America, land of the enslaved.
Experiencing the US Through the Lens of Reverse Culture Shock
We are a nation of fatties. It’s disgusting. It’s not our fault.
A little background. I am a #millenial, having been born and raised in Southern California by gracious adoptive parents. I grew up watching Star Trek The Next Generation, and had instilled within me at a young age, the will and desire to “boldly go where no one has gone before” (at least of the members of my family/community). So… I left the US 9 years ago to pursue higher education and experience the world. I now live in Shanghai, China and have become awoken to the realities affecting my beloved country, only after Bernie Sanders started awakening my whole generation.
I came to the US for a short visit to surprise my Mom for her birthday, but also to help volunteer for the Bernie Sanders campaign (which didn’t happen unforunately, but I got to see him in Carson regardless).
The entire premise and meat of this article was written in a Sam’s Club.
I’ve never had an addictive personality, nor have I ever struggled with abuse of a particular substance or activity. So it was in a moment of profound inner conflict (I was decided if I wanted to buy a box of twinkles), that I had a bit of an epiphany. “Son, you only live once” my Dad said, as he saw me struggle with the decision. At first this seemed like a proper call to arms for the current #Yolo generation. My response was “exactly”, but I wasn’t voicing my agreement.
The one life we are given, should be lived to the fullest. Unfortunately, in America… the middle class, and poor are running endless cirlces around themselves to best medicate, distract, or numb themselves to a listless and meaningless existence based on consumerism and blindness.
A cheerful Indian woman works at a Sam’s club giving out samples. Her future constrained.
Many decades ago, people came to the US to start fresh, and take a stab at the American Dream. That is, to have nothing, work hard, and turn yourself into a “self made man”.
Today’s reality: Students graduating with suffocating student debt and entering the workforce with lower wages for big corporate entities which pigeonhole them into roles where advancement is little more than a myth save for the select few.
We are at the beck and call of our corporate Masters. You see this in the aisles of wal-mart, the drive thru at McDonalds, and on the couches of nearly every American household wherein we waste our lives consuming fantasy on our laptops or televisions.
It’s almost as though everything in America is designed to be oversized, so that we, ourselves, our appetites become oversized. A self perpetuating creation of increased appetite to consume to better support the slim waist lines and fat wallets of the super wealthy. We get fatter, hungrier, consume more, spend more… All on the same shit that enslaves us, rather than frees us to socialize in confidence without the the heavy burden of failing to meet today’s beauty standards. We are heavy, so we stay home and watch tv adding to the numbers for stations to charge advertisers rather than venturing out to scale a mountain for free (or if you are averse to exerting yourself like me… A nap and observance of a sunset on a beach).
But this isn’t a complaint about preferred activities of Americans. This is a narrative on how corporate America has enslaved us all. Capitalism, I am now starting to believe, is morally bankrupt, because it’s primary concern is the hoarding of mammon, and completely takes out human dignity from the equation (if it WAS part of the equation, millionaires would consider where to buy their 4th home, without need to consider millions of children in poverty — because they wouldn’t exist).
So… Americans are fed GMO infused foods, nearly everything is processed. Obesity rates have become an epidemic. Big Pharma treats symptoms rather than curing ailments, so they can cash in on ‘helping them further’. Healthcare is an industry (together with Insurance) as being PROFIT driven (at the expense of people’s lives). The economy is stimulated by war, assisted by war-hawks who owe the military industrial complex for their campaign contributions. Our wages are lower. Our debt is skyrocketing. And mainstream media hold us for ransom by refusing to tell the truth.
What is the result? Only in America, will you have a “bigoted” businessman leading a nationalist front, and a neoliberal corporatist war hawk facing indictment (with a husband who is an alleged rapist), running for President.
Have we become limited? Is it too late to turn back, or must we consign ourselves to a forever existence of sheeple born and bread to consume and spend without regard to our civilization as a whole? MUST we be so shortsighted?
Fighting for a Moral Economy. Fighting for Life.
In the theocracy of Israel, God put a lot of redistribution of wealth into effect. The rich taking care of the poor was not something one did out of love, but was a legal requirement. Did you know that someone who was hungry could walk into an orchard and eat until they were no longer hungry and it was not considered theft? Charging interest was not allowed. Every so many years debts were forgiven and slaves were freed. All this is a form of socialism.
The fact is, when you allow for a society to say “work hard, get what you earn”, it completely leaves out the notion of “if your neighbor has fallen, you should pick them up”. I like the way people have described Social Democracy as “Capitalism with Conscience” .
I believe that Trump and Sanders are a direct reaction behind what America has become. We need to wake up.
