Who ARE we The nega

Who ARE we?  The negative metamorphosis of America’s cultural heritage

The cultural which originally made us a quality nation and our people a force for good has been greatly diminished.  Use of the term culture does not connote the world of either art, literature, or refrigerator fuzz, although these things play a major role in how lives are lived and the things that are valued.  In this context, culture encompasses our entire history and the way we got to this point of chaos and decline.  Culture means:

How we think
What we know
Our vitality and will to create
Our view of ourselves and others within the larger universe
Our approach to problem identification and solving
Our treatment of others, regardless of age or nationality
What our children learn and how we teach them
Our understanding of intangibles (ethics, morality, courtesy, taste, judgment, joy)
Our application of those intangibles

There is a Quaker saying that encompasses all our culture:  “Let your life speak for you.”  All our lives are speaking to a much larger world today, but it is horrifying to realize what that life – our present culture – is saying.  It isn’t as though we had no clues to our fall from greatness.  All it takes is a close look at four items and our pettiness and cultural disintegration is obvious to even the most stubborn or bullheaded:

Social inequality – that wide chasm between rich and poor
Rapid loss of entitlements like Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid
Collapse of intelligence
Spiritual death (in this context, spiritual does not mean religion)

At this time, I don’t wish to address loss of entitlements or social inequality except for one point.  When wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few, the return on that wealth is negligible.  Rarely does any of that wealth to toward creating jobs, improving productivity, or funding ideas, creativity or opportunities.  Such concentration further deprives the poorer among us.  In terms of wealth disparity, the U.S. leads all other industrialized nations.  As it gets harder for most Americans to make a living, it gets easier for a select few to make a killing, and signals a ‘seismic shift in the character of our society,’ according to Paul Krugman.  It also signals a major change in our values and a significant loss of character.  Where in 1962, JFK confronted U.S. Steel over price increases and forced it to back down, today upper echelon CEO’s would be invited to Crawford, Texas for a cookout.

The largest, and by far the saddest and most dangerous item in our coming cultural demise, is the Collapse of Intelligence which goes hand-in-hand with Spiritual Death.  One visit to any chat room on the Internet will underscore the seriousness of this problem to our ultimate survival.  There are approximately 40 million Americans who can’t read above a fourth grade level and are classified as functionally illiterate.  Many people believe our President is among them, and curiously, this is the same guy whose mother made literacy programs one of her points of interest as First Lady under Bush One’s reign.  Coincidence?  That’s highly doubtful.

Is it surprising in our consumerist culture that basic conversation consists of one liners, slogans and bumper sticker thinking?  Or is it surprising that on most commuter transportation, those males with newspapers turn to the sports section first?  If you answered no to either question, it won’t surprise you to learn that although few Americans understand the degree to which Corporations have taken over their lives, statistics tell us that 70 percent of them believe in the existence of angels.  Statistics also tell us that 47 percent of American adults can’t find Japan on a world map, and 40 percent (that’s over 70 million people) didn’t know Germany was our enemy in WWII, and 84 percent couldn’t tell you that Harry Truman was President at the start of the Korean War.  Then there are the bright 42 percent of American teenagers who can name our three branches of government compared to the 59 percent who can name the Three Stooges.

Too well do we understand the phrase ‘dumbing down.’  Do we realize it applies equally to schools, teachers, parents, students, college and university standard setters, job applicants, job holders, political candidates and election winners, and on and on?  The content of television programs assumes an audience of morons, and Hollywood capitalizes on the same standard while we laugh at our own idiocy, become a nation of dolts and wonder why our world is changing.  McWorld has taken over the American brain, and it isn’t just intellectual failure.  It’s moral failure, as well, and it definitely overlaps with spiritual death.

This is the most difficult to categorize because it is all intangibles, except in practice.  Realize first, that we are living in a world of corporate consumerism, where the business of American is business and its mental toxicity permeates every part of our landscape.  Think of the news – most of it is actually business news and even the perception of the president is not as a statesman but a corporate CEO.  Shopping is entertainment for 98 percent of the population which never wonders if there isn’t something wrong about that.  Business slogans appear in schools which accept ‘donations’ of goods and services in order to meet dwindling resources.  New sports arenas, private, public, and school related bear the commercial names of their sponsor.  Our fun, user friendly McWorld has no substance, it is all kitsch, hype, sloganeering and marketing ploys – and too few ask “Is that all there is?”

The American public can no longer distinguish quality from garbage – not in entertainment, sports, politics, business, or education.  Intelligence, like history, is something to dismiss.  Intelligence is precarious at best in the world of Oprah, Brittany, Girls Gone Wild, Fear Factor, Dr. Phil or Chopra when the dumb, titillating or self-absorbed is the standard of value.  

Can individualism, taste, and judgment survive in a world that worships celebrity, buffoonery and shamelessness?  Can decency survive in a world that answers serious questions with emotionalism or with the bigotry, intolerance, and exclusion demanded by supposed spiritual leaders?  Can we survive a spiritual or cultural collapse when we seem unable to relate to each other with a modicum of courtesy or awareness?  We don’t hold doors for each other, don’t answer messages, don’t say please or thank you, or we disappear from each other’s lives without reason or regret, betray one another without thought or apology and refuse to discuss it.  After all, in a singular world with no cultural awareness, I is the only important word or consideration.  Rudeness is the coin of our realm.

Existence is populated only with little yellow smiley faces instead of real involvement with risk and vulnerability and caring.  People live in isolation with no community but soap opera characters or chat room buddies as friends.  Cyberspace and virtual reality are more readily maintained than the world outside our windows.  Infantilism is an ideology, all that counts are ‘my feelings,’ and road rage is epidemic.  Manners, the arts and the humanities count for nothing when compared to commerce, entertainment and therapy.

Take some time and take a good look around the landscape of your life.  Do you like what you see?  Are you comfortable inhabiting a world in which our political, business, educational and cultural leaders cannot be trusted?  Can you trust the hearts and minds of the bulk of our own population?  Haven’t we grown to be much less than we could be and are too wrapped up in our real and imagined enjoyments to notice?  Doesn’t it mean that by condoning manipulation and self-delusion we have assisted in making our world pathetic, painful and sad?  Hasn’t our disconnect and ignorance sent our nation on its downward slide to oblivion?

The World's Oldest Profession is NOT Prostitution ...

The World’s Oldest Profession is NOT Prostitution

Contrary to popular thinking, prostitution is not the world's oldest profession. It is not even the second oldest. The world's oldest profession is actually Politics. Politicians were the world’s first pimps.  It should come as no surprise that the second oldest profession was a political/pimping spin-off - Sales (or Marketing, if you prefer).

Ironically, for all its bad press from the morally uptight and sexually rigid, prostitution probably wasn't even a money-making venture until politicians/pimps got involved. They turned it into a service business because they recognized that women had a product men wanted that could be quickly sold at the same time it remained a product. Hell of a business for the politician/pimp, who did no more than match need with availability, yet suddenly earned beads, shells, beasts, food stuff, bronze coins, silver, gold, etc., and it cost him only a sly smile, a discretely negotiated deal, and pocketing the money.

Naturally a successful business was noticed.  Imitation as the height of flattery suddenly brought not only gloom but competition. Normal commerce had a new wrinkle – the exploitation of service and the desire to ‘corner the market.’ A small idea, some rubbing together of hands and greasing of palms, a gathering of cronies a tad less bright or ambitious and, the second oldest profession was born - a salesman, a marketer, a lobbyist. Voila!! He tripled his money, widened his influence and grabbed power and notoriety.          

So, is it any wonder that commerce is of more importance than the nation’s welfare?  Is it any wonder that the kingpins of commerce control our political pimps?  Is it any wonder that the lobbying industry (that the public can’t seem to understand) can coerce any arrangement commerce wants simply by offering the pimps a bigger share of the spoils?  Is it any wonder that the lower ranking denizens of the country – the voting public or ever hopeful sheep and Prostitutes – sell their integrity to party (pimp) loyalty, yet just keep getting knocked around, down, over and up?

It behooves all us sheep, prostitutes, and average working stiffs to keep one thing in mind as our traditional work ethic tells us to bow down and grovel before the altars of commerce.  Altars were originally designed as places for the lead Priests, Politicians, and Party Pimps to make blood sacrifices, but it wasn’t their blood than ran….it was the trusting, easily led sheep that got their throats slit or were disemboweled.  

Can you say baaa, baaa?

A Nation of Small People Led by a Very Small Man

Because I've always enjoyed the adages and old 'saws' with their elements of profundity, and passed down from grandparents and parents, years ago I started my own collection of memorable quotes. There is one regret about my collected favorite, however, and that is I do not recall the originator's name. Nevertheless, here it is:

Great people talk about ideas. Mediocre people talk about events. Small people talk about people.

It is impossible to refute the observation that we have evolved into a nation of small people. Simply review the news stories that get the most mention and air time. Next give a look at television's weekly schedule of offerings or the situation comedies and soap operas that hang around for years and years. After that, take some time to really listen to the lyrics of popular songs of all types, from basic ballads, through country, to rock, hip hop and rap. You can also check out the titles on the bestsellers lists, particularly the listings for fiction. An afternoon spent roaming general haunts, shopping malls, or simply standing on street corners and watching cars pass while you count the number of people with cell phones to their ears might astound you. Eavesdropping on those conversations (you can hardly miss them) will confirm that there is little substance to what is being said.

Scientists will tell you that there is very little we really know about the human brain; very little we know about how it learns or retains what it knows; very little they know about it's ultimate potential. One thing they've discovered, however, is that if that peculiar organ between our ears isn't used and challenged, it will atrophy just like any unused muscle. Considering the pathetic level of literacy in our country, the general lack of interest in education of any type, the preference for being entertained over being challenged, the lack of interest in how government works, how countries interact, how to discern the difference between flash and substance, or why character is more important than appearance, is it any wonder that our uninformed electorate chose the very essence of a miniscule man to sit in the office that represents this nation in the world?

The current president of the United States is a small man. He has neither the intellect, temperament, nor discernment to manage a delicatessen, much less a country. He has never surrounded himself with knowledgeable, experienced individuals with the objectivity, character or self discipline necessary for dedicated public servants because he cannot recognize that necessity any more than he recognizes his own short comings. Perhaps he has the capacity to be an amusing 'good old boy,' for short periods but he retains too much school yard bully chutzpah to even pretend statesmanship.

As any solid and successful businessman, teacher, or motivator would tell you, a worthwhile legacy consists of the people one leaves behind, those chosen for their abilities, ethics, willingness to listen and learn, their discipline and ability to analyze in order to discard what doesn't work and gather the elements that do work. Part of that legacy is also the environment he creates in which his selected people will function, an honest environment of encouragement, of space in which to grow, of appreciation for efforts as well as their awareness of the limits of tolerance toward half efforts.

Smallness, while a descriptive word for stature, is not restricted to the physical. Small also refers to pettiness, to childishness, to vengefulness, to inappropriate humor, to telling fibs, lies and whoppers, to braggadocio, to exaggeration, to pretense and the pretentious, to cruelty and destruction, to hubris. Being small can mean a refusal to take responsibility, an inability to admit mistakes, an aversion to reviewing or altering a decision once made. Small mindedness is surrounding yourself with people just like you are because of an innate fear of being overshadowed, of dealing with the unknown, of simple discomfort. Smallness is the refusal to stand on one's own feet when there are others around to prop you up, or take the blame, or bail you out when you're incapable of recognizing your own foolishness.

Small people nearly always try to tear others down to their size. They are willing and capable of destroying citadels to integrity, honor and caring simply because such things are bigger than they are. Nothing must be allowed to exist that is larger than a small man's ego, his unquenchable thirst for acknowledgement, for admiration.

So, here we are after five years of representation by a small man and his equally small entourage. Our children, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands, mothers and fathers were sent out to fight a war of choice as determined by a dysfunctional child, a war that has brought additional strife to an entire region and created more enemies than any people should have to face. Our own people have died in their homes because of a small man's complacency and the incompetence of his appointees, our poor and older citizens are being attacked on every side by cuts to long standing programs to give them ease to pay for his war. Those he sees as friends and cohorts are given financial windfalls at the expense of the middle and under classes. Limited benefits to veterans and returning service men and women from his unending war are being further cut. The indignities to the hopeful but misguided people who gave this small man power continue on and on.

Small people placed an even smaller man in power over the biggest, most advanced nation in the known world, and that nation is daily being dragged downward toward third world status. A small man has weakened an entire country. And thanks to blindly loyal small people, we must all suffer three more years of shrinking all that we once were down to his very small size.