One of the problems that I feel has hampered, rather than helped, the United States is the amount of power that the nation has. It might seem paradoxical, because having power is usually seen as a blessing, as something that you strive for. But I seriously think that when there is too much of it, it can be a bad thing, and sometimes, it can be a very bad thing. As the saying goes, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Here in the United States, we have an unbelievable amount of power. Political power, and is it a surprise that the powers that be here are incredibly corrupt? Military power, and once again, is it any wonder that the military industrial complex has increased powers of surveillance while also showing staggering levels of either economic inefficiency or, more likely, blatant corruption. Economic power, although once again, there are truly unbelievable levels of corruption and foul play, as the economic crisis of 2008, and countless prominent stories of massive fraud, not to mention the growing economic inequality between the haves and the have nots, would all strongly suggest.
Indeed, there are all sorts of problems in the country right now, and not least among them is that we seem to have lost our sense of purpose.
Whenever I hear this, it brings to mind an era that was long before my entry into the world. It evokes memories of what the United States used to be, back in the so-called "golden age" of the 1950's and 1960's. Yes, the post-war years certainly were not perfect times for this country. There were obvious problems, if you simply dig even a little bit underneath the surface. But this country nevertheless was, or at least seemed to be, in a good place overall. It was the leading world power economically, culturally, militarily, and politically. It was the envy of the world, enjoying the highest overall standard of living, a great infrastructure, and the education system led the world.
So, what the hell happened? When and how exactly did we lose all of this?
Well, I am not sure. Hell, it seems like no one really knows. But we sure the hell seemed to have lost it somewhere along the line.
What made that era special was, I suspect, that we seemed to be going somewhere as a country. Had been for many decades, and had little doubts about the successful outcome. Again, we were the wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation that had ever existed, in many respects. We were happy and took pride in having achieved something truly unique in history, having gone from a more or less rural backwater and, in record time, growing and growing to become the most powerful country that the world had ever seen. There was justifiable pride in our past accomplishments, yet there was also a sense of purpose. Americans seemed to want to be better, to get better as a country, and so we had a strong sense of optimism for that future. The sky was the limit.
That, I believe, is what we are missing today, and why nothing feels really right anymore these days. In short, we lost our way.
The strange thing that I notice is that we tend to gravitate towards reminiscing about those better times, perhaps understandably. However, too many Americans focus on the wrong things, and at best, gloss over some unsavory aspects of those glory days. As I mentioned before, those times were far from perfect, and one of the major, glaring problems that the country had was wit racism. This was an illness that we never cured, although the country by and large seemed ready to finally move on from legalized racism and Jim Crow segregation, particularly in the South.
That is the problem with the whole MAGA movement, and with Donald Trump. He seems racist at times, because, let's face it, he is. And people who love and glorify him, by at best glossing over the fact that he is a bigot, empower that. Many of them find rump attractive because, they feel, he gets things done. He's a man's man, if you will, a tough guy. He speaks his mind, quite bluntly, which they find a refreshing change. And also, let's be frank: there seems to be a whole lot of racism prevalent among his most enthusiastic, unquestioning supporters. Hell, some blatantly white supremacist groups seemed downright thrilled when Trump won the election, such as Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, and Richard Spencer and the other "white nationalists." Less than a year after Trump took over, literal Nazis were marching on American streets, no longer feeling that they needed to hide, feeling empowered.
How did this happen? How is it that our first black president is followed by a white supremacist, for all intents and purposes? Many asked this question. Millions of Americans seemed surprised, even shocked, by this turn of events. Questions have abounded, and many claimed to be shocked, and blame Trump the man.
But this has been prevalent for a long, long time. Racism is something that this country never truly confronted on any meaningful level. That is why, shockingly, we seem to be having all too eerily familiar struggles with racism reminiscent of many decades ago, while in South Africa, in the post-apartheid era, racism seems to be less of a problems. My own theory on why that is is that we never confronted this issue, because, let's face it, this country is too powerful to have been so pressured. South Africa was the target of world condemnation and boycotts, and the feasibility of a white supremacist state existing for long on the African continent is just not realistic. The point is, they had to find compromise, had to come to terms with reality. That is not to suggest that racism does not still exist in South Africa, or anti-Semitism does not exist in Germany and other parts of Europe. Of course these evils persist. My suspicion is that Germany's defeat forced Germans to confront their ghosts, much like white South Africans, and particularly Afrikaners, had to also confront their own demons.
That is not the case here in the United States, where many of these issues have come bubbling up to the surface, while many were not paying attention. It seems to be really front and center here in the United States, time and time again. We have a President now who refers to predominately black and Hispanic countries as "shitholes," who suggested that Mexicans were criminals and rapists, and who wanted to set up a national registry for Muslims. He does not respect Native American rights, and seems to hold blacks in contempt.
Recently, I encountered some quotes by a very prominent and influential American that shows perhaps a glimpse of this casual racism that Americans too often are comfortable with, or simply let slide, or look the other way. Take a look at this quote from the star of tons of westerns, and the epitome of a certain macho American male image, John Wayne:
Indeed, there are all sorts of problems in the country right now, and not least among them is that we seem to have lost our sense of purpose.
Whenever I hear this, it brings to mind an era that was long before my entry into the world. It evokes memories of what the United States used to be, back in the so-called "golden age" of the 1950's and 1960's. Yes, the post-war years certainly were not perfect times for this country. There were obvious problems, if you simply dig even a little bit underneath the surface. But this country nevertheless was, or at least seemed to be, in a good place overall. It was the leading world power economically, culturally, militarily, and politically. It was the envy of the world, enjoying the highest overall standard of living, a great infrastructure, and the education system led the world.
So, what the hell happened? When and how exactly did we lose all of this?
Well, I am not sure. Hell, it seems like no one really knows. But we sure the hell seemed to have lost it somewhere along the line.
What made that era special was, I suspect, that we seemed to be going somewhere as a country. Had been for many decades, and had little doubts about the successful outcome. Again, we were the wealthiest, most powerful, most successful nation that had ever existed, in many respects. We were happy and took pride in having achieved something truly unique in history, having gone from a more or less rural backwater and, in record time, growing and growing to become the most powerful country that the world had ever seen. There was justifiable pride in our past accomplishments, yet there was also a sense of purpose. Americans seemed to want to be better, to get better as a country, and so we had a strong sense of optimism for that future. The sky was the limit.
That, I believe, is what we are missing today, and why nothing feels really right anymore these days. In short, we lost our way.
The strange thing that I notice is that we tend to gravitate towards reminiscing about those better times, perhaps understandably. However, too many Americans focus on the wrong things, and at best, gloss over some unsavory aspects of those glory days. As I mentioned before, those times were far from perfect, and one of the major, glaring problems that the country had was wit racism. This was an illness that we never cured, although the country by and large seemed ready to finally move on from legalized racism and Jim Crow segregation, particularly in the South.
That is the problem with the whole MAGA movement, and with Donald Trump. He seems racist at times, because, let's face it, he is. And people who love and glorify him, by at best glossing over the fact that he is a bigot, empower that. Many of them find rump attractive because, they feel, he gets things done. He's a man's man, if you will, a tough guy. He speaks his mind, quite bluntly, which they find a refreshing change. And also, let's be frank: there seems to be a whole lot of racism prevalent among his most enthusiastic, unquestioning supporters. Hell, some blatantly white supremacist groups seemed downright thrilled when Trump won the election, such as Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, and Richard Spencer and the other "white nationalists." Less than a year after Trump took over, literal Nazis were marching on American streets, no longer feeling that they needed to hide, feeling empowered.
How did this happen? How is it that our first black president is followed by a white supremacist, for all intents and purposes? Many asked this question. Millions of Americans seemed surprised, even shocked, by this turn of events. Questions have abounded, and many claimed to be shocked, and blame Trump the man.
But this has been prevalent for a long, long time. Racism is something that this country never truly confronted on any meaningful level. That is why, shockingly, we seem to be having all too eerily familiar struggles with racism reminiscent of many decades ago, while in South Africa, in the post-apartheid era, racism seems to be less of a problems. My own theory on why that is is that we never confronted this issue, because, let's face it, this country is too powerful to have been so pressured. South Africa was the target of world condemnation and boycotts, and the feasibility of a white supremacist state existing for long on the African continent is just not realistic. The point is, they had to find compromise, had to come to terms with reality. That is not to suggest that racism does not still exist in South Africa, or anti-Semitism does not exist in Germany and other parts of Europe. Of course these evils persist. My suspicion is that Germany's defeat forced Germans to confront their ghosts, much like white South Africans, and particularly Afrikaners, had to also confront their own demons.
That is not the case here in the United States, where many of these issues have come bubbling up to the surface, while many were not paying attention. It seems to be really front and center here in the United States, time and time again. We have a President now who refers to predominately black and Hispanic countries as "shitholes," who suggested that Mexicans were criminals and rapists, and who wanted to set up a national registry for Muslims. He does not respect Native American rights, and seems to hold blacks in contempt.
Recently, I encountered some quotes by a very prominent and influential American that shows perhaps a glimpse of this casual racism that Americans too often are comfortable with, or simply let slide, or look the other way. Take a look at this quote from the star of tons of westerns, and the epitome of a certain macho American male image, John Wayne:
"With a lot of blacks, there’s quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so. But we can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people."
That is a real quote. And yes, he is outright saying that he believes in white supremacy. If that was not bad enough, take a look at another quote, I believe it is from the same Playboy interview, in which John Wayne talks about how the Native Americans were "selfishly" trying to keep this land from the whites:
"I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that’s what you’re asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."
Unbelievable.
We still see his movies being played all of the time. Sometimes, it seems that John Wayne, and all that he stood for and believed in, is more popular than ever. If he were still around, would anybody be surprised if he were a big time Trump supporter, perhaps proudly donning his MAGA hat and lecturing us not to be such whining sissies all of the time?
It would not surprise me and, in fact, it is the most likely scenario that wold have played out. Trump seems sometimes to try and play the part of John Wayne, although he comes across like a bumbling idiot instead.
Still, let us not forget these kinds of things, and our national ability to simply bury these, to sweep them under the carpet, and then act shocked once we find these issues are far more relevant than we expected. Clearly, our problem with racism has not been resolved, or so much as seriously addressed. I suggest that this is indicative of our apparent lack of any sense of direction, and feel that if we are to regain some kind of sense of national purpose, we could do worse than finally, at long last, confront our problem with racism and glorifying racist icons.
Quotes used in this blog entry were taken from the below sources:
Did John Wayne Say He Believed in White Supremacy?
Snopes - Wayne’s World:
