No....America is not the greatest country in the world

[angrychair]

Yes, I stole that line and while I take some issue with the “good ‘ole days” theme (because they never actually existed), that Newsroom scene still makes an important and worthwhile point: we have issues folks.

I note this because after I came across an article by Kali Holloway on Rawstory, it highlighted some things I already knew and some things I didn’t and really, in the end, made the point I often make but so many resist to acknowledge: the problem is not due to a few bad apples but is an institutional and social fixture that dooms us all to the dust bin of history unless we change who we are as a country. The very fabric of our perception of reality needs to change. Who we are, what is important and how we want the world to view us.
The concepts of what we believe in faith and what’s reality, the falsehood that working hard leads to success and income security (I wish it did but it just does not), that we are more free and just than any other nation on Earth is not true.
We have to make fundamental changes to who we are as a nation and I just do not believe that is possible.

Why?

Because far to many are not even willing to admit there is a problem despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Trump is a nasty, vile and hateful person but he is a symptom, not the sickness.

The easy problem is removing trump from office. If nothing else, time will do that for us in roughly two more years.

The far harder issue, that will not be fixed two years from now, is how do we fix us.

Reference:
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/americans-prudish-narcissists-delusions-chances-getting-rich/

Reference:
https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2017/09/19/u-s-household-incomes-a-50-year-perspective

[flotsam]

1. This:

[lunatica]

2. Carter tried to tell us but Reagan yanked us back into xenophobic Nationalism

There was a moment when we could have grown up a little as a country but it would have meant we needed to see ourselves for what we really are when Carter made his Malaise speech. Then Reagan came along, wrapped in the flag and pretended he was responsible for the release of the the Iran Hostages making us believe Iran feared his military might. Americans ate it up.

Trump is just the latest in a line of rinse and repeat Presidents, all of whom happen to be Republicans.