I often wonder how the rest of the world see those of us who are born in the US? Thanks to my new friend over at Eudaimonia and Co I am beginning to get a clearer view of that.
- I know the rest of the world pretty much thinks all of us are obsessed with our guns to the point of being willing to sacrifice our kids in order to keep them.
- I have known for a long time that most Europeans are fascinated by the junk and inferior products we Americans are willing to accept.
- I know that during my visits to Canada they just can’t understand why we put up with our grossly high-cost medical system and then deny people even that!
The words below put my thoughts on another level of the basic difference between our consumer-driven capitalism and the socialist models of it found in Europe and Scandinavia.
Americans don’t seem capable of processing, integrating, or accepting basic everyday realities about the world anymore. Not the ones from Harvard and Yale. Nor the ones from Kansas and Nebraska. Now, both of these tribes loathe one another. But whom does that leave, precisely? Go ahead and look around. What do you see. “The economy’s booming!” Wait — life expectancy’s falling. “Socialism’s too expensive!!” Uh, have you seen American healthcare prices?…
Do you see what I see? A psychology that is totally, fatally, shatteringly disconnected from reality. Americans seem to need to take refuge in fabulous and grandiose myths, of how wonderful and special they are…
Source: Can Americans Process Reality? – Eudaimonia and Co
It is estimated that the IRS loses about $500 billion yearly due to unreported income. A big part of that amount is from the self-employed who simply pocket money without putting it on their books. Except for the fast-food franchises and of course the local Walmart, the small town I live in is pretty much local businesses. When I go to the hardware store, more often than not, the cash from my small sale is mostly just pocketed. I imagine the same happens in small towns across America.
Just kidding of course, but these three characteristics do take a long time to mold into a psyche. Which is harder to obtain? They all take different paths to accomplish. I think the secret behind wit is the ability to see the irony around you and the ability to laugh at yourself and how you react to the world. Or maybe it is just realizing that for the most part life is really just one big joke.
Insight is another matter. Insight is being able to understand different situations and intuitively grasping the best solution. I’m not sure this can even be learned. Either you have it or you don’t. But being skeptical of what you are told is part of this process.
It has been a while since I last read “Democracy in America by de Tocqueville. I think his book written almost two centuries ago is as important in learning where we in America have been and where we are going as any on my bookshelf. I put a small bio here for those who don’t know about him. I have read this book at least a half dozen times.
It seems that at least for the last twenty months or so I have enemies who rant against my view of the world. They come at me with a “love it or leave it mentality. How dare I say some of the things I do. Will those who spew out all the hate via social media eventually destroy themselves as the quote here indicates?
When I bought my first new car in 1970 the saying “don’t buy a car made on a Friday or Monday” was something to take seriously. The reason for that is that the workers who made the cars were often thinking about what they were going to do that weekend or what they had done after it was over. Robots think of one thing and that is to put that screw, weld, or part within a 10,000th of an inch where it is supposed to be. They do the same thing to that accuracy over and over again without thinking of anything else.