The one thing that can save America

The one thing that can save America
One thing I see is that people have a sense of inevitability, of fatality, of the decline – they see our success as a flash of luck; as a brilliant flowering that must wilt, as a ‘good run’ that must come to an end. The only thing that can change America is to change that attitude. But with the inherent complacency in the American mentality, can such a fundamental change take place? Complacency, fatalism, the comfort of mediocrity, the acceptance of corruption – these are the forces that are tearing America apart from the inside out. For years America’s power has all been about bluster and bluff – we haven’t won a war since WWII. Our position as protectors of democracy has been revealed to be a sham; monetary concerns are the only reason for our political interactions. And somehow Americans close their eyes and pretend it has nothing to do with them. The foundations our country was built on have completely crumbled – the freedom to pursue happiness, the right to self-determination, freedom of thought, of the press, of religion, of privacy, truth, justice – all these principles have been hacked away at by cynicism, passivity, mob mentality. Freedom has been perverted to include criminality, lack of integrity and lack of guiding principles. Bullying has become an acceptable form of social interaction. People only seem interested in finding out if you are ‘one of us’ and beyond that have no interest in getting to know you. There is also a misuse of spiritual principles, which among other fallacies, allows the victim to be accused instead of the perpetrator. And now funds are being cut from education in favour of the military. Doesn’t anyone remember the phrase ‘the pen is mightier than the sword’? An uneducated population is one that doesn’t question, doesn’t make waves, doesn’t imagine freedom. It is always in the position of servitude and has no means for self-betterment. Is this what we want for our children? We’ve come to expect high prices and lack of quality from American products; i.e. we buy German and Japanese cars instead of American. Ours is a throw-away economy fuelled by bluster, hype, intimidation, the elevation of the common over the sophisticated. The lowest quality and style clothes are mass produced and adopted as fashion. Why are we paying hundreds of dollars for a pair of jeans – originally dung shoveler’s garb – with a designer label? It’s as if those who couldn’t afford real quality have taken over and established their own standard as desirable. A tactic, by the way, which is common amongst ghetto cultures. Business’ concern is merely profit and the sacrifice is always placed upon the consumer’s shoulders. But who’s criticizing? Americans have long embraced their throw-away culture. In Europe Americans and American businesses have the reputation of being dishonest. A job seeker here will be bombarded by scams, false representations and misleading advertisements, and Americans accept this as par for the course. Therein lies the problem. Of course an economy based on profit instead of quality is going to crumble, of course an economy based on lies is going to crumble – what else could possibly happen? The dollar is low, the coinage feels chintzy in comparison to that of Europe or the UK. Corruption is status quo. Bullying, brutality, vulgarity are commonplace behaviour; Americans will do anything to prove how disgusting they are. And everyone laughs. And even though, yes, we are all subject to biological imperatives, some of us are capable of and want more, don’t find it entertaining or satisfying to function strictly on that level. And especially now with technology so advanced, wouldn’t it be a good time to lift us above our basest impulses instead of feeding them and de-evolving into our animal state? Has everyone completely given up on humanity? We can all be reduced to blood and guts; is this to say every other state is impure? Is ugliness more ‘real’ than beauty? Is suffering more ‘real’ than joy? Is vulgarity more ‘real’ than sophistication? Perhaps more rare, but no less real. Look at nature! It is exploding with variety! No two blades of grass are the same, no two snowflakes, no two roses. We’re so lucky to be on this earth with its effusiveness of life and beauty! How could anyone expect that people, one of the most complex organisms, could ever be the same? Would we think it sane to destroy all varieties of flower except the daisy? We the people. But who are ‘people’ – aren’t we all people? Is an opera singer less of a person than a construction worker? Aren’t we all part of this vast organism? If you destroy the individual contribution each of us is capable of making to the world you destroy the essence and purpose of life. Does it make it ‘fair’ if a person who has a unique ability or viewpoint never has the chance to express it because someone else might feel slighted or the status quo might be threatened? Haven’t we instead robbed the world of a valuable asset? Even communism started with an ideal, what is happening now is merely about degradation, it is motivated by hate, spite, envy, resentment. Who is this self-elected coalition of disrespectful, unimaginative, uninspired, joyless beings who have proclaimed themselves to be the tastemakers in America? In the UK the public libraries’ computers are on ‘the people’s network’, here we define ourselves as ‘the people’ – doesn’t anyone remember the People’s Republic of China? The USSR? Aren’t we forgetting that this was communism, that great evil beast we all so adamantly opposed? Maybe we should just put a hammer and sickle on our flag and start calling each other comrade. Because it looks to me like we lost WWII. Remember how awful communist art was? How oppressive the demands of the ruling party? How we all thought it was so inhuman that the ‘intellectuals’ were prevented from expressing their unique and obviously provocative ideas and sent off to work camps to ‘learn the value of labor’? As if it were character building. As if writing a book or composing music isn’t work. As if understanding of life comes from depriving someone of their passions, beliefs, life’s work and goals. As if truth comes from suffering. It was the West that raised the alarm against this. Now this undeveloped, self-righteous, unoriginal group who have no concept of beauty, who can’t imagine anything beyond ‘reality’, who have no real contribution to make to culture and so tear down and degrade what others create is us. This is our version of the Bolshevik revolution – a quieter, less dramatic revolution but equally destructive. And what will be left after? Everywhere beauty is violated, violence is glamorized, criminality is admired, and once someone prospers he becomes ‘an enemy of the people’, as if success makes someone less of a person. And those who grew up with privilege are discriminated against and pressured to make them experience the suffering and struggling of those who were not so fortunate – as if this would make them ‘equal’ or ‘the same’. In fact, the person with a talent who cannot use that talent is not the same as the person without the talent to begin with. And never will be. In fact, the most important task of society is to encourage the fulfilment of the positive potential of every human being so that they can make a constructive contribution to the world; it is not merely to control, placate, or oppress them. America is in decline because the mentality is that of resentment and spite; it is a mentality of poverty – not merely people who have no money, but people who feel poor, who feel they have nothing to offer and therefore resent those who do. It is a person who nourishes himself on the feeling of poverty, revels in the hardship of others and in glorifying his own limitation seeks to impose them on others. It is people who drag each other down. If America is to survive and recoup it will have to be open to what is extraordinary, it will have to develop its talents and teach its people to think for themselves. It will have to return to the principles on which it was built. Develop the capacity for creative thinking, see beyond their own immediate gratification to the larger good, see beyond their own petty likes and dislikes to what has inherent value. Be a little less egotistical and a little more compassionate. Now that we are no longer confined to a system of class we should create a system that develops and recognizes human potential and dignity. We should not merely enslave people based on economic need – the economy would be in better shape if the people were working jobs for which they have competence instead of being enslaved by desperation. Incompetence doesn’t lead to prosperity. It’s a waste of brainpower, for example, to have a highly educated doctor of philosophy waiting tables. Levelling the playing field – equalization as they call it in Germany – does not make anything fair. The mechanism of commiseration, of the satisfaction people take in suffering and struggling together, the militant demand that everyone should suffer and struggle together. This is a kind of evil. America’s heyday came through innovation, intelligent expression, ideals, the revolt against unfairness and lack of opportunity. It opened its arms to those who were being persecuted for their beliefs and given the freedom these people made great contributions to society. Cynicism, mockery, negativity now pervade. In a true democracy everyone does the work he is inherently meant to do, and is respected for it – everyone is equally necessary and special. To achieve this, each person would have to assume responsibility of developing his true potential; conformity and it accompanying social and personal pressures would have to abate. Our assumption that we have the right to ‘make friends and influence people’ – make friends BY influencing people – would have to change. It’s not really someone’s right to limit or define another person – rather it is our collective responsibility to encourage and support each other, not merely satisfy our own egos. People who find their vindication in the tragedy and suffering of others, and their own satisfaction in a fatalistic sense that negative outcomes are inevitable and that happiness is unachievable or that success is a pipedream, cannot participate in a successful enterprise. Maybe it’s time for ‘the people’ to take a step back and consider the long-term effect of their demands on the rest of humanity. It looks now like nothing more than a self-exalted lynch mob. We’ve come to expect and accept the worst of ourselves – spite, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, vengeance, infidelity, cheating, corruption, theft are all acceptable and rationalizable despite their destructiveness. We call this being human. We’ve forgotten that it’s also human to be self-critical, to make considered choices, to distinguish between right and wrong, to be capable of compassion, aspiration, achievement. Somehow we are going to have to say that corruption is unacceptable, crime is wrong, bullying isn’t okay, murder, rape, child abuse aren’t explainable or excusable with psychology. Everyone doing it doesn’t make it right. We have to remember and focus on the positive parts of ourselves instead of living by the negative parts. The economy isn’t an isolated problem, it’s a symptom of a deeper ill, and if we’re going to solve the problem we are going to have to go to the root of it. We’re going to have to aspire higher.