The culture war rages on. Guns, race, gender, immigration, education, religion ( including the “religion” of political party), abortion. Did I leave anything out? No matter.
We are all angry as hell, but not really about these issues. They only serve as outlets for a rage that runs much deeper.
The fact is, much of what people are worked up about these days could be resolved with a healthy dose of education, tolerance, patience and rational negotiation. But education is at its most dismal point in decades. As constantly distracted minds consume the garbage that flows out of cell phones, patience and open mindedness have been all but abandoned. And negotiation? Just look at Congress where this is supposed to be the norm and you will appreciate what sad shape that skill is in.
So why are we really so ticked off all of a sudden?
We are consumed by a festering sense of disappointment attached to dread of an uncertain future.
The American century is over. American exceptionalism is exposed as a myth. The shining city on the hill is long overdue for a good polishing. Who, really, are we?
Society is morally impoverished and, no, it’s not because we are less religious. Selfishness and materialism have long been the true national religion, and, more than ever it’s every man for himself.
Covid supercharged a breakdown of community from which we have still not recovered, and the virus still lurks no matter how we may pretend otherwise.
The promise that technology would empower us and transform the world into a Garden of Eden has not materialized. Quite the contrary.
We are bombarded with advertising and consumed with pop entertainment that purport to tell us who we are or should be. Commercials tell us we should all be constantly euphoric like the actors who break into dance when they use some mundane product. That we are not dancing makes us feel worse about ourselves.
We are told we are all special, deserve to have everything we desire, can always have our own way. But we really know we can’t. We are painfully aware we are pawns in life’s great chess match, the “have nots” who just can’t get ahead. The wealthy cabal who control things lead us to believe it is the fault of immigrants, Jews, the press, non-religious people, government. Anyone but them. They nurture the straw-man cultural issues that divide us. Then they conquer.
Perhaps the biggest factor at the root of our anger is the threat of environmental armageddon, the true legacy of technology, with its adverse effects on our health, lives and financial security. Mass migrations make us feel invaded by people we experience as “the other.” A normal human trait is to distrust people who don’t look like us, talk like us or embrace the cultural customs we view as “normal.” We see them as competition for jobs and scarce resources.
Nations compete for resources as well. This, of course, is a prime cause of war which is on the upsurge. In turn, the wars exacerbate the problem by diverting energy and funds to destruction rather than to problem solving.
In light of all this, we have lost faith in “the system.” Convinced it doesn’t work, we seek a strong leader from outside of it who will fix everything. That makes us vulnerable to big talkers and disrupters like Trump. A huge number of people perceive him not as the con artist and criminal he actually is, the agent of the uber-wealthy who gives not a damn about you and me, but as a tough guy who can get the job (whatever that is) done. His crassness, rudeness, lack of manners, even his ignorance, are excused, even idolized by the most unwashed of the great unwashed who worship him. Addicted to constant entertainment, the rubes are lined up and handing over their quarters to view his lewd sideshow spectacle.
Someone like Joe Biden is perceived as a boring and bumbling nice guy ( we all know where nice guys finish), a deluded old fool who represents the system that we have been told over and over is the source of our problems. Paradoxically, while he actually gets good things done, they just don’t register. Really good things happen quietly and take time. We are not seeing the instant dramatic results we have been trained to expect by advertising and the media.
And the media? They compete for the viewer market with sensationalism, draw false equivalents in the name of “fairness” and obfuscate rather than make clear what is really happening. We conclude Biden is accomplishing nothing.
Plus, the most important thing, always the most important thing, tragically the most important thing is that, above all else, we are obsessed with fattening our wallets. I’ll let you in on a little secret. Nobody’s wallet is ever fat enough. That’s human nature, not Joe’s fault, but try telling it to the voters.
While we are busy fighting among ourselves, the solutions to the core problems go unmet and the rich get richer. They live to roll around in their money like Donald Duck’s uncle, Scrooge McDuck. To them nothing, nothing else matters. Gaining wealth is a game whose point is to prove who is the biggest big shot. If democracy dies, what care they? Democracy is merely an impediment to their pursuit of wealth.
At base, we are not really angry at each other over the hot button issues but rather at the constant grind of a discontent we all share. We are like the guy who has had another bad day at the office, comes home, and picks a fight with his wife.
Our rage is fixated on what are mostly differences of opinion. These things, compared to the real problems, are petty, but the only thing that makes us feel at all empowered is to fight over them among ourselves.
The sad thing is, we do it with such gusto.
An Author's Inner Mind 