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Here are four little words that seem to have lost their meaning: "It's only a movie."

That's what I was thinking while watching the new last-innocent-man-against-criminals-in-government action movie, the "Bourne Ultimatum."

Now I don't want to spoil it for anyone but, well, it's only a movie.

This is important, because throughout this rousing piece of cinema I heard the anxious whispers of viewers attesting to the veracity of this or that amazing feat of government ability.

For example, key to "Ultimatum's" plot is the idea that our hero faces sinister government agents who can, at will, lock onto virtually any human being anywhere in the world, pull his or her cell-phone conversation out of thin air and, within milliseconds, unleash the hounds of death upon the person. Assisting agents in their nefarious efforts are the unlimited powers granted them by the Patriot Act.

Sure.

Not all of us have an insatiable desire for conspiracies, certainly, but enough of us do to generate quasi-news headlines. Franklin Roosevelt knew about Japanese plans for Pearl Harbor and did nothing to prevent them, for example.

An ultra-secret cabal of military men, CEOs, godfathers and Cuban assassins set aside any differences they may have had and collaborated to kill President John Kennedy.

And where would we be today if we didn't have people running about the country proclaiming our government's divine role in Sept. 11, 2001?

Perhaps it's the natural evolution of our thought processes today, demented as they've no doubt become after prolonged television and motion picture viewing, that we're left unable to think critically about what we're watching - whether it's the "Bourne Ultimatum," the "Da Vinci Code" or the evening news, I suppose.

Name a motion picture or television show today that doesn't feature a government operative or two moving satellites - "retasking," as they say in the spy business - from one orbit to another in seconds, to spy on some poor moke seemingly out for a Sunday drive.

Sadly, it appears, many of us readily believe that if it can be done in the movies, it can be done in real life.

Just imagine, please, all that would need to be in place for our government, or any government, to plan and implement a 9/11 scenario - and then keep it quiet. The idea is absurd. Why, we couldn't even keep secret the identity of CIA powerhouse agent Valerie Plame Wilson.

The problem with being unable to distinguish between what government can and cannot do becomes truly problematic when we try to make sense of inadequate levees being pummeled in New Orleans or bridges collapsing in Minnesota.

The notion of an all-powerful super-government may strike fear into our hearts when needed to garner a few votes or create a box-office smash, but it sets us back when we face real crises or mortal enemies. We desperately need to remind ourselves the world isn't a Hollywood soundstage.