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The Fall of the United States
We have the purpose of preventing bigots and ignoramuses from controlling… the United States.
--Clarence Darrow at the Scopes Monkey Trial.
Welcome to the late great United States – a country in economic and moral free fall. A country in thrall to a cult of greed, selfishness, and ignorance.
A country that is trying to hold onto its belief in its own “exceptionalism,” even as it rejects the very forces that made it exceptional.
Once, the US was a leader in science. Today, most Americans are scientifically illiterate and one of the major political parties – Republicans-- largely rejects science and scientists as "elitist." Research budgets are being slashed. The space shuttle has flown its last flight. Climate scientists are demonized and marginalized, even as epochal storms, heat waves, and draughts sweep across our country and lay waste our planet.
Once, US infrastructure was the envy of the world. Our planes, our trains, our highways, our damns, bridges, buildings and communication systems were the benchmark against which other countries measured their worth. Investing in it created well-paying jobs and wealth-generating capacity. Now, it is a crumbling punch line to a tragic national joke.
Once, the US system of laws and regulations was recognized as the pre-requisite of a civilized and prosperous society. It created transparent markets; honest securities exchanges; level playing fields for all players; equitable sharing of wealth between workers and managers; safe and humane working conditions; a clean and livable environment. Today, most Americans think government regulation destroyed the economy. They even believe that the plutocrats who destroyed this regulatory infrastructure -- the most successful wealth-generating machine in the world’s history -- are the “job creators” and the source of the formerly shared prosperity that is now disappearing into the coffers of the few from the wallets of the many.
Once, the US educational system was the preeminent model for educating the populace. While our Universities are managing to hold on to their esteemed position by their thumbnails (partly by attracting talented foreign students), our K-12 programs are not keeping up.
What do these all have in common?
They were the source of our national prosperity and they were funded or enabled in whole or part by the government.
Federal research yielded a steady stream of innovation – the agricultural revolution; the aerospace industry; computers; the Internet; most of the important breakthroughs in Pharmaceuticals and health care; the GIS system. While the investments continued, the jobs came and the wealth flowed. But today, the spigots are turned off, the seed corn eaten.
Federal,state and local government's investment in energy, transportation, communication, and water supply infrastructure yielded enormous financial returns. Now these systems lie crumbling around our collective ankles and workers line up for unemployment as half empty trucks dodge potholes on our national highways.
Investment from around the world flowed into the US, bolstered by the fact that our well-regulated financial markets were not only honest and transparent, but that they fulfilled their fiduciary responsibility to manage risk prudently when handling other people’s money. Now, our markets are a wild-west shoot out, with a few winners, many losers and all the trustworthiness of a tiltable Vegas roulette table.
Education? Take the case of California, which has had a 40 year jihad against taxes. When Reagan assumed the governorship, the state ranked number one in education, and colleges and universities charged no tuition. Now the state’s K-12 school system ranks in the bottom half of the country and college costs are skyrocketing. And ever since Reagan brought his “government is the problem mentality” to Washington, the rest of the country is following suit.
Two important things happened this week, and both point to the decline of America. At the Republican Tea Party debate, a cheering jeering crowd supported the idea that a man who didn’t get health care insurance should be allowed to die. Meanwhile, the Census Bureau reported that poverty in the US reached its highest level since 1993. In absolute terms, more Americans are below the poverty level than at any time in our history.
These events are connected. When greed becomes our moral compass, then tolerance and humanity die, and prosperity is a casualty.
Alan Grayson compared the Tea-Partiers in Florida on Monday night to the Romans at the Coliseum calling for the lions to eat the Christians.
It is an apt metaphor. The Patricians – plutocrats all – have been using their bought and paid for media to field a long-running circus featuring illusion, delusion, distraction and deception. The populace, distracted by this steady stream of “reality show news,” now regularly chants for the death of the very force which made their lives the apogee of shared prosperity – a government that represented them, not a few fat cats.
Cheer and jeer on, America. But know this: unless we miraculously stand up to the ringmasters, and confront the circus that has become our political process, we are cheering our own demise.
147 Comments so far
Show AllGrayson's metaphor may be apt but where's the bread?
And please give us answers to the question.
How do we miraculously stand up to the ringmasters, and confront the circus that has become our political process?
Maybe the answer is in miracles, but I doubt it.
HOW???
National Strikes and Work Slowdowns is in the street actions.
Vote out politicians unresponsive to the voters.
Both will not happen because the American people are afraid and cowards and have lost the ability to recognise politicians who are working against their interests.
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"Both will not happen because the American people are afraid and cowards...."
Don't give in to fatalism. Just 3-5% of us with courage and persistence could form a pretty disruptive nonviolent resistance movement.
Mark Kurlansky's book on "Nonviolence" is a persuasive argument that violence has never solved anything and that the only revolution that power truly fears is a nonviolent one.
As soon as nonviolence gives way to violence it has lost its moral authority as well as the entire war. As soon as violence is used power can claim they had no choice but to defend themselves through violence.
Many people will have to die nonviolent deaths before world opinion becomes outraged and demands an end to violence, but usually far fewer than in an armed revolt.
Gandhi and MLK are good examples.
Great courage is required for an active nonviolent revolt. Many people can be found to fight and die against impossible odds. Few will sacrifice their lives in a nonviolent cause.
Nonviolence is not passive. If you are passively allowing others to hurt you you are are complicit in the violence. Non-cooperation means not using any of the state's goods, systems, money---as far as is possible.
The state may be deprived of labor by forming enclaves which grow their own food, make their own clothes, cut their own firewood, build their own machines, etc. Many find such a life deeply satisfying.
"As soon as nonviolence gives way to violence it has lost its moral authority as well as the entire war. As soon as violence is used power can claim they had no choice but to defend themselves through violence."
It isn't just a matter of moral authority or "power" claiming anything. It is a matter of if you overthrow "power" with violence, what is to prevent someone else also overthrowing you with violence? So, you either end up being overthrown by someone more violent than you, nastier than you, or, you become the most violent, the nastiest.
Either way, you end up with a Stalin type in power.
Tell that to Fidel Castro.
Americans are not cowards and there is nothing wrong with us. The problem is that the US is not a democracy.
An answer is a better democracy that is not elective--not ruled by money. One ruled by a random selection of voters who would form the legislative body. Every segment would be represented and money would have a hard time influencing them since there would be little chance of their being selected again.
The big problem is elitism. Who would trust an uneducated person to be as brilliant as Paul Ryan?
I think it is not yet time for solutions. Some of us have known these things for many years and we have wrestled despondency, anger and impatience. But I'm coming to see those emotions are what comes with awareness and foresight. Until a super majority (2/3) of our voting citizens awaken to these things, solutions probably aren't possible. By example, humor, and persistent, patient teaching we will manage to awaken people, to create the conditions for effective change. And as each person awakens, many will also go through the cycle of despondency, anger and impatience. Since we know this, we must be ready to "be there" for those we awaken so they can get their bearings and realize it's okay to know these things and not be able to change them just yet. We are building relationships -- and any solution will take strong, honest, committed relationships between us and those who are now strangers to us, those yet to awaken to some raw realities. In the mean time, there are many authors, new and old, that bring forth ideas that we can incorporate into solutions -- new: David Korten, Thomas Greco, and others in the New Economy movement; old: Henry George for one. In addition to teaching others by words and example, those of us who are awake need to be able to read, understand and discuss with each other the ideas that some of these authors bring forth. That's what I'm doing, for now, anyway -- in addition to growing much of my own food with my partner and participating in the current economy as an IT professional.
Well put. I've been thinking along these lines for a long time and fully agree that "Until a super majority (2/3) of our voting citizens awaken to these things, solutions probably aren't possible." The question is will the super majority come about before America as we know it goes over the cliff?
My addition is based on the (metaphorical) lemmings which from time to time rush over the cliff: but obviously not all them, otherwise there wouldn't be any repeat performances. Likewise the rise and fall of great empires.
Thus I would add another feature to your thinking which is to be ready to "stop and tie our shoe laces" as the sleeping majority continues straight ahead to destruction.
The 2/3rds is the end result, not the program itself. Margaret Mead's dictum -
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - still holds true.
And what we have to realize is that this is exactly the basis for the current success of the far right. The "Reagan Revolution" aside; though it was itself the product of a band of "dedicated Goldwater-ites" from 1964; that group was not half as much the problem as the little cabal that surrounded Grover Norquist. His "small group of thoughtful, committed citizens" got together around his idea of "shrinking the federal government down to a size where it can be drowned in the bathtub" back in the 1990's. And from the original cast of warped minds that he first collected together - bolstered by right-wing foundations and millionaires - eventually grew a weekly prayer meeting at the White House under GW Bush, and has now inculcated the Tea Party and the rest of the religious right, and neo-conservatives; and gotten judges, politicians and educators into positions of high power, to become that which Ms. Mead predicted - a group that is changing the world - unfortunately for us, it's for the worst.
If we are going to respond, we must look carefully at how this little band of un-merry men accomplished what they have, because that's who we're up against, not the more recent collection of potential brown-shirts that make up the Tea Party. This is a very well-oiled movement that still only has a very small minority of actual support. But that minority includes much of the "monied master class" - which finances everything from phony scientific studies refuting climate change, to lobbying for the end to all taxes on the rich - and it is supported by the indolent mainstream media, which can't or won't tell the rest of us what's really going on.
The strength of our side must rely on another old dictum - "no revolution has ever succeeded without the support of the middle class". I don't actually know if that's true, but if you include the inaction of the middle class to revolutionary movements, it pretty well describes most of the revolutions that I'm familiar with. And the flaw in the Norquist Revolution, is that it is the middle class that is being destroyed in this tragic episode in our history.
So it's quite likely that your 2/3rds is out there, though I'm guessing that a little more than 1/3rd is really all that's really needed. (An independent can be elected with a little over 1/3rd of the vote over a Dem or a Rep, and that only takes about 20% of the population.) But what we're missing is the "small group of thoughtful, committed citizens", and while many individuals are noted as being on the right side of the issue, and there are many groups working on some piece of the puzzle, I don't see that "group" of which Ms. Mead spoke.
I'm ready; but we must realize how ingrained the opposition has become. Our military is now heavily made up of evangelical warriors; the radical right has armed itself to the teeth, circumvented nearly all laws to stop them from further arming themselves, and will probably be as willing to use their weapons against us as they are against abortion providers; the courts will be in right-wing hand for years to come; and the educational system, and any form of independent media has been destroyed.
We baby-boomers did really shitty job of protecting the foundations that our freedoms were based on, and now we (and generations that we let down) have to pay a price. Though we've let a huge portion of our heritage and common fortune be squandered and plundered, I believe we still have enormous untapped resources, and I believe that - like the theory of the egg shell needing to harden enough for the chick to break though - it may have needed to come to a point such as this, for us to realize what we have lost or are about to loose, and actually do something about it.
I'm interested in anyone who has ideas on the next steps.
Jim M
According to http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. …" is disputed and says, "No contemporaneous source is known. Ralph Keyes, in the introduction to The Quote Verifier (2006), p. xvi, gives this as an example of situations where derivative sources merely cite each other and no one knows the original source." Still, it's a nice thought.
In any case, I'm confused as what you mean by 2/3. In the original posting I took it to mean 2/3 of the voters who would make a major change in the way the US government operation but if it meant the percentage of people who changed the minds of voters at large, it could be way less than 2/3. Please clarify.
However, given the number of empires who have changed as opposed to disappearing with some new system of government put into place, I think it's more realistic to think that the United States will effectively disappear and something else will take it's place. Perhaps not, but best to be prepared for that eventuality.
Understood. But I think I'll squat facing the lemmings to tie those laces instead of bending over in the direction they're going :)
Good point. When I imagined it I was off to the left, turned to the right watching them rush by thinking, "Bon Voyage!" ... More or less the story of my life; when so many people are rushing to get more money, buy more things, I've always looked for how to have more time to contemplate the nature of reality, so to speak.
It isn't often that I see Henry George referred to. I recommend that everyone read PROGRESS AND POVERTY and connect with other admirers of Henry George.
In the meantime, when can we start our own nonviolent revolution? I'm ready.
Alas! It isn't often that I see Henry George referred to, either, though PROGRESS AND POVERTY was among the "Scriptures" carried through the Labor Movement in the earlier part of the twentieth century among Socialists, Communists, Anarcho-Syndicalists, and Industrial Workers of the World alike...
I wholeheartedy commend and second your recommendation!
Why is it that people always demand solutions? Get off your lazy ass and create your own!!
Get together with neighbors, colleagues and others to discuss the issues.
Organize a strike. If you don't belong to a union, join one or organize one.
Organize a sit-in (like they did in Wisconsin) and TAKE OVER buildings and offices.
Support and/or create alternative media.
Run for elected office - ANY office, school board, etc.
STOP waiting for others to show you the way and get off your damn ass and DO something YOURSELF.
If something doesn't work, try something else.
STOP waiting for top-down solutions, and BUILD your OWN. If you don't know how, read Saul Alinsky for some tips.
The only reason things are the way they are is because YOU let it.
Maybe it is because we're all not imaginative and effective community organizers and these pundits get paid big bucks to keep preaching to the choir the same descriptions of our problems without offering any solutions.
So maybe they can, once, offer some solution that doesn't involve me actually throwing my body upon the gears while they get a further paycheck for writing about it.
And don't worry, if this is all you have to offer, no one is going to call you "king".
Don't be so ignorant. The point is that solutions come from the people, not from someone writing about the problem. Nor should the writers be obligated to provide any answers.
Unfortunately, it will (at least figuratively) take throwing your body against the gears to make changes.
It doesn't take much creativity to talk to others, just action.
Don't be so arrogant. Someone writing about a problem is not one of the people? Someone writing about the problem has not had the opportunity to learn OF the problem, thereby being in a position to offer solutions and analyze there effects?
Oh, I see, your writing about the problem, hence we can't expect a solution from you. And we see you had none to offer, except that one, or some, of the people come up with their own solution.
I guess if you were a Dr, you'd just diagnose the problem, much as these writers, and leave the solution to the people?
You throw your body against the wheels, mine's already been broken enough.
Again, you have nothing to worry about.
More ignorance on your part, sadly. Solutions should be ground-up, not top down. What don't you get about that? Each individual and community is going to have more or less unique problems, hence require unique solutions. If you require solutions, then CREATE them. What works for one may not work for another, so why should Atcheson or anybody else provide solutions for the benefit of those who can't think for themselves?
People who insist that others provide solutions are the epitome of laziness, cowards or trolls. If you don't like something, then CHANGE it. Stop waiting for a messiah and do it yourself. I offered just a couple examples of things that could be done. You, on the other hand, just blather on and on.
That's not arrogance, that is fatigue at the typical hand-wringing exhibited by so many. Arrogance is when people apply standards (e.g., the "purity rule") to anyone who dares to comment on what they see as a problem, while they themselves do nothing whatsoever.
Get off your arse and be the change you want. Or crawl back under your rock.
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Yes!
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I agree. Thanks for the comment.
we become willing to review what we cherish: our stuff...
to truly 'stand up' will require sacrificing much to which we've become accustomed, but it is necessary to ensure the survival of our world...
how do we do this: all together, around the globe, on September 22, 2012...we stop holding to the rules, stop working and paying, and start managing our local resources with our neighbors...
unanimity is both the hurdle, and the key...a date is crucial...
dubet, this article talks of the u.s.'s former prosperity, but never mentions that prosperity for some means poverty for others. Same with the call for infrastructure, roads and bridges, to continue the travesty of carbon based transportation.
David Byrne - We're on the Road to Nowhere
Live small - Share the World
Life is the greatest possession
but, if you use the fork to flip potatoes out of the ground,
put it away when you are done
yea, brother, I liked your comment the other day about removing one's shoes...
few things reconnect one to the ground like feeling it squishing and brushing between one's toes...the warm softness of dirt under one's soles...the cool of the grass and clover...pine needles, beach sand...
I found myself jogging barefoot on natural turf the other week, which is not my usual practice...it was liberating, and quite a powerful reminder...my energy seemed boundless that day, compared to others...
peace to you, my friend...
I believe the people of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have the right idea. You go into the streets and you demonstrate. You take back your country. Or maybe you Americans have forgotten what your Revolution was all about?
Toronto Canada
"To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must be a revolution in the individual, in you and me. Economic revolution without this inward revolution is meaningless, for hunger is the result of the maladjustment of economic conditions produced by our psychological states - greed, envy, ill will and possessiveness. To put an end to sorrow, to hunger, to war, there must be a psychological revolution and few of us are willing to face that. We will discuss peace, plan legislation, create new leagues, the United Nations and so on and on; but we will not win peace because we will not give up our position, our authority, our money, our properties, our stupid lives"--Krishnamurti
Hey Krishna I've had serious inward revolution, but I ain't got no peace. in fact for your information in the real world they Shoot the Messenger.
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It's called building a mass nonviolent resistance movement that persistently confronts elite powers with direct action campaigns over a period of decades. Sorry, but no easy and quick solutions available.
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The above comment is in response the following comment, which appears at the very top of this thread:
Posted by Aberfan
Sep 15 2011 - 8:37am
The people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria seem to know the answer to your questions. Go to the streets and take your country back from the oligarchs. You Americans don't seem to remember what your American Revolution was about! Most of you probably don't even know what an oligarch is let alone that you are being ruled by one.
Toronto Canada
Most empires end up going down this way. Massive wealth inequality, corruption, intentional destruction of anything that helps the average citizen, propaganda instead of news, endless military adventurism, circuses but no bread, the list goes on. Don't look back at what we were to see where we are going, look at a basket case of a country like Haiti instead, because that is our future .....
"Most empires end up going down this way."
MOST?!
Try every single one. No exceptions.
Thank you, philf. And Galen is right, it is all, not most. Amereicha thinks - stupidly - that it will be different for it. Wrong. That is perhaps Amereicha's greatest failing and shortcoming: it's refusal to learn from history. As the old saying goes, those who refuse to learn from past mistakes are guaranteed to repeat them.
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The poor track record of empires was the result of "the people" allowing their greedy and corrupt leaders to lead them off a cliff.
We the people of modern day America have advantages that never existed before. Thus, in the final analysis, we "the people" are not doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past, and we have not yet written the future.
Let us not allow the prospects of societal collapse to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. We can choose to mitigate the damaging effects that are probably already "baked into the cake", and we can also help facilitate a more constructive transition into the post-fossil fuel age. But this will require mass nonviolent organization of the people in the next couple of decades. And while the prospects may seem bleak, it is possible. Besides, it's the only moral and sensible choice we have. So let's seize the opportunity.
I had posted this over at the "GOP attacking regulations" article, but I thought it might be appropriate here too.
The Teabaggers of the GOP will soon be introducing the "New Earth" Act. The act says that if they are allowed to do away with ALL environmental rules and regulations indefinitely, they will pray us a new planet once this one is no longer habitable.
This legislation has been endorsed by the by a wide range of right wing organizations such as the US Chamber of Commerce, The Koch Brothers, The Heritage Foundation (Where the Idea was dreamed up), and conservative Christ-urn churches across the US.
When the legislation passed overwhelming in the Republican controlled congress in 2013, Al Gore went on the attack by saying this was nonsensical foolishness. Michele Bachmann responded by speaking in tongues as she pulled out a VooDoo doll in the likeness of Gore, and violently stabbed it repeatedly until it was unrecognizable. This became know as the "Bachmann Treatment".
Bachmann's response turned out to be key Republican talking point which was repeated daily on every news station, Teabagger convention, and Republican fundraiser.
The "Treatment" turned out to be so popular with their base that the Republican Party made VooDoo likenesses of all their political opponents, and gave the dolls the "Bachman Treatment" anytime an opponent tried to debate a Republican on any political issue.
The American M$M praised the "Bachmann Treatment" as the most brilliant political move they had ever seen, because it usually left their opponents wide eyed and speechless.
Soon after the international press showed the US Ambassador to the UN using the "Bachmann Treatment" on several UN Members that were voting to sanction the US over its dumping of nuclear waste in Canadian waters, the US Dollar lost it's reserve currency status. This caused the US economy to fall into it's greatest depression ever, one that it never really recovered from.
As the lights went out on the Amerikan Empire, Bachmann and several other high ranking Republican leaders were seen dancing with snakes at The Church of God with Signs Following, in an attempt to get god to turn things around for the country.
Obviously it didn't work.
The model for our future is Indonesia complete with a military dictatorship. This is the unofficial policy of the Repubican's and some Democrats. This is the goal of the "C" st Repubicans who exempt themselves from any/all morality while imposing them on the rest of society. Official policies are for public relations purposes. The hero's of the"C" st gang are Suharto, Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and all the other nefarious leader for malfeasance in world history. Welcome to the former USA, now the UCE, United Corporate Empire, funded by taxing labor the forced contributions by withholding taxes.
You can imagine what a conservative (dem or repub) would think upon reading this article: it's the damn liberals (jews, mexicans, muslims, ...) who have ruined this country. Point being, the real architects of US demise were smart enough to 1) train conservatives to blame everyone but themselves and 2) ensure that the children of both cons and liberals weren't capable of figuring the scam out.
I would add to John Atcheson's litany of former indicators of American greatness that have fallen by the wayside, the absolute systematic betrayal of international norms. See my blog devoted to the subject: http://compliancecampaign.wordpress.com/
The super rich wallow in their crooked wealth while the rest of us suffer a stagnant quality of life. There has to be a better way.
This reminds me of a question. I don't know much about "rich psychology", but I'm sure somebody has studied this. The question would be: are the rich more interested in having (a) more absolute wealth, or (b) more wealth relative to the masses?
The answer to a) and b) is: Yes.
There's really no such thing as absolute wealth. If we all made $100/hr, bread would cost $10/loaf.
True..If we were all millionaires we would be poor..lol
It is not the wealth they are after. It is the power over others that said wealth confers upon them.
This power comes with Social Status. They want to be talked about (with envy) by the masses.
Thus the economic system is one that will ensure that "More wealth = more power" (obviously the LESS wealth the massed have the less power, thus the desire of the wealthy so see others even poorer) and the media by design focuses on the wealthy and their needs.
It my belief it the relative wealth that is most important to them.
I agree with you GW.that the more wealth one has the more power and control one has over the material circumstances of life. A dollar buys you a certain amount of choice..A million or a billion would certainly translate into more power and control than a solitary dollar....Money buys choices..the more money you have the more choices you have...I suspect the wealthy do not wish to limit their choices. The relentless quest for power and control is truly the root of all evil.....
I am not sure that the wealthy measure their privileged positions relative to the general population as much as measure relative to those with even greater wealth.....I might be wrong but this has been my personal experience regarding those wealthy individuals I have worked for (and continue to work for) in my particular job..My experience has been that the poor are absent in the narrative of the wealthy. Different worlds...different realities.....They always look up...never down..
Thomas Gilbert
A very well done cautionary tale. Movements are afoot to, essentially, "restore the Republic", and kill the "The Empire" ( ie. essentially the elites of the banking interests & their corporate cronies/henchmen). In this move, government (in its' democratic republican form) is the SOLUTION. The empire will definitely lose (is losing as we speak), but will that "collapsing structure" (like the twin towers) crush us all under its' rubble?
There is no limit to the damage that can be done with a visceral hatred of the truth and unlimited amounts of money.
...not with a bang but a whimper.
It's time to replace the outdated national flag.
My vote is for a silhouette of a Dead Horse lying flat on its side, while humans in colors Red and Blue flog it with long sticks.
Trylon
You have a definite talent for flag design, Trylon.
How about some 'rocket's red glare and bombs bursting in air' in the background?