I'm starting to understand what's going on in this country. I've been hearing these rumblings every week for the last ten years but, I hadn't categorized this behavior correctly. I see it now. There's "attitude" in how we drive, how we recreate, how we hunt for food, how we shop, how we watch TV and play video games. How we vote. How we are willing to bully migrants and people of color, generally. Why prison populations are skewed heavily toward minorities. Why women are shoved around, discounted and still distant from true equality. Geez, it's people just like me...older, angry white men. Guys who believed in the "American Dream" but, have found it to be just outside their grasp.
The problem may be that our expectations were a little too grand...however, now we are backsliding and may never get there. Like many dreams, the harder we pedal the more elusive the goal becomes. Anger may be too strong, for many disappointment has not yet evolved into full-blown anger. The symptoms are there...'spring loaded to the pissed-off position'. I see it in the "Nightly News", in the campaign rallies and in the wording of propositions on the ballot. Why do we go into hock for huge noisy trucks or loud rumbling motorcycles. Why do we wear graffiti on our bodies and shave our heads? Don't tread on me, is the message......"get out of my way" is repeated often when we drive. I don't see a mellowing of this attitude in our future. Americans refuse to be humbled, or admit to being humbled. We were brainwashed to believe that we are exceptional, entitled...manifest destiny...it's in our DNA.
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