As I sit here putting pen to page, or whatever the paperless equivalent is now called, I am pleased to be reaching out across this huge continent, and even larger planet to the few like-minded individuals that have found their way here over the last few years.\u00a0 I have a few readers in East Asia, Europe, Australia, Africa and even a South American from time to time.\u00a0 And of course, I have readers in other parts of North America; several in Canada and even one or two in Mexico.\u00a0 But the bulk of my readers and almost all of my commenters live in America.\u00a0 And that\u2019s because I am an American.\u00a0 What I write about is my thoughts and feelings as I live through the dismantling of the American dream.<\/p>\n
Because that\u2019s what it is.\u00a0 To fight World War II the Federal Government and Corporate America formed an alliance to marshal the resources needed to defeat Germany and Japan.\u00a0 But more importantly this alliance made a deal with the American people.\u00a0 In exchange for them sending all of their sons into the meat grinder they promised to supercharge the economy and build a shiny new America full of interstate highways, technological wonders, college degrees and most importantly jobs.\u00a0 And something else was implied.\u00a0 It was understood that this alliance of government and business had as its highest priority the welfare of the American people.\u00a0 Sure, we might have a Marshall Plan for Europe and charity for the third world but when push came to shove their main focus was making sure blue-collar workers in the industrial heartland could afford to put a roof over the heads of their children and food on the table.<\/p>\n
And for about twenty-five years it seemed that indeed, the people in Washington made it their business to oversee an economy that did just that.\u00a0 But somewhere in the 1970s that began to change.\u00a0 Maybe it was the Cold War or the oil crisis but from that point on it seemed like the lives and livelihood of the middle and working classes became expendable chips in the high stakes games that the rich and the powerful played in Washington.\u00a0 That deal they made in 1941 has expired.\u00a0 The IOUs they wrote are now worthless.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s worse than that.\u00a0 Now they\u2019re making believe they\u2019ve never even heard of us. \u201cAmericans?\u00a0 You must mean the \u201cOld Americans.\u201d\u00a0 Those racist, transphobes that clutter up the landscape that we want to fill up with \u201cNew Americans.\u201d\u00a0 Haven\u2019t you people died off yet.\u00a0 We\u2019ve given you enough opioids and scorn to do the job.\u00a0 What are you waiting for?\u201d<\/p>\n
But we\u2019re still here.\u00a0 And we still remember the deal they made.\u00a0 And the funny thing is we know that someday they\u2019ll remember that they need us to fight their wars or solve their technical problems or cure their diseases.\u00a0 But will we still be here?\u00a0 Because eventually people who aren\u2019t wanted leave.\u00a0 And they go where they are needed.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019ll be Eastern Europe or South America or East Asia or somewhere completely unexpected.\u00a0 But the way things are going it probably won\u2019t be the United States.\u00a0 This country has retreated into a contracting pessimism.\u00a0 We must use less energy, less food, less money, less space, less life.\u00a0 We will have fewer children, fewer opportunities and fewer reasons to want to live.<\/p>\n
Now maybe, possibly we\u2019ll get the upper hand again and hold our leaders in government and industry accountable.\u00a0 That would be an outcome, much to be desired.\u00a0 But the record of the last couple of decades doesn\u2019t give me much hope of that.\u00a0 Those in charge are in almost complete control.\u00a0 Sure, there are places like Florida that are still putting up a good fight and have been taking back local control from the oligarchs.\u00a0 I wish them all the success they can obtain.\u00a0 Maybe they can duplicate that success in an expanding circle of red states that can demand a federalist solution to the Democrat monopoly on federal power that we are living through.\u00a0 And maybe those red states can assume responsibility for those IOUs that the feds reneged on.\u00a0 But once again. I\u2019m not holding my breath.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s where it stands.\u00a0 I feel like one of the Greek renegades who went to work for Atilla the Hun back in 450 A.D. when the historian Priscus was negotiating for the Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II to avoid the sack of the Danube provinces.\u00a0 The renegade still remembers the myth of the Roman Empire he was taught as a boy; a land of justice and prosperity.\u00a0 But then the reality of crushing taxes, omnipresent incompetent bureaucrats and hypocritical application of the law courts against the common man are remembered and reveal the myth to be a pathetic joke.<\/p>\n
Of course, Rome lasted, nominally, for five hundred years after it ceased to be a republic.\u00a0 Maybe there is no escape from the Global American Empire.\u00a0 Well, that\u2019s something to chronicle too.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what I do in my small way.\u00a0 And also, I give people a cyber space to come to when they want to make a point or share an insight.\u00a0 So, I\u2019ll maintain my outpost and report what I see and think.\u00a0 You do your part and tell me what you see and think too.\u00a0 And spread the word if you know any folks who would fit in here.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I sit here putting pen to page, or whatever the paperless equivalent is now called, I am pleased to be reaching out across this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4168,4167,157,3873],"class_list":["post-24684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-dream","tag-atilla","tag-ocf","tag-priscus"],"yoast_head":"\n