The american nightmare

In reviewing a large number of modern movies, I have become disgusted. Most of them are American, and it is pretty clear what Americans [of which I am one] want to watch.

There are lots of movies about stealing money. Probably the second most popular theme is revenge, and the justified captivity and torture of deserving perpetrators. This shows, all too well, the attitude of the average American. The monetary system has failed, because people no longer see money as a reward for very hard work. They think that it does not matter how the money is obtained. In fact, most Americans seem to be involved in handling the money itself rather than in doing useful work.

We are living in the rotting corpse of a once great country. Our people tend to be obese and useless. Our horses have given way to great shiny machines of metal. The machines have replaced our citizens bodies, and fossil fuel powers those bodies. I see parallels with the fall of Rome, with it's dependence on human slaves and continual military expansion.

We have ceased to educate ourselves, except in the acquisition and handling of money. Practical work and resource extraction have been moved to other lands. We are proud of this, and our obesity and uselessness seem like good things. Our remnant of military might is used to grab resources that can not be purchased.

We have allowed the greediest and the least polite among us rule, and this has led to some real world problems. The US should have been the leader in reducing it’s material needs, and in switching to clean energy. Instead, we have allowed our greediest fools to deploy depleted uranium and torture to maintain their monopoly on fossil fuel. We have denied climate change, even while US cities are being covered with sea water.

We reserve real health care and effective education for the very rich. We eject people from their homes readily, and use US soldiers and militarized police to keep our own poor at bay. We are proud of this, and point to a few billionaires as our shining examples. Elon Musk is the only positive example that I am aware of. He has faced our problems head on, using his genius and creative force to tackle obvious problems.

The rest of us remain in chaotic cities, attempting unsuccessfully to get money. We vilify others for what we have done. Here is what we have done: As European rejects, we destroyed most of the native humans, and the larger native mammals of a subcontenent. We did this in a cowardly way, using disease and subterfuge. We imported a race of people to be our slaves. We carved up the land into rectangles, and have controlled those rectangles with brutal force. Firearms and barbed wire and poisons are our favorite tools.

We have replaced the healthful native creatures with mutated and diseased beasts. We imagine that we 'own' them. We make believe that the slaves in their city ghettos have been entirely freed, and that the surviving native humans are very happy in their wasteland concentration camps.

It is time to wake up. The world has seen our rigged elections, and watched us steal oil from any nation that could not defend itself. We have destroyed our own buildings to scare ourselves into surrendering up our semblance of freedom. We pay close attention to a fat and pasty Hitler wannabe, who grabs breasts and promises to lead us in one final pillage of the planet.

Who wants to live in a world like that? Do I have positive suggestions? You bet I do!

We could have real elections, where the most qualified person is elected. I suggest using the internet, and forbidding the use of big money to win elections. We could put up a lot of windmills and solar panels, and allow the oil companies to go out of business.

We could do away with the concept of the corporation. We no longer need 'middle men' to stand between the supply and the consumer. Middle men are worse than useless, especially when they are allowed to set national policy.

We could actually free the slaves, and allow the natives of this land to leave their prison camps. We could attend to our population’s health and education. We do not have a government to steal foreign resources or to read our mail. We have it to make our lives better. We could bring our aircraft and our troops back to the US, and concentrate on defending this place. It would be OK to shrink our military. We have always been able to grow it back at spectacular speed.

As far as borders, well, I honestly don’t know what to do about borders. My own people were chased here by the Nazis. Every group wants to be the last group admitted.

I am not certain that we need such a powerful federal government. The US was originally designed as a confederation of separate countries that could band together in time of war. We have given this confederation too much power, by allowing it to stay in a permanent state of war. We never wanted a king, having finally gotten out from under the British king. Now we have a king, and our once productive nation has changed from eagle to buzzard.

The US need not be destroyed in a war with the rest of the world. It can be allowed to collapse gracefully, as it is doing now. The USSR has already dissolved into states. I wish that I had a more rosy outlook and better suggestions.

Perhaps, if we were healthy and well educated, we could figure out what to do.