Everything changes; it’s the one thing that never does. I remember when America celebrated its 200th birthday fifty years ago. It seemed like such a big deal, and yet here we are half a century later once again making a big deal about the Declaration of Independence. What were we talking about in 1976, anyway?
War in the Middle East, military takeovers in Southeast Asia, China after the death of Mao, huge earthquakes, an outbreak of Ebola in Africa, respiratory disease, U.S. Presidential elections, Mars, and the technology of Apple Computers. The more things change, the more they stay the same, except in matters of degree.
War, disease, politics and technology; they still dominate our everyday national narrative. America, with all its strength and vitality, is an enormously self-centered country. We’re convinced we’re the best of the best, the leader of the free world and its greatest defender. In furtherance of our narrative, we maintain 800 military bases around the globe and spend a fortune every year preparing for war. And, while our friends and allies like us, a fair portion of the world, particularly the global south, hate and fear America, and for good reason. We’ve exploited their natural resources – wood, minerals, fish, labor – in pursuit of profit, and continue to do so.
“The business of America is business,” said President Calvin Coolidge in 1925. This was at a meeting of American Newspaper editors, not in celebration of our 150th birthday, but it still appears to be the honest truth of who and what we are as a nation. As if to make that point, a majority of voters elected a billionaire businessman as our President, not just once, but twice. Big surprise, he’s treating the country and the world as if he owns it and in the manner of a tin-pot dictator is focused upon enriching himself and his cronies first and foremost.
Fifty years ago, this country elected Jimmy Carter, who although he was not a terribly effective President and was criticized for wearing a sweater, was one of the most ethical and decent men to have ever held that office. So it was that some of us believed America was charting a different course into its future, but unfortunately, we were wrong. He was followed by Ronald Reagan, a former media star turned right-wing politician, and with his help the neo-liberal revolution took hold and has never lost its grip.
But as I’ve noted, everything changes. The time of those who are in power today will pass and a new group of leaders will emerge. This is the law of nature; nothing lasts forever. In the meantime, each of us is faced with coming to terms with our present situation. Some will bury their heads in the sand and ignore politics if they can. Others of us will take to the streets, write letters, join groups, and take actions – legal and otherwise – that we hope will blunt the political impact on lives and society at large.
Our great experiment in democracy is merely a small segment of Mother Nature’s billion-year experiment in self-consciousness. As far as we know, no other species of animal has ever created a complex technology – nuclear weapons – capable of ensuring their own destruction. This is Nature’s ultimate experiment, not in democracy but survival.
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