not possible to set out to make a positive difference in this world.

This is the seed of an idea. It is very rough at this point but it is a good thought. It needs to be explored.
-----
You get robbed. What are you supposed to do?
You are supposed to call the police.
A financial deal goes sour. What are you supposed to do?
Get a lawyer and sue.
You are hungry. What are you supposed to do?
Go to the store and buy something that a farmer grew and a manufacturer assembled and cooked.
You are young and ignorant. What are you supposed to do?
Go to school and get lectured to about material that was decided upon for you.
You have no food or shelter. What are you supposed to do?
Get a job to earn money to hire other workers to produce food and build a shelter.

We are living by proxy. We are living indirectly. What happened to just plain straight-forward living? What happened to defending ourselves? What happened to standing up for our own rights? What happened to going out and seeking knowledge first-hand? What happened to doing something, anything, directly?

We have become weak and ineffective. We don't do anything anymore. If you die actually doing something, so what? At least you actually "lived". A tiger wants food. It goes and kills and rips the flesh off of the bone with its teeth. It wants to sleep, it finds a covering and sleeps under it.

-----
Do not be fooled by the rich elite who tell you that we live better than anyone else on earth. You are their penned up herd of cattle which they feed upon when hungry.

Why are humans so physically lacking in strength and deficient in natural "tools"? Other animals have sharp claws, sharp teeth, powerful limbs, specialized tools such as trunks, etc. Why does man lack all of this? Man is pretty feeble. It is difficult for a man to kill another man without using specialized tools. It can be done, but it is difficult.

When primitive man got into a fight with another primitive man, they tried to beat each other to death. This made each tired. And without any natural weapons or natural armor, both got superficially bruised and fell down and eventually got up and walked away. If they had razor sharp claws, they would have killed each other. We are no doubt an aggressive species and we will fight one another. If not for our feebleness, perhaps we would have killed each other off early on in the history of our species.

Microsoft is an "unstoppable" mega-corporation. Any legitimate competition is crushed by the might of Microsoft. Try to develop a for-profit operating system to compete with Windows and you'll get crushed. Try and develop a for-profit word-processor to compete with Word and you'll get crushed. Microsoft has reached the top of the food chain.

Legitimate for-profit companies cannot compete against Microsoft. Due to this fact, "free" software, such as Linux and Open-Office, has bubbled to the surface as the only possible contender in the evolutionary struggle against Microsoft. Providing "free" software is the only way to possibly compete against Microsoft. There would not have been a need for "free" software if Microsoft had not crushed all possible means of fair competition.

This lack of competition also hurts Microsoft because: a competitor, in general, only needs to be better than his next closest rival. If there are no close competitors then Microsoft does not need to improve. If it does not improve it will stagnate, whither, and die. It will be overrun by the weeds of small "free" software projects just waiting to get out from underneath the shadow of the mighty giant Microsoft.

Perform actions without desiring the fruit of their outcome (their perceived beneficial results). This is how you get into "the zone". You are in the moment; you are in the act itself. You don't think of the outcome, you think of only what you are doing. The outside world and anything else that is not exactly what you are doing is cast out from your thoughts. It provides you with the patience to correctly perform and complete your task.

If interested in improving your life, I recommend attaining knowledge in the practical advice of Buddhism and Hinduism.

One needs to develop a large base of general knowledge in order to know what's what in the world. Then what? Through the teachings of Buddhism and Hinduism you can then direct your life towards the attainment of "Enlightenment" and the release from suffering.

As someone that "suffered" a lot early on, I can attest to the benefit of a large base of general knowledge along with what I have learned from Buddhism and Hinduism to steer me away from sorrow and despair to a better place.

General knowledge alone will not do it all since you will learn about all the suffering that the world has to offer. You need the mental guidance that is provided through the practical teachings Buddhism and Hinduism.