Why is the USA Screwed -- Maybe Forever?
Merry Christmas, and for you all who prefer "Happy Holidays," okay. Holidays or not, we're screwed. Here's the anatomy of the perfect storm that has taken us down...
There is a basic human moral code. Cross-cultural taboos are witness to the fact that the human race has a sense of right and wrong. Religious people codified this in commandments, teachings, laws and regulations; even threats of eternal damnation. Secular people are no less rigid. They just come up with utilitarian reasons for why bad behavior is punished. But here's the fact: like it or not anarchy never catches on. It's a matter of the survival of the tribe. Call it God's way or the truth of what we became in our evolutionary ancestral home; it all comes out the same: we need rules.
- What has led to the massive levels of fraud on Wall Street, as well as the technically illegal kind of actual fraud, wherein one prankster walked off with $130 million and another with $50 billion?
- What has led to America blithely undertaking a wrong war in Iraq, for bogus reasons having elected a bogus president?
- Why are educational values sliding?
- Why are divorce rates amongst even so-called born-again Christians, as high as amongst so-called atheists?
- Why are the majority of African-American children being raised by single parents?
- Why are the mostly white, over-educated white collar jerks who ran our economy into the mud taking bonuses?
- Why are white rural kids killing themselves with methamphetamine addiction?
- Why have governmental environmental officials become so corrupt that they are little more than shills for oil companies, car companies and mining companies? (Easy answer -- they're Republicans!)
- Why in the midst of global warming are there still jerks out there driving Hummers and SUVs because they think they can "afford it"?
- Why did it become "okay" to torture prisoners?
- Why have the banks betrayed us?
- Why are there idiots collecting assault weapons?
- Why are we a nation of overweight porkers, incapable of losing weight who may well have shorter life spans than our parents (declines in smoking aside)?
- Why can't we save money but have run up personal and national debt to the point that our currency is plunging in real value worldwide?
- Why are we putting children on prescription drugs for disciplinary and/or behavioral problems?
- Why can't we keep our credit cards in our wallets and our cocks in our pants?
The answer is: the worst of the progressive movement and the worst of the conservative, and especially evangelical/born-again movement, converged into a weird symbiosis wherein even though they represent polar opposite extremes in our culture they have in fact created a perfect environment for our perfect storm of self-destruction.
Both the left and right have believed their own bullshit and taken their private "religious" theologies as gospel.
The left tried to de-link personal moral sexual and family-related behavior, for instance staying married for the sake of raising stable families, not screwing around, just because you wanted to... from what they considered to be public policy issues. They forgot that when the general atmosphere of a culture slides to license in the personal realm something snaps in the public realm.
On the right, and especially in the evangelical/fundamentalist community, people de-linked the biblical call to love your neighbor as yourself from public responsibility. In other words, government programs that require higher taxation, regulation and benefits packages (we loosely call welfare) were de-linked from private theology wherein the gospel calls for the care of the poor, the earth and the other. Greed was sanctified.
On the left, the mantra -- post-sixties -- became go to bed with anyone, follow your pleasure and don't put up with any hassles when it comes to, for instance, being faithful to your wife or husband and/or sticking a tough marriage out for the sake of your children.
On the right, the mantra -- post-Reagan -- became, the market is supreme, freedom equals consumerism.
On the left, the cry went up, it's my body I'll do what I want!
On the right, the the cry went up, this is my stuff I'll do what I want!
When personal responsibility and private taboos crumble on the one hand, and when public responsibility and taboos crumble on the other hand, the mix becomes toxic. Everyone is into what works for "me" but not what works for "us."
President-elect Obama is going to have to try and reverse this trend by calling out both the progressive and conservative elements of our society to get back to first principles and a willingness to sacrifice. That means that we may be entering an era where taboos both personal and public become fashionable again. I hope so.
We've gone to the last stop on a road paved with the mantra that no one is allowed to judge anyone else's behavior. The result is a culture that drives whatever vehicles suits it and global warming be damned. The result is a culture in which divorce is easy and common and all the definitive studies which prove unequivocally that the children of divorce, abandonment and instability bear lifelong scars, that in turn directly affect their ability to function in society, be damned (not to mention the economic problems of divorced families, particularly women, those who raise the children.)
(Note: How ironic that the right wing of the "Christian" community is taking a "stand" against gay marriage when gay marriage hurts no one and shows a salutary commitment to stability and the future, and when all studies show that the real marriage meltdown, in terms of actual harm to society that is measurable, is our tolerance of "no-fault" heterosexual divorce and its effect on kids and the economy.)
If the Obama presidency is to succeed, it's going to have to go far beyond policy and laws. President-elect Obama is going to have to become an evangelist.
The new president is going to have to call religious people back to a consistent lifestyle based on what they say they believe. No more raping the earth by "evangelicals" and stomping on social justice programs in the name of market oriented "freedom." No more bashing gay people in the name of Jesus. No more hate for immigrants.
And to secular "progressive" America: no more lying to ourselves. Irresponsible men who father children, irresponsible women who walk away from families, cynical moral anarchists hurt the whole of our society. Just ask a teacher (my son teaches high school) if the children of solid two parent-caring families do better than the children of single or divorced parents or single moms.
The real problem is that we've all been lying to ourselves and pretending that the 10,000 years of human history teaches us nothing. We've been pretending that somehow our society is exempt from everything human beings have learned about the need for order, structure and moral taboos.
The criminology idea of the "broken window" (small crimes create a climate for big ones) applies to our lax moral decisions; from winking at vast amounts paid the executive thieves running the hedge fund companies and banks, to winking at the idiots in the entertainment industry and cultural establishment who have sold a generation on the idea that following your cock is always a fine idea, to winking at the fact that people who can't stop eating, won't save money, run up debts and run out on their spouses are earth and culture-destroying menaces. These are not "private" choices. They are what ruin schools, make health care unaffordable , destroy the economy and create kids who barely can function. We all pay. And we're all guilty as hell, if of nothing else, of gross complicity by our silence.
From Wall Street to the listless youths failing in our schools, to the churning insane casino industry, to the tens of thousands of marinas filled with all those useless stupid pleasure craft, to our highways clogged with vehicles with one passenger, to our broken railroads, to every faithless man and woman who hasn't put their children first, we have, taken together, achieved the unthinkable: we've put at risk the most powerful country on earth and perhaps destroyed our future.
I hope that President-elect Obama can call us back to our senses, coerce us into better behavior, preach, cajole, convince and -- if need be -- force us to look at what we've done to ourselves. It's time to admit our wrongs, repent and convert to new ways.
Here is Obama's message shorthand: stop screwing around!
Or he could put it this way...
There is no free lunch be it in the classroom, the bedroom or the boardroom. Grown ups know this. So do grown up civilizations. Grow up!
Frank Schaeffer is the author of Crazy For God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back (Now in Paperback).
Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer
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The USA is screwed, as the man says. Some are jsu slow on the uptake and it will take a few more kicks to the head by the economy and human behavior for them to realize it. A country where its citizens trample a store employee to death to grab a few holiday bargains can not long stand.
Great article. Should have mentioned our stupid drug war, re-living the failures and naivity of prohibition, but worse. Look at the drug related killings in LA, other major cities and all over Mexico. It's all related to the unreal effort to intercept drugs on the way in, rather than eliminating the US demand which creates the artificial market which drives up prices of drugs a thousand fold. But here again, it is much to to the credit of our "moralistic religious right" nut cases that keep us in the drug war. Shouldn't we have learned from prohibition, and can't we recognize that most drugs do far less damage than alcohol in the US?
Frank,
Do you think there could be any connection between us starting a war, escentially for the greed of those in a position to benefit, and the collapse of our economy?
Great article.
Regardless of your religious persuasions, reasons greetings.
While I cannot disagree with everything here, I will state that the harm to us from the right (both fundamentalist christians and greedy CEOs/wallstreet) has far outweighed the harm from the left.
I hardly think a deadbeat Dad equates to Madoff.
A little know fact is that percentage wise there are more deadbeat Moms than deadbeat Dads.
This is hilarious. Too bad it doesn't make a lot of sense. I mean, I have a one-night stand, so Wall Street collapses? Hmmm. I suppose if we all did exactly the same thing in exactly the same way, then the government could control society better and deliver more predictable outcomes. But that doesn't really sound very American. Or very logical. But whatever.
I agree with much of this but Mr. Schaffer leaves me feeling uneasy. I can't help feeling that in his new found tolerance he is as intolerant as ever. Our democracy was built upon a basic idea of tolerance for many belief systems that could find common ground, tolerance and freedom in a secular democracy. We must, ourselves behave in a way that is consistent with that core belief where neither the individual or the society reign supreme or separate but are two halves of a whole. It is not about the particular taboos but the balance of the individual and societal needs by the collective acknowledgment of responsibility for and honesty about our actions in both private and public life that will create a govenment, business community, family units, etc that reflect those core beliefs. Mr. Schaffer's patriarchal evangelical religious upbringing traps him into a thought process that says leaders (religious or political) are those that can impose a particular morality onto a society or societies. That way lies facism. Obama can show leadership by example, can inspire people to their better selves and point out inconsistencies of words vs actions in our policies, priorities, etc. But he crosses the line to scolding and moralizing (as the far right evangelicals & far left have done or even as a centrist which Mr. Schaffer seems to propose), he does so at his peril because there is no one right way to be good, moral or free. It just ain't that
We live in a throw-away society. Throw away wives, throw away husbands, throw away workers, throw away rules, throw away resources. Everything and anything is disposable.
PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AND DO NO HARM, beyond those concepts, we all come from the a tribal background, look thee hence to hunter/gatherers where diversity was celebrated - diversity means a more likelihood we will survive. Any society or group of people who devalues those who are different because of their biological make up, well they don't get it, have missed the boat and are anti survival. Their divisive attitudes and behaviors are harmful and are blind to the basic reality of human society. Our problem lies in the fact that we have no cohesive tribe(s) and thus are always feeling and being out of sorts. Within the tribe we looked out for each, passed on survival tips and where to find the best nuts and root crops. We learned to leave seeds and roots behind to multiply until our return. We learn and survived.
Watch out! The sky is falling!
Frank, you're a LOT better at understanding the right than you are the left.
We are not just satisfied with living in our society, but we insist on spreading it to all corners of the globe (by force if nessesary).
Socrates couldn't have said it better ... and he did, in a way. These are social problems that endure human history. Maybe, some day, these problems will become history if humans can learn to use these marvelous brains we have to more of the potential they're capable of.
Like you say, "But here's the fact: like it or not anarchy never catches on. It's a matter of the survival of the tribe."
Take hope. We are a nation of strong people who for a time have lost our way. Our 'wake up' call was overdue. The good news is that we DID listen to the little voice inside and voted for Obama, Hope and Change. Not everyone will change right away, but with the massive loss of "stuff" the US is facing- including loss of world esteem, change WILL happen. We have a chance to draw deep into ourselves and find out what truths matter to us. Some of us will run away from the challenge. Most will survive. Many will succeed beyond expectation.
Thank you your impassioned message of frustration. It mirrors my own, but I needed to read it and then remember that there will be an answer to that message. I believe that the glass will turn out to be 'half full'.
I believe that I'm a good person. but,doesn't everyone think that about themselves?
Although I've done bad things, somehow I'm able to justify my rotten behavior.
Looking at other people, it's easy to see the worst in them. but looking for the worst thing in myself
ain't that easy. I decide not to change the world until I can change myself.
What has been will be again. There is nothing new under the sun.
Can anyone say, look! this is something new! It was here long ago.
No one remembers the men of old, and even those who are yet to come,
will not be remembered by those who follow.- King Soloman
(hey, if govorner Blogo can recite parabels so can I )
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