Staring down into our iPhones, desktops, and tablets, we're emotionally sheared off from one another like wool is from its sheep. And, since our emotions have been shorn from us, we don't see death. More accurately, we don't see death as it affects others. All we do see are memes and politics with one team yelling at another team as if the Other were the Antichrist. Basically, we don't see each other as people (Think COVID). We see what someone else with an agenda wants us to see as they pull our strings and we act like the marionettes they so strongly desire us to be, seeking money, power, or the fulfilment of their faith.
Maybe we've always simply been pieces of a grand chess game played out on an American stage, but we've always managed to fool ourselves into thinking that we're important pieces. We're Americans. We've always at least been knights, never mere pawns. If all else fails, it’s true of the people of our great middle class. Since we can become middle class with strong effort and strong will, it will all work out. That's the American Dream.
But this pandemic has shown us a few things, right? By and large, we've never been in control, we could only ever serve as pawns in one agenda or another and lift ourselves up in that way. So, now that people like Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are arrogantly and ham-fistedly tugging at our marionette strings, like some overly cocky newbie puppet operator on his first day, that illusion of American exceptionalism vanishes like the day dream it always was.
Our goal should be to learn how to cut the marionette strings.