As a 46 year old I feel the country since the late seventies has lied to us .
The lie took many forms: work hard and you will do well,get a good education you will do well,keep your nose out of trouble and you will do well,corporate america has our best interest at heart because you know capitalism or some such bs,Soviets,red Chinese , North Koreans all bad, name brands mean better quality,save money buy a house gives long term stability,drill more drill everywhere for oil and this will reduce our dependency on foreign sources and reduce gas prices,commercially produced and prepared food is safe and good for you,nutra sweet, saccharin,high fructose sweeteners good for you and cheap,gluten, capitalism gives best results,eggs and milk bad for you because of cholesterol,eggs milk good for you because of special kind of cholesterol unknown prior that is good for you,American made means quality,The world loves us because we are special,the world hates us because we think we are special,401k's great,stock market wonderful,welfare queens and minorities are bad, lazy,criminals,oriental people work hard and are very smart,government evil,government great.I could spend hours adding to this list of lies and propaganda .We have spent our whole lives being lied to by everything and everyone it feels like we are getting to the point in this country that all the lies are so conflicting us that we just don't know what to do or what to believe in anymore .The contradictions that now are becoming so apparent in so many things and people that we are becoming schizophrenic.Just watch tea baggers or many right wing politicians trying to placate their base who still believe all the things that they were taught and cant give up on them and some of this is on our side as well and we just wont call a time out as a country and admit for what ever reason that we lied to ourselves and happily allowed others to lie to us. Am I alone in these feelings or are others feeling the same way? Yes we need a national dialog on race but more so we need a national dialog on truth,,not the subjective kind but the real kind..The kind we can all with few exceptions believe in and until that happens i'm afraid things will get much worse . Thanks for reading and very sorry for all the English grammar rules that I butchered today may they rest in peace.