Blogpost # M. 258 J’ ACCUSE

As a momentary respite from writing on the subject of the horrors of the Trump-distorted Nation, it may instead be an interesting diversion to, instead, consider the various and sundry ways that the traditional institution of the “American Family” has contemporaneously morphed into an analogous microcosm of the present dystopic state of American society.

We have written about our childhood in the 1940s, featuring World War 2 and its historic aftermath. We described those years as memorably evincing a ubiquitous pride in National identity (albeit, complicated somewhat by the atavistic persistence, among some, of ethnic and racial distinctions) and the American stereotypic family as an integral building block in the basic structure of the Nation, analogous to the function of the (then newly discovered) atom as the metaphysical constituent of earthly matter.

At such time, families were routinely perceived as sub-societies with members affiliated officially by blood as well as emotionally, by singular nuance and attachment; a closeness having its etiological advent in biology and subsequently, as developed intimacy founded in personal identification and singular bond. The family, as an intimate unit, mutually experienced feelings of joy, sorrow, and notably shared experiences such as vacations, celebrations, joint outings, and often, worship.

Radio was then the public’s resource for news and entertainment, and served a notable role in joint family interaction. ( see earlier writing, “Radio days”). On sundry evenings, typically after the fully attended family dinner and shared enterprise of clearing the table and washing and stacking the dishes, the family would retire to the living room, for the shared entertainment provided by way of the family radio, often enclosed in an item of decorative wooden furniture strategically placed opposite the living room couch and upholstered chairs. The family unit would listen to the news of the war and, as well, mutually enjoy the regular dramatic serial programs. The stereotypical occasion evinced the mutually understood precedential seating of the members of the attendant family. Notably, this intimate social scenario and mise en place are now relegated to ubiquitous nostalgia.

Our Founding Fathers, as advised by written history, predicted that in the newly created Nation, responsible citizens would, in good spirit, debate the controversial issues of the day, and the conclusions referentially utilized as a guide to the apt governance of a Democratic Republic: “by and for the People.”

History has, nevertheless, demonstrated the optimistic error of the Founders’ expectations. As time progressed, groups of citizens chose to band together with others of like opinion and vilify and denigrate other groups with divergent views, analogous to the existence of a Cold War. Ambitious and unscrupulous politicians tactically began to avail themselves of the personal opportunities posed by such ardent divisiveness. The American society gradually became “Balkanized” or divisive, as distinguished from its temporal congenial bond of common nationality.

The perversely celebrated advent of digital “progress” in communication served as an exponentially toxic catalyst in the developing metastasis of such (personally and nationally) unhealthy, disputational antipathy, and the former communal solidarity of the American Nation quickly became anachronistic and was. transmogrified into a Nation of discreet and impersonal transmitters of digital and inexpressive signals; the latter universal practice resulting in further personal divisiveness and personally isolating singularity. The “smartphone” transmission of inexpresive and non-identifiably nuanced digital messages onto small, handheld, lighted screens dynamically affected our contemporaneous chronic, empirically toxic sequelae of the loneliness of disparate existence. Normal and healthy social interaction was unwisely superseded by facile, albeit emotionally unhealthy, unfulfilling inexpressiveness and personal separation; an existential societal retrogression (albeit, touted as “progress”). The previously existing community of universal National affiliation was digitally hobbled and reduced to an all-pervasive,, lonely individuality.

Societal participation in joint social events, such as community barbeques, dances, general neighborly activities, visiting the public library for the ultimate affirmation of successfully acquired information, book clubs, and reading of character-enlightening literature, generally, became passé and deemed anachronistic in the new world of digital message transmission and robot-initiated activities. One was no longer required to get off the couch to change television programs, hear recorded music, or initiate carpet vacuuming. Accomplishment was universally and sadly conflated with convenience, with the toxic result of human interaction resulting in the decline of the existentially vital, interactive dynamics of healthy human society.

An acquaintance recently asked us why startling media reports show unhappiness, confusion, depression, and even suicide, among many of our younger generation. Resistant as we have eternally been to aphoristic statements, we are, nevertheless, obliged to admit the utility of one which is relevant in this context: “The apple does not fall far from the tree.”

-p.