Moronathon

the day begins in blazing orange

i have tried very hard to understand the present dire situation that i believe we are collectively in here in the greatest country ever, the USA.

i read with great interest an essay by robert jensen, a journalism professor in texas, who describes someone who claims he's the greatest with no evidence as either mentally deficient or an "asshole". applied to a nation like the US, the obsession with american exceptionalism among our politicians seems to be holy mantra, but we're only legends in our own minds. still rich and militarily powerful, the US empire is in decline whether we care to acknowledge it or not -- and we're definitely NOT acknowledging it!

in fact, we are demonstrating the opposite -- quite convincingly, i think. still, it does no good to question the dogma that animates our great national delusion. we americans can't stand to be second-best. anyone who questions our superiority deserves to be take down about half a dozen notches just for disrespect. being an american means never having to say sorry.


so we've taken down a tinhorn, second-rate dictator or two, and deported lots of illegal immigrants. we cut our taxes while demanding ever more services from the government (but only if we benefit personally). we  find bright lights and big bargains at the mall, with cheap titillation on TV and the 'net 24/7, and our team in the playoffs. job, mortgage and dog: life is good.

there's one other thing: we're not a class-conscious society in the way our british cousins are. no class warfare entertained or tolerated here. we're told that in our advanced capitalist society that everyone has the chance to become rich -- a notion we more or less embrace without debate.

at the same time we don't resent what the rich have, however, it's different when it comes to the guy next door. if someone we consider no better than ourselves appears to be more successful, then the venom comes out. i'm convinced this is what has doomed the labor unions. no one faults the rich, but regular working stiffs making all that money? we can't stand the idea. when the local bus drivers went on strike, they got no sympathy when their peers learned they were making $17 an hour! as though that was an outrageous sum.

in effect, it's working class people who are driving wages lower and lower, because no one wants to see the other guy get ahead. it's worked itself to the point where working class people are positively hostile to unions -- when organized labor is the only way we'll ever get a more equitable distribution of wealth in this country. the talking points against unions are well rehearsed -- some of the best minds in PR have worked on the problem. and unions themselves have succumbed to the success disease, with leadership that's grown to have more in common with management than the rank and file -- big salaries, mega pensions. the country club set will never take pity on the servant class, after all.

bread and circuses. that's how the roman empire kept a lid on the common folk, and a couple of thousand years later and they still haven't run that scam into the ground. this is the betrayal that i've felt for the past 30-40 years, a betrayal of the promise of a better life, and a more just society over time. we're retrograde. we're lulled by cheap spectacle, kept on edge with lurid tales of what our enemies are up to and finally psyched to resent the next guy if he seems to be getting ahead while we're standing still.

we're not getting better, we're getting chintzier. far from the best or the greatest, we are seduced by tawdry entertainment to accept a stupider and coarser culture. intellectualism is scorned; science is mocked. we, the greatest nation ever in history takes seriously a cardboard cutout of a human like sarah palin, onto which we project ourselves, with all our stupid prejudices and insecurities. we're the grand prix, the world cup of mediocrity, decked out in a gauzy leisure suit thirty years out of style.

it was ironic that the pinnacle of the moronic, ronnie reagan, rode to reelection on the slogan "morning in america". more accurately, it's morning in china, or morning in india, while here it's more like sundown. while our incipient rivals for the title of greatness are actually building economies and societies that have a reasonable chance of attaining greatness at some point, we seem consumed with desire to make this our last hurrah.

last year i happened to be at a rural convenience store at the same time as another guy, plaid flannel shirt and ball cap, swearing a blue streak about illegal immigrants getting free health care while he has to work for everything he gets. why he was so wound up, i couldn't tell -- no mexicans around, as far as i could tell. so i had to conclude that he was simply seething in general about things he'd been listening to on the radio. a non-stop litany of hatred and resentment to others, who if truth be told, were nowhere near living the cushy, paid-for life that the purveyors of AM-radio hatred talk up.

indeed, the poor in america, live a pretty meager existence by any measure (except third-world). if anyone walks into an emergency room seeking treatment, they'll be seen. i fail to see how this is unique to illegal immigrants. of course, if they're migrant workers or living under a bridge, the bill collectors aren't likely to catch up with them, but they're hardly living the high life. but you couldn't tell it to the boiling mad country boy in louisa, va., because he's already made up his mind that no-account foreigners are getting a free ride at his expense.

come to think of it, there are some no-account foreigners who are getting a free ride at his expense, but they're american client dictators in places like afghanistan and pakistan or nigeria. hamid karzi, for example, the former conoco consultant chosen by condi rice to run the american project in afghanistan, not only pockets big money from uncle same, but the iranians have him on retainer, too, for a cool million or so a year. but you'll never hear rush or hannity criticizing our authoritarian friends in places where we have "interests". the real enemies are guys like julian assange and wikileaks who dare to pierce the veil of american conniving around the globe.

we might also reserve some of our outrage for the to-big-to-fail financial institutions whose financial shenanigans brough the world economy to its knees, which necessitated a rescue by the government in the form of trillions (eventually) of taxpayer dollars. it's terribly curious how "the government" can ride to the rescue of private businesses, which are not answerable to the government for how they operate, while at the same time citizens are on the hook for debts made by the government to bail out these firms, even though the public is clearly against these bailouts.

but then, who asked the taxpayers if this is how they wanted their money spent? in some of the european countries under the threat of IMF-imposed austerity, there is much public opposition to the bailout of the wealthy by working people. in the USA, we still don't really know what austerity means. "cut spending" is one of the central tenets of the tea party faith, but "cut spending" as a slogan and "cut spending" as act that affects real people hasn't become explicit yet in a way people who only respond to a frying pan over the head can comprehend.

it'll be interesting to see how long the moronathon can continue under the circumstances. "we're the greatest" is coming face to face with "we're fucked" -- and we're fucked has the next move...