Let’s face it, we can’t simply ignore the problems and hope they go away. That seems to have worked for a long time but in reality, it has just allowed the problems to fester and get worse. America is collapsing and if we don’t do something about it soon, it just may be too late. Just because we have gone-to-the-edge before and survived doesn’t mean it will happen again. Here is the myth for today that we need to unlearn:
Myth: America isn’t collapsing!!!
Life expectancy is falling, the vast majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, they can’t raise $1000 for an emergency, mass shootings are a regular event of daily life, people have to crowdfund basic medicine, suicides are skyrocketing. I could go on. If your bar for collapse is Mad Max meets the Strain, then, sure, America hasn’t collapsed yet…to that point.
But it has collapsed in three key ways, which are the real, genuine and true kinds — not the stuff of science fiction end times.
◉ As a rich society — most Americans don’t live in one anymore.
◉ As a democracy — it doesn’t really represent people accurately anymore.
◉ As a society — Americans have no social contract, really, that unites them, as we’ve discussed — because virtue has not culminated in the public good .
In those three ways, collapse is as real and lethal as climate change. You can disagree with me, sure — but reality doesn’t care about what I think, or you think. It laughs at we “think”, and goes on being what it is.
Source: https://eand.co/eight-myths-americans-need-to-unlearn-about-america-560fa10ddba6
I wonder if Rome ever recognized that they were in decline? How about the Great British Empire, do superpowers ever know it when it happens? What was originally known as the Middle Class has evaporated from our country. Yes, there are 10% of us who are doing pretty well. We went to college or trade school and obtained skills needed in the 21st century. We are doing OK.
But there is the almost 60% of us who now stuck in low paying, soon to be automated, jobs that pay low wages. Many continue to dream that somehow they will find their golden egg and get rich but in reality that is also a myth.
They have gerrymandered and restricted the vote so much in recent years to pretty much guarantee they cling to power even if they can’t manage to get the majority vote.
Maybe the worst thing is our social fabric is disintegrating. We are locked into our clans and will simply not listen to anything else. If that is not a fundamental threat to our democracy I can’t imagine what is.
I pray that it isn’t too late yet , but somehow something needs to happen… and soon.
At least to some degree, I believe in the old adage “If it ain’t broken, why change it”. This post is targeted at bathroom products. I know that sounds strange but it is a story I must tell. I have come to cherish my morning shower, especially in my retirement years. It is a time to say a few prayers of thanks for yesterday and to pray for a good day today. It is a time to think as a deeper level than I normally do.
It’s pretty hard for them to admit that for the most part “my life sucks because of me”. That reality just doesn’t sink for most of us. They say they are stuck in an area with no good paying jobs but they never consider moving to a more prosperous area. They say the only good jobs are those requiring an education but never consider the need to learn anything beyond what they presently know. It’s just too easy to blame others for their problems. The morbidly obese guy says “poor me” and then consumes 6,000 calories per day and just doesn’t seem to see the connection.
I don’t necessarily call, at least yet, our current times evil but none the less the Edmund Burke quote above applies to where we are as a country. Too many of us decided to sit out the last election cycle and what we got is the result. I certainly hope that this is a lesson learned and election participation increases dramatically in the coming years. We can no longer allow a radical fringe minority to choose our country’s leadership.
