America.
Birthed by violent rebellion, it embarked on its new life ennobled by democratic ideals.
However, over the years that life has been impacted by forces who fear democracy's promise. For generations, the nation has relived its traumatic wresting from Mother England and, having been so negatively impacted, mutated to the point where it finds little motivation to action other than a defensive one.
It's as if the country has aged into an overworked adult, maladjusted through heady years of adulation and affluence, and now older, out of shape, feeling its mortality and in need of psychoanalysis (or at least a reasonably priced juicer); a jittery, paranoid xenophobe who only acts charitably if spurred by the promise of profit or the threat of violence.
In other words, what the hell happened to America's conscience?
Even with classic rules of civil engagement having been stripped away, you'd think fundamental decency would kick in now and then, if only out of a desire to do something occasionally novel. But such impulses are considered antiquated, naive and, hence, forgotten.
Obviously, there are individuals and substantial communities who neither fit these descriptions nor honor these impulses. The hard working, the humble, the curious, the creative---those qualities may very well more accurately depict the majority of Americans, whose own common sense rejects the path those in power seem to be forcing the country to tread. They don't feel the need to trumpet these facets, because it's not in their character to do so.
But as the bully media and their loudly partisan political and corporate enablers would have it, America should be something other, and the institutions the country has so long depended on for guidance have all been subsumed by the cynical shift in sensibility. Religion, politics, media---all have become slick facades, barely concealing their true intent.
Ah, religion.
Since many of those in the God Business have made a mockery of their company's once catchy slogans and by-laws having, for example, brutally molested young members of its flock and doing little in the way of prevention, a circumstance which has taken on the air a lamented but routine side effect (like those spoken in rapid bursts at the tail end of a pharmaceutical ad), the brand just doesn't have the credibility it once bore. And yet, the blindly faithful cling to the promise of salvation such institutions continue to advertise, regardless of their bastardization by corrupt forces.
And the media?
Gone are the PSA's and editorials aired during it's more innocent, less overwhelmingly intrusive days, which touted common courtesy or thrift, urged national or community service, encouraged caring and courtesy. And along with the disappearance of those modestly produced, corny nudges toward conscientious behavior, so seemingly has the behavior itself taken a powder. The phrase "good deed for the day" is invariably said with snark and seconded with scorn by comically out-of-touch nerds. To be charitable, merciful, just -- or to be nice -- is a lame duck meme.
Politics?
There's little to add here that hasn't been said or isn't collectively felt. But given its crucial necessity, how could the very mechanism upon which democracy depends become so scornfully ineffectual? It's like allowing the marrow from which our life's blood is manufactured to become an object of scorn, our beating heart a barely tolerable blight. And while from its inception the political process has been referred to with knowing cynicism there was also inherent respect for what it could accomplish -- had to accomplish -- from the minds of dedicated, responsible, conscientious agents.
As religion and media provide less and less refuge from the reality of society's inequities, and business and government eschew any regulation which might prevent exploitation of people or resources at the expense of profit, there seems to be an exponential increase in the isolation of people from engaging in real-life interaction with the other members of their species; the consequential succor outlined in the rules of basic human interaction (i.e., love thy neighbor, blessed are the meek, be kind to animals, etc.) is becoming as quaint and forgotten as the typewriter, the dial phone and milk crates full of record albums.
The problem is, and always has been, the terminally reductive fact that there's money to be made, and absolute shitloads of the stuff when fear and loathing is injected into a porous populace, whose bellies are empty but who have forgotten what they are hungry for. Hence, they clamber like fish in a tank for whatever flakes of faux-food are flicked.
But they're hungry for what corporate controlled media, profiteering religion and a hopelessly gummed-up bureaucracy of a government cannot -- despite their promises -- provide:
Civility.
And the truth about how to behave while we are here, which religion, government and those old, corny PSA's would occasionally remind us ain't for very long.
If our current incarnation of interactive culture has inadvertently proven with its steady inducement to consume all manner of reckless, feckless, or toothless products, we and our cherished institutions are all, sadly, disposable.
And yet.
And yet, though not in vogue, never advertised, rarely personified or trumpeted, there are those who take the different approach, who see the beauty within each waking moment, appreciate the finite time we have to luxuriate in the senses, avail themselves of the diverse history humans have created and imagine a future of cooperative enterprise in which people interact with respect and civility. They teach and learn, passing on the harmony as well as the dissonance, understanding that one cannot exist without the other -- for long, that is.
As with someone who has reached this time of life, it's time now for America to come to grips with its reality, one which stemmed from the storied, violent birth which necessitated bold and brave action in its early days, the genuine potency and authority of its mid years, and most difficultly perhaps, the arrogance and paranoia -- the fruits of unregulated ambition, unchecked greed and diminution of conscience -- which mark the later years. Where America is and we all are today.
Maybe some therapy and a reasonably priced juicer?
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@TheStevenWeber
This problem of incivility, I'm afraid, is presocratic and fundamentally an error by human condition. Since the inception of democratic rule thousands of years ago, those in power will always seek to expand their power. It need not start with totalitarianism, simply with a complicit electorate. The prevailing "well, repealing the 14th Amendment doesn't affect ME" sentiment, with the stamp of majoritarian approval, is the problem. What if a majority of America decided that the 2nd Amendment needs modification, will the same people defend the authority of majority rule?
This is how incursions happen; if you oppose majority opinion, whether it's repealing the 14th or 2nd Amendment, you have no recourse. Luckily, the framers have ensured that the government of the United States is no such instrument, by providing republican instead of democratic government (notice the small "r" and "d" people, the essential difference between governing by direct democratic vote versus democratic vote of governing by representatives). They also provide an independent Judiciary which owes no allegiance to legislative or executive branches, but only to the Constitution. I'd recommend the Federalist No. 78 by Hamilton for insight essential to Weber's article.
General Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3_EXqJ8f-0&feature=player_embedded
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
Thing are bad now of course. When were they good exactly?
Alot of Americans have either lost sight of that fact or they don't mind being a rat.
I'd rather be a cat.
Yes I would
If I could
I surely would."
"El Condor Pasa"
Paul Simon/ Jorge Milchberg
America: We/ve been worn down to a nub. When you're on your last nerve, civility goes out the window. Decency died of underuse. Media is an extention of those in power.
Religion: God moved and didn't leave a forwarding address.It's been replcaed with, "Think it and it will be!". If you don't have wealth, there's a problem with your thinking! His successor is now the Conservative Christian Contradictory Campaign Cognitive Collective Consciousness Coalition.
Media" Bill Moyers has retired. No one else is home. The "feel good" story is like the lottery. Somewhere someone has a "good day". Odds that it's going to be you are a zillion to one. What was left has been sold to Murdoch's Mentally Myopic Musings Manipulating Mass Media Making Moguls Money Machine. Maniacally Maddening!
Politics?: See Above.
Civility: The whole world has become a commercial. Whatever you need to be younger, more beautiful, healthier, richer, happier, wiser, sleep better or not have restless legs are splattered across everything everywhere, every second of every day. Twice on Sundays.
And yet: Some of us out here don't fall for "All of The Above". On a road to extinction.
Where America was and we all put off doing anything to remedy our ills until tomorrow..
Thank you for opening my eyes, Steven.........but I had them closed for a reason... I hated what they saw!
We've...not We/ve
replaced...not replcaed
"It's successor....not "His"
Apologies to my elementary school teachers!
As for his thesis, I for one don't see that America's grand political moves are less moral now than ever. The Revolutionary War was partly fought to take over trans-Appalachian Indian reserved land set up by Britain after the French and Indian War, the Mexican, Spanish, and Philippine Wars were pure imperialism, neither World War was joined until we or our interests were attacked. The wars that were entered out of some lofty moralistic vision (Viet Nam and Iraq) were the same ones that turned into total fiascos, moral and otherwise.
Maybe there was a time when everything was all Waltonesque, but what I meet in the books and movies includes tons of violence, theft, cynicism, and greed, along with the great amounts of idealism, courage, and creativity, any period.
I'm not trying to be negative, but I don't think this was a very lucid piece of thought and writing.
This writer is known for his elaborate, over the top writing style, though his heart is in the right place.
What's driven this country since it's inception, i.e. "Manifest Destiny", has had it's price that has and will be paid by those that believe the pablum that's been fed to the masses by the ruling elite for a long time. "Google" General Smedley Darlington Butler. He found out the hard way who has been in bed together sharing the spoils of this Nation for a long time. The "marriage" of big business and politics is not "new" news. Their "offspring" is civil unrest and ignorance, dividing the population using the "tools of greed". A movie character, Gordon Gekko said it best, "Greed is good!".
Only the "evil" socialism seems appropriate to bring out our better angels.
In the late 70's or early 80's (not sure of the exact timing) a new "hero" came onto the stage. The show was Dallas and the hero was J. R. Ewing. He was the opposite of all previous heros. He had lots of wealth and little virtue. Nothing was more important than his personal gratification and enrichment and his list of dirty deeds was as long as the scripts of the series. He made the show what it was and also made us aware of a change in our nation. He was idolized and emulated by far too many. The generation that had made it's early mark on society in defeating corruption and institutionalized evil, now was cheerleading selfishness and materialism. The effort was wasted, by the same people who once believed in it so completely. The same generation now making excuses for a war based upon lies and protesting humanitarian endeavors of any kind as "socialism" once had such great promise. Who would have thought - - -