Proud Americans

I haven't had a lot to say for a while now. I suppose it's been caused by a combination of disgust and apathy. It's hard to feel anything but apathy as I sit by and watch as our country slowly but surely spirals into its own filth. Why? That EVIL SOCIALIST OBAMA? Are you kidding me? He's about as far left as Ronald Reagan. I feel as if I need to reiterate that our President is not a Socialist. Let's have a dictionary definition of Socialism to finish off this notion. Socialism: a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole. What does that really mean?The government owns the means of production. Period. He has not done any of that. Stop calling him a Socialist.
Which brings me to my point. We call him a Socialist- and all sorts of other names, mainly because of two factors: One) We have been told he's a Socialist by mainstream media Two) We as a country are not educated enough to know what this kind of social organization implies. Why? Because we are ignorant, fat, stupid, and easily led. I know this is the mantra of the erudite class, everyone else is stupid and easily led. One need only to look at the Tea Party rallies to see how easily led people are. Why? Because they want the easy way out. Our sense of work, culture, and self-worth has been so skewed and eroded that we as a country have lost sight of all that is good, real, and worthwhile. We'd rather be placated with stupid one liners that are easily replayed over the course of the day by the laughably bad TV and print media.
What should we, as Americans, be proud of? That we have an increasing number of people living in poverty? That we have more people going hungry? That we have managed to put power and money in the hands of the few rather than the many? That we still have 46 million people living without health insurance?
Americans- really, have nothing to be proud of until they fix these glaring problems. Put down the flag and pick up a book. Questioning your country and its motives, especially your government, is the most patriotic thing of all.

Not a Bit of Hope

So we have millions of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. And- for the last few weeks I have managed to avoid writing about it. But I feel like this BP incident is indicative of the decrepit state of America. As one of my friend's fathers said the other day "Do you know why the USA is like the real estate market? It's good for a while and then it all goes to shit." Millions and millions of gallons of oil gushing into the Gulf will do a number on the Gulf Coast that will destroy its economy for generations. Fishing is nearly gone and will not return for the foreseeable future. Tourism- well, that's out the window too as the oil continues to turn the beaches black. Three of the poorest states in the Union will continue to wither as their economies are sapped of two of their biggest industries. On top of the fact that the ban on oil drilling that will occur will also destroy another large industry- it seems as if the entire area was just turned into pillars of salt.

The general inability of the Obama administration to deal with any of the pressing problems of this country, coupled with the general social unrest and the increasing violence of the fringes of the political sphere- well, it seems like nothing is going to get better. The militant right could indeed seize power as they become better organized and increasingly motivated to vote. As the left and the center of the country become increasingly apathetic, the natural balance to their interests will be made irrelevant.

People are reporting the potential of a double-dip recession if not a full-blown depression. That seems inevitable. The unemployment rate for people aged 14-24 is 25%, whereas it was nearly 40% a few years ago. The unemployment rate for the general populous is hovering around 10%. This does not count the nearly 10% more who are underemployed. This is not because people are not interested in getting jobs, it's because the job market is still so terrible. There has been very little borrowing, very little lending, and the financial reform was not strong enough to change the culture of Wall Street.

We are in for a bleak next few years.