A diary with a question about growing up.
Is the U.S. growing up ?
This question is a result of many interests, among them reading the DKos. A recent entry by Fed Up Fed (‘America the beautiful – New lower price’) caught my attention and fired me up. So I wrote a comment. But mayby, someone said, it could be a diary.
Fed up Fed wrote a real good essay, one of the first in which America's fundamental 'growth-problem' is painted so clearly. He asks why aren’t the U.S.A. doing big things anymore. Feeding the poor, caring for our sick. The days when a great nation was measured by how well it its poorest citizens lived. When they built grant monuments, with a profound energy and view. Planting the flag on the Moon, being a number one nation.
I think it asks a deeper question. Is the U.S. growing up?
To be honest, I'm from Europe, so as much as it qualifies me to comment, I realize that your country is as large as all of our countries put together. With the (dis)advantage that you're 'one people under one flag'. That can give a different perspective on such a question.
The easiest one is looking at the outside, from the distance: it was a fresh young nation bolting ahead, like a kid entering a new playground. That kid learnt fast, but often the hard way. In the sandbox he created new, wonderful things, impressing the other kids. But, when drawn into fights, bloodied and torn, stood fast and helped the nerd. Time changed him, he grew up and became a sulking teen. Inside him, emotions, hormones and rage shout for attention. Learning isn't his strong point anymore and spirituality is kinda cool. And those guns I can get make it real easy to get what I want. Useful when I feel like others are looking at me as if I'm something strange.
Still, it's only a view from afar, without any judgement or knowledge.
Another view might have a historical direction. A couple of weeks ago I traveled through the south of France, with its medieval castles and towns. The real politics in those times belonged to a couple of groups: nobility (i.e. laws and weapons), clergy (i.e. spirituality and morals) and 'people of power' (i.e. economy, they fuel and satisfy my needs). They actually owned the world (and your soul). The ordinary folks were just props in their play and paying a stiff price for seeing it. Often a revolt of some kind would happen, usually with a lot of blood. Wars between leaders were also very popular. Most of the times the power-structure would remain the same, be it revolutionary or conservative: the folks needed to be 'shown and directed' and if necessary 'corrected', so power corrupts, no matter which side you belong.
The U.S. isn't a kingdom, but the ruling principles look the same sometimes, from afar.
There’s also now, an actual view. A country, better yet a people getting through another fight. Struggling with it’s demons, gods and mere mortals. Two sides, like a duel in a frontier-town, decide what the future is gonna be. Lovers and respected ones try to influence something already written in the script: “There can only be one”.
From afar, through the screen of distance, it led me to ask that question: ‘Is the U.S growing up?’
When I was young I grew up with 'America, the land of possibilities', a nation that saved my parents from the Germans, landed men on the moon and invented the computer. You were the kid in the sandbox, but, with all due respect, you've grown up into a sulking teen.