santosha

'such fundamental disdain toward and alienation from government are peculiar American'

This. If you're so unshakably convinced that a government full of people you vote for every four years is never going to work in your interests, you have serious problems.

'I speculate that Rijndael is easier to brute force' On what basis?

These aren't good reasons to not touch crypto, these are good reasons to not cook up your own. Use a standard implementation, and move along.