We can’t push a pin in the timeline of American History when it happened, but at some point American culture crossed the boundary of “We the People” and fell into “Me Against the World” territory – as right-wing media likes to preach it, “Don’t trust anybody!!”
Fear pushed us over the edge. Hope wonders if we’ll ever make it back to the real values upon which this country was founded.
I’m not ranting against American individualism. I embrace individualism. I’m referencing hyper-isolationism, and the whittling down of the Social Contract by means propagandizing, monetizing, and evangelizing narratives of destruction and fear. The selling methods that have proven to create conservatism in people and communities around the world.
The “Us Unto Me” metamorphosis is the core of all social and political immobility (and hostility) that we see in United States. One look at Congress and one can plainly see “Us Unto Me” tattooed on their foreheads and voting records. That’s not individualism. That’s the sort of selfishness that throws women and children overboard when the seas get rough. It’s hyper-isolationism, (some would also call it Tea Party Conservatism), that has grown as a result of those in the business of politics employing fear as their primary marketing tool.
Fear-Points In History.
Community-to-individual value morphing can be seen accelerating, in particular, after WWII. The 1950’s shift from a country and world united into one of bloated consumerism and fencing oneself into gated communities was extraordinary. Historically speaking it was almost instantaneous. Thereafter and in smaller increments, every threat to this nation pushes it away from Community and into bunker of Individual.
9/11 is a fear-point in history. Mass shootings, bombings overseas (and for those inside the Republicanland Bubble, basically every broadcast by Fox News) are fear-points. In the aftermath of each we can see how “We the People” inches a bit more towards, “Me and My Own.” (…to be fair… this is not exclusive to America. We can see around the world how the desire of people to be recognized – special – by means of increasing segmentation has had a negative impact on many cultures.)
Fear-points are times when we see “Love thy neighbor” mutating into “Shoot thy neighbor”. I’ve spoken with a dozen or so people who proudly say they would shoot their neighbors to protect their own food supply, “…when the shit hits the fan” (a phrase often helpful to identify preppers in this country). Countless times they’ve imagined – and been told about by salesmen – the end of the world. Many invite it just to prove they didn’t waste $50k on a buried tin can with a bomb-rated door and a 50-inch TV. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve been told, “Just wait… you’ll see, and you’ll be sorry…” It seems a sad way to live a life: existing in an apartment-sized coffin buried deep in the dirt.
But that’s what fear does to a person.
That the shady men of politics decided decades ago to use – to create – fear-points as a means of winning elections and lobbying Congress is what scares me the most. We see it today with American politicians pushing more fear about the Ebola virus as the November election nears. They’re not trying to calm hysteria, they’re trying to create it. Because hysterical fear brings out the conservative vote. When it comes to pushing a pin in the most socially irresponsible acts in history… I put a bright red pin in that one: creating fear to win elections.
We’re Only Animals.
When scared, all animals choose one of two reactions: attack or run away. Fight or flight. For some reason, our species seems to think we’re above this most-base animal characteristic simply because we have talented digits and big brains.
We’re not.
People stampede just as readily as lemmings, cattle, and early adopters on new iPhone release days. Black Friday. Soccer fans. Immigrants. Hazing. Protests. A scary virus. Free range cows look astonishingly well-controlled when compared to the average herd of people.
Some would argue that we are more prone to panic than any other animal on Earth, primarily because of our imagination and propensity to try to predict the future. (Everything from profit margins, marriage potential, SAT scores, end of life and end of days – we use our imagination to predict virtually everything in our lives.) Only humans use religion. Only humans sell futures and credit default insurance. Only humans use anxiety drugs. Only humans can convince themselves a gun under their pillow makes a home more safe. Only humans end life in the name of life’s Creator.
Imagination creates a society, but it can also destroy it. It has. Many times.
Our capacity to imagine has made the human race the most… advanced… species in the neighborhood, but it also plays a key roll in millions of us living in a constant state of fight or flight: building bunkers and boasting of being willing to shoot their neighbors.
When Sirens Blare: What Changed?
During the War communities across the world – on both sides – gathered in groups in designated shelters. When sirens blared, communities huddled together. In America there is no such gathering. It’s the opposite. Modern America is about purification and weeding out those with whom we do not agree. We don’t open our doors when sirens blare, we lock them and reach for our shotguns. In times like those, “When it hits the fan…” the American belief is: lock everyone else out. Let them die. Shoot them if they knock on the door asking for help.
I had the opportunity to work and live in England for awhile. I sort of fell in love with the quiet dignity at the core of Britain. A long history can do that. So, too, does collective survival. I have no doubt that if bombs or shells were to fall again… they would gather as a community, not bunker as individuals (…maybe not Essex). So, too, would Germany. My point is: America would not. The American concept of survival is “Me Against the Rest”. Throw everyone else overboard.
Do heroes still arise when a tragedy strikes? Of course they do. But we’re talking about the moral center of a nation, not the outliers that make the rest of us feel guilty (admit it).
The moral center of America is drifting towards “Let Die My Neighbor”. That’s a major moral shift – predominantly on the far right where the fear mongering is the greatest – that too few in America acknowledge. It goes against the very concept of community, nation, and civilized society. It’s anti-social. It’s anti-nation.
Can We Get Community Bunkering Back?
Ironically, getting back a sense of community is what many within the extreme right wing want the most. They just chose the exact wrong way to do it: exclude rather than include. (Not the best way to make friends.) At least the feeling is the same in all of us. In our guts we all feel that something isn’t right. We just have to demonstrate that shutting everyone out is not the way to get the sense of community back into our lives.
Sadly, the more I look at Western culture and history, the more most American problems can be attributed to two things: being young and being lucky. America won the resources lottery (and stole a lot along the way). Life has been very, very easy for people born on this plot of land. But as with all empires, we will have a few more ups and downs before we fall completely apart.
The next step (… now here this human is trying to predict the future again…) is that America will need to be reminded that nations require investment: investment of time, work, capital, and spirit. Investment requires large groups of people working together. Unfortunately, reaching that realization requires hitting a new bottom, and we’re not there yet.
The first few generations who did make this nation understood what it takes to build a country. (They would have laughed their buckles and chaps off at trickle down economics.) Today, America is in the pampered, rich kid years of development. We’ve been given everything, and don’t appreciate the effort of a bunch of dead people who gave us all we have. The rest of world is not wrong when they call Americans arrogant and boastful. No… we did not build this. Generations past did. We’re just buying and selling houses on their mountains. We live on the interest of their deposit.
Sooner or later the arrogance will fade. It always does when the state of a nation gets bad enough. To begin the re-building process, though, we’ll have to make a real choice. An important choice. A choice between that which helped cause the downfall, Us Unto Me, or that which built this nation: We The People.
Let’s hope we make the right choice.
