Pardon my stale, recycled pop culture references. The best ones resonate over and over, like a broken record:
"And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
You may find yourself in another part of the world
You may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
You may ask yourself: well... how did I get here?"
Well, America, how did we get here? At least figuratively, we’ve made it, baby. Free to buy that large automobile and that beautiful (plus-sized) house and that beautiful (plus-sized) wife. And don’t forget to rock your "life is good® baseball cap, onesie or T-shirt, because, after all, we all need reminding from time to time.......right? ?......
Or maybe not. Maybe our appetite for such constant wide-eyed hokum is indicative of some greater rot we all sense growing at our national core. This is decay, and we all feel it. If we didn’t, then jokes like the one from this weekend’s Saturday Night Live wouldn’t have such resonance:
"The Dallas Cowboys fired coach Wade Phillips. ... So, they have a brand new house, a rapid downward spiral and now unemployment. Wow, they really are America's team."
But Wait....There’s Hope.
If you’re a typical American you may not have heard the good news: It doesn’t have to be this way. In other developed countries, they don’t need to slap registered corporate trademarks on their heads and bodies to remind themselves that life doesn’t suck.
In every other developed country, citizens works less and play more than we do right here. Americans work longer; work harder, play less; we get less family time, less personal time, less sick time; we retire later, we die younger, we die poorer; we have worse mental and physical health. No wonder that cheesy narcissistic logo is such a hit in America. When I was in Scandinavia a couple of summers ago, I didn’t see even one of those goddamned hats....Go figure...Relative to our condition, perhaps nothing is rotten in the State of Denmark.
The essense of our problem in America is the Almighty Profit Motive. Money talks and bullshit walks? God, you just KNOW that phrase was coined here in the US of A. Fewer and fewer of us even seem to notice that we're bcoming devoid of anything above and beyond "Earnings". How very cheap of us, the "Richest Nation". How very shortsighted. Maybe the world needs a country of self-imprisoned, hyper-productive capitalist slaves:(
Perhaps, if only we could elect a REAL Socialist for President, something could change...who knows?? The first step is to educate your friends about how and why Socialism is not an ugly word or concept. Socialism is why the Germans and the French and Danish and the Chinese are kicking our prideful American asses in every single way that is measurable.
I’d like Americans to be able to work less and be happier and have more quality time with their families. I’d like to see us retire younger and live longer and be healthier. Remind me how that makes me unpatriotic?
baikal aka dadinleftfield.com