Sometimes it is a real struggle to get one's head around the things happening in the country and around the world. It seems so increasingly bizarre, as if human kind has reached some tipping point of shared insanity. Terrorism, the deliberate targeting of non-combatants for bombings, airstrikes, drone attacks, rocket barrages, and (apparently) chemical assaults, is a daily occurrence. The psychology, history, and social forces behind such atrocities are surly complex to the point of being unfathomable, but in the end some twisted up individual pulls the trigger that leads to the immediate butchering of people who were not, themselves, butchers.
Slightly down the scale of crazy lay the policy choices of government officials the world over. Places where government is actually functioning more or less to the benefit of the population it governs are distressingly few. There are utterly failed states of mayhem and anarchy. There are empires of brutal dictators and populations suffering under religious tyranny. On a list of risk for failure there are thirteen nations counted as "sustainable", i.e. little or no risk of failing. Thirteen, of one hundred seventy seven. There are thirty eight listed as having a "moderate" chance of failing, including the US of A. Just on the surface it would seem that the nation/state is turning out to be a pretty poor choice as a way to structure human society.
In many cases, as it is in the US, the risk factor compromising the sustainability of a society seems to be rampant corruption with the resulting coalescence of wealth and power into the hands of the very few. Sometimes such imbalances are corrected though the political process. Laws written by the elite to serve the elite get re-written to serve the majority. Officials and moguls guilty of bribery and being bribed, of buying influence and selling same, are voted out of office and (very rarely) jailed. International and domestic policies enacted at the expense of the general population for the benefit of the ruling faction are abandoned by those answering to the call of being public servants. Instead are offered policies aimed at the public good.
There is a small chance that such inside-the-system reformation could still happen in the US, and one hopes such a righting is in our near future. If it doesn't happen soon though, it will not happen that way at all. At some point the power is so concentrated, the society so skewed, and the general population so disenfranchised that the political system breaks down. Some form of open revolt becomes the only option for change. Politicians are driven from office rather than voted out. Judges are hounded into hiding. The concentrated wealth of the elite is mostly confiscated and redistributed though, inevitably, some of it is simply destroyed. Once the fires have burned out new wealth is created in a more equitable manner.
Those same fires tend to burn down the political structures as well. New ones are created with the hope that the flaws in the old that weakened the system to the point of collapse are corrected. Any such reworking of the American system would surly dismiss the idea of an Electoral College. The ranking of a Senate as the primary governing body with its unequal representation might also disappear. (The two Senators from Wyoming represent 288,206 people each. The two Senators from California? Nineteen million, twenty thousand, seven hundred and fifteen ... each. Yet they all wield equal power.) A Supreme Court, appointed for life and vested with the power to sell the political system to the highest bidder, is ripe for overhaul. Gerrymandering congressional districts would hopefully fall into the trash bin of bad ideas as well.
The flaws built into the current American government structure are pretty fundamental. The Electoral College, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and the gerrymandering of Congress are all at the very core of a political system gone awry. Thus is seems even less likely that renewal can come through somewhat benign political processes. Maybe, if a new party was swept into power with a mandate to overhaul these very flaws using the Amendment provisions provided in the Constitution, a party that had the support of like minded State governments, change could happen inside the boundaries of politics. But given the propaganda capabilities of the current two party / corporate / media coup d'état, such an organized and thoughtful path into the future is unlikely. Some form of open citizen's rebellion is more likely.
Unfortunately such rebellions are much more likely to succeed if undertaken by an unarmed population as opposed to an armed one. An unarmed people bring down a government by a collective force of will; general strikes and mass demonstrations supporting a common goal. The society's shared wealth of infrastructure is not destroyed. Community sized political structures often remain to help with the rebuilding. The military can stand aloof as a kind of referee and a deterrent to other nations being tempted to move in to scoop up some of the loot.
Armed populations in revolt rapidly degenerate into various embattled camps, of which the soon-to-be-ex-government and its military is the best equipped. Most of the collective wealth of the nation is destroyed during the struggle, taking generations to rebuild. War lords become the new elite and the people end up trading one form of oppression for an even bleaker future.
A tendency which does not bode well for the renewal of the United States.
Making getting one's head around the whole current situation even more difficult. How can a free and somewhat knowledgeable people vote in a T-party, listen to a Rush Limbaugh, or tolerate a Michele Bachmann? Who is raising kids that kill in the name of a god? How is it the money is spent to keep the planes flying on time but kids and old people are going without food, cancer patients are going untreated, the bridges are falling down and the water systems are falling apart? The failures of "austerity" politics are shrugged off though millions are unemployed and the vast majority still working have seen wages stagnate or shrink for more than a decade. Some eight or nine out of ten of us want to reign in the madness of the NRA and gun manufacturers. The response given by the Senate of the United States to the desires of their constituents, "Fuck off".
We could vote them out but any likely replacements will be vetted by the same special interest elite and presented to the public by the same corporate media. But should the people of the United States take to the streets to demand renewal the camps of the NRA, T-party, and religious extremists will surly gather up their guns and hijack any attempt to move into a better future. Though they might claim to be part of the rebellion the true goal would be strengthen some part of the current government. The NRA and weapons manufacturers need a society of violence and war. The T-party is opposed to social and economic justice with the idea of expanding the power of democracy to all constituencies being their worst nightmare. The religious right, (the "god loves the NRA, hates fags, and created women to have babies" crowd) want nothing to do with universal civil rights or an open and tolerant society.
It may well be that the path to a better future for most people lies outside the boarders of the United States. The Arab Spring has failed, but that does not mean Australia or New Zealand are falling into the hands of religious dictatorships. The nations of South America, with a firsthand view of what happens when capitalism goes off the rails, could forge a different path. Canada seems to have far fewer crazies than the US and, if they can avoid the fallout from a major nation folding along a shared 3,987 mile border, could be part of a democratic future for the world. The sheer weight of the populations of China and India may force those governments onto a more open path. India has a few step lead on China, but no government can face down a Billion+ pissed off people who can access Facebook, Twitter, and the Web. (The people of China and India are not very heavily armed, giving social unrest in those nations a much better chance of succeeding in going forward rather than backward.)
For those inside the US things may not be as grim as it appears. People in my generation have seen the fruits of an entire working life siphoned off into the coffers of Wall Street and small faction of the obscenely rich. But we are nearly as wedded to capitalism and religion as were our parents, and can barely see over the boarders of America. The generation after mine struggles just to get a finger hold on any promise for a better future and for them capitalism is a system that seemed to work, almost, at some time in the past. Institutionalized religion still sways their world view but for them the world is a smaller place than it is for us. The generation after, that of my grand kids ... I think they are the first generation of Americans most likely to take to the streets with some hope of going forward rather than back.
All indications are that they are a generation that is not homophobic, racist or sexist. There will be no majority of race or religion to bully the rest. Tolerance will be as natural to them as breathing. For the most part they will not grow up gun owners or hunters. An urban history rather than rural background will frame their lives and the only economy they will know is that of failed capitalism. They will be a social generation having been city dwellers and having had access to the Web from the day they were born. For them boarders will not be nearly as broad nor "other peoples" very far away. Anyone will be able to communicate with everyone speaking any language, and religion? It is hard to imagine many of them insisting that theirs is the religion of the one true god.
They may well be the true "greatest generation". When they take to the streets the future will look bright indeed. And they will start coming of age in less than 20 years.
I can get my head around that.
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