I’m not going to write about people or personalities or political parties.
I’m writing more about what it was, what it is, and what it seems like it is heading towards.
The United States of America of my youth. Summer festivals with plenty of free community events. Free camping in the most amazing national parks in the world. Employment with companies that wanted to hire you for life and were willing to make sure that you and your family were taken care of. Housing that could be purchased for a year of hard work, making sacrifices, and being wise with your money. People who took care of each other and even if they disagreed, chalked that up to free speech and it being a free country. The evening news on one of four stations, a couple of radio stations that varied depending on your music tastes or favorite sportscaster, and a handful of regional newspapers that could be said to be partisan, but tried not to be too partisan. The most powerful passport in the world. Opportunity.
Now, I’m sure that’s a little idealized. There were problems – big problems and by the time I was thinking about employment or buying a house – those opportunities had become much less attractive. The National Parks are no longer a perk of citizenship you get for free. The passport has less clout each year. The newspapers have become clearly partisan, the streaming news is non-stop and also clearly partisan, the radio is replaced by automation and clearly partisan podcasts. The community events are so heavily regulated that many have just given up and if you go you run the risk of being a target for a mass shooter or some other terrible thing. Everything has been nickeled and timed. The fun cheap things have all gone under or been bought by business that has added to the nickel and dime category – or more often twenty and hundred dollar category. The USA of my youth was great, but you know what – we can’t go back in time. We can’t rebuild that. We can’t MAGA because it has gone so far off the rails that it can’t be saved.
Politicians and political speakers being gunned down. Cancel culture on both sides that is so partisan and so divided that it’s like the two sides are from completely different planets. A country that loved and celebrated immigrants now loathes them and rounds them up and puts them in camps before sending them home. Gun violence is so extreme that it has become normal to read about two or three or ten people being killed with guns. If they aren’t children, people don’t pay attention and often even if they are, people still don’t. The cost of houses is hopeless for entire generations. The cost of food and cars is becoming hopeless. The homeless are everywhere and that’s an empathy problem, but more importantly it’s a clear signal that people are struggling. They don’t have time or energy or enough worry space to worry about others – even people in their community. Yes, there are still people and organizations that help and care, but not enough and the problem continues to snowball bigger and bigger. A college education costs more than a very nice house used to and a nice house costs more than a healthy business used to make in several years without expenses.
We have a political system that has moved so far right that it can no longer be classified as right. The left now occupies the space that the furthest right used to occupy. And the right? The right is now a political system that openly identifies as what it is and what it is is what the USA of my youth used to teach us was what we had struggled and fought against. That is what it is but where does that leave those who used to occupy the middle or the left or the far left? It leaves them being labeled as extremists. It leaves them being labeled as terrorists. It leaves them being stigmatized and pushed into hiding. Pushed into smaller and smaller spaces. And guess what happens next?
When you call someone a thief long enough, they finally realize they might as well be stealing. When you bully a kid so much that they want to die, they end up either killing themselves or killing their bully or killing a bunch of other people. That’s part of what is happening now.
When I was a kid, I loved the movie Rambo. A peaceful guy returns from war and goes into a small town where he is pushed and pushed and pushed until he explodes. Another great one was Falling Down. It’s not a small town doing that any longer, it’s the full power and government of the USA. Eventually, some Rambo or other dude is going to snap, whether it’s a homeless person or an immigrant or a leftist or a trans-rights person or someone else – and that person is going to pull a They Live – chew bubble gum and kick ass – and then when they survive, others will flock to them. And that’s when we suddenly have Red Dawn but of the home grown variety rising up against the forces that have oppressed them and made the act of living worse than the act of dying would be.
Or maybe the oppression works with the help of big tech, major control systems like social media, and the use of violent force to oppress dissent before it can organize (and I don’t mean organize to get a protest permit or to get signatures on a petition). And if that happens – then we are living in a combination of Brave New World and 1984.
This has all been pretty obvious for a while now and I don’t think the process can be stopped. At this point, I don’t even have an interest in stopping it. The bad has to come before any good can come out of it. Sorry, not sorry. Like the Christians who are rooting for the antichrist so that they can have Jesus come back, I am rooting for the Empire to take control of the Federation – or something like that.
My impression is that for most, life in the USA absolutely sucks. And for a smaller minority – everything is awesome, just like the Lego Movie.
I’ve tried really hard not to say this side good this side bad in this – but of course, it couldn’t be helped. I have opinions. I’m not rooting for left or right, Republicans or Democrats, MAGA or ANTIFA – I’m rooting for the side that hasn’t started playing yet. When that side emerges, I’ll express my support for it. It’s not here yet though. For the moment, I’m happy to watch all the competing sides lose.
For the moment, suffice to say – it’s a dark time in America and times are going to get way fucking darker.