The beauty of trends is that they can be reversed and mostly just fade away. America, my home, has passed the point where the problems ailing its vital systems (democracy, economy, foreign policy, education, health care) can no longer be referred to as trends. For many years, I've quietly observed and analyzed the American socio-political landscape. The perplexing and intellectually comical conclusion I've come to is that the rate at which the number and magnitude of our problems ascend is inversely proportional to the intelligence of our responses to them. In other words, the worse things get, the dumber we respond to them.
- Wall St. blows up the global economy? Bail them out, punish no one, and do no regulatory reform of consequence.
- Radical Islamists not associated with any flag fly planes into buildings? Start two wars of occupation killing over a million people (us and them) and costing trillions of dollars.
- Democracy overrun with corporate money and influence? Make a supreme court decision allowing them unlimited monetary access.
Given the premise that the trend of bad decisions is not a trend but a worsening status quo, then it is only a matter of time before we implode, revolt, fragment, or fade into irrelevancy. Maybe I'm going overboard but part of me feels like that can't happen soon enough. This country has become a terrible joke to me and I don't see the will or the intelligence in the people to do anything about that. Undoubtedly, I am cynical. However, that's better than being foolish. Which is what you'd have to be in order to suspend reality long enough to see the hope you thought was coming in '08.
(Part two will be a reflection of how this problem interplays with my aspirations, plans, and reality.)
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