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Showing posts from May, 2021

Things We're Losing and Will Be Sorry When They Are No More

 Libraries Banks Post Office Public Parks Brick and Mortar Stores Community Public Transportation

Gotta be honest about who and what we really are

 We're egotistical bullies, more talk than substance, and have no business boating about anything or trying to dictate to others when our shit is far from together

Our values are warped, we're a bundle of hypocrisies

So much is upside down, and we don't even know how dumb we sound when we say it's smart to be ignorant, cool to be doing unhealthy activities, strong to be out of touch with our humanity, good to elevate people for nothingness, free by being rude, exercising free speech when it's just cruelty and bullying, saying we're Christian by being hateful, etc.

Debt

 Living on credit is a legacy and has been a downfall. How do we get out of the trap?

Hard Work

 We say we work hard, but do most of us, really? We say worker smarter rather than harder, but smarter for us tends to not look smart in the long run. It just means taking shortcuts and trying to make a fast buck by any means necessary,

The Arts

 Some of what passes for art now is sloppy, and whatever it's called when you just copy what's already been done. We need to value our artists and encourage their development as worthy and beneficial to society.

The kids are our future and they're not equipped

 We've been doing a lousy job of preparing our kids to assume responsibility ably. They lack practical knowledge and we've taken the teaching of those skills out of schools.

What type of economy is best in a great country?

 Did we mess up with we industrialized and mess up more when we shifted to the information age?

Race Relations

 Does it benefit us at all to maintain the construct of race and argue within that construct. or is that absurd?

A contest for greatness?

 We love competition? Can we use that to our advantage? Can we vie for greatest city/state?

Mind Our Own Business

 Do we need to stop meddling and turn our attention inward?

Immigration

 What does our stance need to be on influx of more citizens as we endeavor to be great? Does greatness include an open door policy?

Echo chambers, cancel culture, viral stuff, fleeting fame, serial outrage

 How do all these tings complicate our striving for greatness?

Sports

 They're a big part of our lives. How do they impact us?

Political Parties

 Our bipartisan structure is problematic. Is it time to abolish parties and take big money out of politics? Do we need an overhaul?

Faulty Premise

 Maybe we're not great because we were founded on a disingenuous premise. and we've never come to terms with that. Our Anglo, expansionist roots are problematic.

What countries do Americans now envy?

 And why? What do they have that we don't? What characterizes the countries whose citizens report being happy?

Inarticulate

 How did we become such poor communicators and so illiterate? We don't read, we can't write, and we don't know we can't write well.

Technology, gadgetry, and the Information age.

 Have we gone too far? Has it made us dumber and lazy?

Conspiracy Theory Obsession

Describe it. How does it keep us from focusing on real issues?

The Wealth Divide

 How it happened, how we remedy it

Racism

 How racist are we? Is it worse now or better?

Reality TV

 Is it problematic? Can we attribute a lot to it?

Family Structure

 Then and now. Breakdown is undeniably a problem.

Crime and Policing

 How is it different? What will change it?

Environmentalists

 Why are some people fighting it?

Religion

Are there any good aspects? How can we frame and regard it properly? What place does it have in a 'great' America?

Elevation of vapidness

 We need to value activities and individuals who are not materialistic and ego driven

Infrastructure

 Gotta improve it

What's with all the gun obsession and shootings?

 And it's white middle class doing it

Decency

 Where did it go? Why are we vulgar?

The entertainment industry

 Is garbage. When it was good.

The scourge of anti-intellectualism

 It's gotta go

Journalism and Media

 Not what it used to be, not doing us any favors. Loss of objectivity, collusion with politicians,

Traditions

 Why we have them, how they bind us, where they can get us messed up. Do we need to return to them, create new ones?

Diversity

 Recognize it's what made us strong and can again, not to be feared.

Our education

 It has to be a priority

Our health

 It has to be a priority

Are there cities in the US or states that are getting it more right than others?

 Identify them and figure out why/

Is there any way to avoid tax structure changes to turn this around?

 Undeniable that the wealth gap plays a major role? Is a return to different type of economy a solution? Is the city-state or something similar a solution?

How do others see us?

What can we learn from non-Americans? What do we now envy about other countries?

When did the downward slide begin

 Delineate the specifics that changed things

Let's pinpoint what is definitely NOT great

 What we can all agree on, what we can't

What life was like in that sweet spot.

 For me, for others

What do they mean when they say great?

 Do they know what  they mean? I think I know, can they articulate it? When they do, is it legitimate and real?

The Internet and social media has done us no favors in this.

 More harm than good

Who am I to judge and say?

 My background, perspective

When We Were Great

 When Donald Trump's campaign unveiled the "Make America Great" slogan at the start of his 2016 presidential run, it was a stroke of genius, if you characterize genius as manipulation that works seamlessly and benefits a few power hungry, money grubbing opportunists while leaving a majority of Americans poor, unhealthy, stressed, angry, and blaming one another. When conservative Republicans latched on to Trump and the MAGA meme, it sounded great. I sounded great because most Americans were highly dissatisfied with the current state of the US and the direction in which they perceived it as heading. Of course, many white Americans who felt themselves losing ground  while faced with the first Black American president in the country's history, sought to place the blame on Barack Obama. It had to be his fault, they rationalized, his and those who supported him. It had to be Democrats' fault that the fabric of the country they loved seemed to be fraying and they no long