My Country ’Tis of Thee
How the United States Has Lost Its Way
It saddens me to type the words in the title above, but they need to be said.
As I look through the front pages of the Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, Huffington Post, Wall Street Journal and other well-known media sources, the stories are more of the same: Trump and more of what Trump is doing now, in-fighting for Congressional seats and the wars in the Middle East.
The biggest story of the month, year decade and century is one absent from these headlines, though. It’s the headline that the United States as we as citizens have known it, is on the verge of collapse. For those of you reading this, you fall into one of two states of mind: either you know exactly what I’m talking about and you really don’t even need to read the rest of this article except to have confirmed what you’re already thinking, or you have no idea what I’m talking about.
I’m writing this article for unknown reasons, but perhaps just to say what I’ve been afraid to say out loud over the last months, years: that this country, in its current version of itself, is on the precipice of ending. And at this point, I’m not sure if it’s positive or negative, but I do know that eight to 10 years from now, the United States will be a very different place.
Survival of the Richest
The election of Donald Trump as president has accelerated our approach to an inevitability that may have been delayed by a Hilary Clinton presidency or perhaps not. Trump has given voice to how many Americans today think and feel about the country and world. He represents Americans who no longer believe in a greater good, the ideal of democracy or that we are stronger as people, states and a nation when we feel connected to each other — when we help out our black, white, gay, Muslim, Jewish, transgendered neighbors because it benefits us all AND is the right thing to do. He represents those who don’t believe in e pluribus unum and frankly don’t give a shit if they ever know what it means.
The Bernie Madoff, Donald Trump generation/mentality has rejected the notion that from the many we form one powerful one, these great states united, in favor of fast money, temporary fame and power at literally any cost.
People are killing themselves in the streets with guns and heroin? Ignore it. No basic education for the masses? Who cares, not my problem. Homelessness on the rise? Let them take care of their own. It’s not our responsibility, say the Madoff/Trump ruling class. What’s scary is that this isolationist viewpoint that is one part privilege and one part paranoia has been adopted by many working and middle class Americans as well.
An American Dream
If you’re a reader of history, you know this country has never been perfect. It’s always been flawed and a work in progress with its democracy tenuously balanced and led by politicians who have at times been despots, dictators and the most corrupt of the corrupt. Our shared U.S. history is marred by genocide, slavery, racism, sexism, colonialism, hypocrisy and other bad things.
But somehow over the years, a lot of people who came to this country and who were born here have maintained a belief in a greater good, in what America can, on its best days, be — a place for everyone, a place to start over, a place for the tired and poor, a place for the down trodden and those seeking refuge, a place where great ideas are born and freedom just maybe is real. A beautiful home.
And certainly some of us Americans still hold these beliefs, but for the first time that I can recall in my 43 years, it feels like we are in the minority. A darkly Darwinian outlook has taken over our national identity and we seem to be evolving into a country obsessed with money, conflict and violence instead of one focused on individual freedom, egalitarianism and a high quality of life. Love thy neighbor has been replaced with fear thy neighbor. Suspicion reigns supreme.
Broken Mirror
The election of Trump certainly reflects this country’s measurable problems. The U.S. economy is one driven on speculation and the global import/export of goods and services, where low cost is the main driver of almost any decision made in business and, as a result, government. An economic system, capitalism, has taken the place of democracy, a form of government, with disastrous results.
We see it in the laws drafted by oil companies and big agriculture, in Congress’ inability to pass any legislation to help the common man/woman, the gerrymandering of black voting districts and the $3.15 billion that poured into our politicians pockets’ from lobbyists (also known as bribers) in 2016 alone.
In recent years, the health of U.S. citizens has gotten collectively worse, not better (except for the wealthy). Public education has gone down hill dramatically (except for the wealthy), as has the average IQ of Western nations. The diversity and quality of our food supply has decreased significantly (unless you can afford organic and local). There are fewer jobs for the middle class, working class and poor. Fewer young people can afford going to college or homes. We have record numbers of seniors citizens living on the street, a decreasing life expectancy and the highest childhood poverty rate in the “developed world.”
At the same time, our government continues to fight wars on foreign soil with astronomical monetary costs and untold human ones. Business, media and politics have become so intertwined that the average U.S. citizen really has no idea what is happening within our government or what actions it’s taking abroad. The Washington Post publishes op-eds by Raytheon lobbyists posing as opinion pieces and Fox News tells us that the majority of Americans think mainstream media is full of fake news based on a 2,000 person poll. No wonder we are confused.
Who can be the truth tellers? Does anyone care about more than money, power and personal comfort?
We, the Worried
Where this vacuum of truth exists, we are being encouraged to distrust each other, to believe that all news is fake, “they” are out to get us and that everything is relative. It’s a bad place for us to be in as a country for obvious reasons, and many of us don’t see a clear path to a resolution or solution on the horizon.
Instead, we are all worried about an apocalyptic end to America. There’s a reason why guns sales are up and our most popular television series and movies are about a coming apocalypse. In case you think I’m overreacting, take a look at your local movies listings and let me know how many of the movies are about the future, politics and war and apocalypse. Not convinced? Check your Netflix playlist and cue.
We‘re worried. What happens when the heroin epidemic gets even worse and the neighborhood is no longer safe? Where will we go when we can’t pay our mortgage? How many more jobs can I work to ensure my family is fed? Is there a class or race war coming? Are the Evangelical Christians taking over? Will the socialists and anarchists take over? Will I be able to afford to go to the doctor next year? Can I ever retire? Is our country going to war against North Korea? Will ISIS blow up my city? Are my kids getting the kind of education that I got or is it worse? Is it safe for my baby to go to school today? When will the police come? Am I going to be deported? Will life ever get better?
Meanwhile, the wealthy ruling class is building bunkers to prepare for the coming end of the world as we know it. The anxiety over the future is permeating all social strata and the fear is real. It is causing us to lose sleep, consider colonizing Mars and to seek alternatives to modern medicine, among other things.
Through the Looking Glass
If you’re looking for a pep talk, you may be disappointed. I don’t know if all of these bad or other or worse things might happen. None of us does, yet we are mentally (or literally) preparing for the worst.
Our collective anxiety about the state of the nation and world is routed in a questionable future reality made more complicated by the increased use of automation, drones, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Technology has grown exponentially in the last 10 to 15 years and presents humanity with ethical questions that even the age’s best thinkers can’t necessarily answer.
My mom is 80 and grew up during World War II on rations, war news at the movies and margarine. She offers some good perspective on the current state of the nation and world. She admits that she has a lot of the same worries that I have and that many of you have about where our country is headed, no matter whether you consider yourself a D, an R or an I.
What’s great is that Mom thinks America will be okay. She says the uncertainty and threat of war does remind her of WWII and that Trump scares her. She has faith, though, in the power of the idea of democracy and thinks kindness is stronger than Trump, anarchists, doomsday preppers, white supremacists or corruption. Sure, things may get dark for a while — quite a bit darker than they are now—but in the end, she says reason and right will prevail and we will be okay.
I hope she is right.
