We predict that for many decades after the present state of the American nation, the root causes will be debated by political scientists, historians and sociologists. Depending upon one’s individual philosophy and established belief system, the attributing causes will be various and varied; inadequate education, the substitution of a reliance on electronics for human interaction and the exercise of reason, the great and inequitable disparity in wealth, bigotry and discrimination, the primacy of profits over the health of the nation and the planet, xenophobia and immigration neurosis, and so many others, all contending for first place. The one cause of failure, no doubt, agreed upon by all academics is the nation’s lack of sufficient literacy and concerned awareness, as recommended by President Thomas Jefferson.
The admirable and innovative attempt by the Founders of the republic, to establish a classless democratic republic, was subsequently frustrated by the disappointing evolution of a citizenry of mere viewers and spectators, as opposed to readers and participants. Our Founders assumed that the literate and informed citizenry, with mutual love of country, and in brotherly fashion, would debate the issues of the day; the result of which would help guide the nation. The upshot would be, as intended, a government by, and for the people. Instead, hostile partisanships developed, which resulted in the formation of various insular groups, sharing mutually common opinions, at complete odds with each other; instead of the useful exchange of views, the result was hatred, and the death of civic amity.
Another factor was the (sociopathic) motivation of many large entrepreneurial corporations, in the exaltation of profits above the health and welfare of human beings and the planet.
Bigotry and prejudice, no doubt the result of the desperate desire of the ignorant, low information reductionists, for a respectable place on the “pecking order,” in an attempt to acquire some needed semblance of self-worth and valued identity.
A cause for failure (incredibly, in a nation composed of all immigrants and their descendants) was a xenophobic hatred of immigrants. The Nazi- style treatment of vulnerable people, fleeing danger and poverty, is a clear and obscene refutation of the American way, oiur and American history. This neurosis, we feel, is not entirely distinguishable from the religious zeal demonstrated by the pro-gun supporters, who continue to misread the truthful intention of the 2nd Amendment, especially in its historical background. Divisive national strife, and even worse, many tragic deaths of innocent people is the proximate result.
There is, as stated above, a primary cause of the decline of the republic to its present state, which should be agreed to by all contending academics: incompetence. Our sad descent to a nation of viewers and spectators, as opposed to readers, thinkers and doers, has been the enabling factor. The ultimate evidence of this assertion is the comic book elevation of an ignorant, egocentric and immoral, T.V. game show host to America’s Oval Office. As could be expected, and in a relatively brief time in office, he has profaned the institution of the American Presidency, the nation, and its traditional place in world history, and has also embarrassed the American people. He and his enablers, have profanely demoted the coveted American dream to the status of a disturbing and fearful nightmare.
-p.
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