The American disease

There is no doubt that the USA has been something of a powerhouse for a good deal of its very short history. It has benefitted from accidents of time and nature, of geography and sometimes blind determination. Not everything it has ever done, of course, like any other modern (or ancient) nation-state, is worth praising. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone gets some things wrong, but it is the sign of a healthy mind that we learn from these and not do them anymore. Unfortunately, this is precisely the virus that is infecting the country right now: it refuses to learn.

America talks a good game when it comes to ideals: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness; freedom, democratic processes, and equality of opportunity. Unfortunately, the reality is anything but this. It is actively seeking to restrict democratic processes, through legislation and precedent; it is raping the environment in the name of economic growth, it supports corruption and lawlessness, as the recent refusal to prosecute the criminals involved in the recent economic crash has shown; it has gone after whistleblowers with a vengeance; it has suppressed its minorities (again); it refuses to admit to, or even acknowledge, its genocidal past; it knows no solution to international problems other than war and violence; it has no hesitation committing war crimes (drones, torture) in pursuit of its interests; and it is doing all it can to suppress the last remnants of opposition at home.

Now, I don't know if this is what the majority of Americans want, nor whether this is the America that the majority of Americans see. It really doesn't matter. This is their country and the simple fact that there is no visible resistance to this reign of power and terror -- political, social, and economic -- makes those of us outside believe that Americans are, well, OK with all of this. This is really a situation of silence being assent, of not-acting-against being support-for.

Unfortunately, part of America's current power is perceived to be expressed in economic terms. The American capitalist system, the great delusion of trickle-down, the rape of resources, the blatant disregard for human feelings or rights, is one of the two vehicles the country has chosen to spread to the rest of the world (the other being outright war, including drone attacks and clandestine operations). What Americans apparently don't realize and what too many non-Americans don't recognize is that we not only don't need this, we don't want it either.

The US is ill, in so many ways, and it is simply bad manners and inconsiderate to go out and deal with others when you should be at home recuperating. My suggestion, therefore, is that the US simply go home. Go back to your own four walls and sort yourself out before you insist on sorting the rest of us out.

Yes, America has traditionally liked to think that it knows what is best for all us. It doesn't. It is in such a state of delirium that it can't even see what it is doing to itself. It's time to stop spreading this American disease. "Physician, heal thyself."

Mental illness

For those of you who think I've been overly hard on one side of the political aisle, I would hasten to add that conservatives are not the only problem. One of the most inadequate features of modern thinking is the unjustifiable notion that if you don't think one thing, you automatically think it's opposite. This is so widespread, especially in the USA (just listen to any purported political debates going on right now), that it is more than just disconcerting. It's almost frightening ... but that's a topic for another time.

As I pointed out a post or two ago, conservatism is not a political notion. It is simply an attitude that some people have developed. When seen from a political point-of-view, however, the so-called liberals are no better. Why? They buy into the same outdated and outmoded ideas that conservatives do. The conservatives don't want to change anything, and the liberals only want to change how you use money. The winners, in the end, are the same people: those who are keeping resources scarce, lending money, and pushing their political power around. In politics, everybody loses ... except the politicians and the money-people. Politicians themselves don't always win, but their money-people do. Regardless of what it will cost anyone else.

The problem with backward-oriented views and backward thinking is that they provide no solution for the problems we have today. Our biggest problem is that we fail to recognize what are major problems really are. Resource scarcity, debt, nationalism, war, aggression, terrorism ... none of these are the problems. No, they are symptoms. Anyone who has had a major illness knows that you can never get better if your doctor only treats symptoms. The illness has to be treated or things will only get worse. And that's all we do these days: argue about symptoms, but no one wants to get down to actually addressing the root causes, that is, the illness itself.

Our illness is a mental illness. Yes, in a sense, we're all just a bit sick in the head. Our problem is our attitude, no more, no less. We refuse to acknowledge a few simple facts, and as we all know, people who refuse to acknowledge reality are, well, mentally ill. For example, it is a fact that the level of debt in the world is higher than all the goods and services the world can produce. On the other hand, it is a fact that there are enough resources on earth to provide every inhabitant with much more than s/he needs. It is a fact that national interests cause more problems than they solve. It is a fact that private interests are in conflict with the public good.

It would seem, then, that the inmates are running the asylum. And we wonder why things are getting better?