Mama, Weer All Crazee Now!

Celebrities as role models hold the attention of enraptured masses. Violence-charged spectator sports draw huge crowds. The wealthy few distance themselves from the impoverished, unemployed masses. Elected officials collect huge pay-offs from anyone who will pay for their votes while placing themselves above the law. The military occupies foreign countries while unauthorized wars rage.

Patience runs short. Tempers flare. Culture is replaced by drunken debauchery. Civility dies as it becomes everyone for him or herself. In desperation, people turn blindly to religion as an answer to their woes. Each side points fingers and calls the other wrong, neither seeing nor accepting what each has to offer.

Sound familiar? Bet you think I’m talking about 21st century America. Oh, I easily could have been, but I’m not. If you are any student of world history, you will recognize the conditions that plagued Rome – shortly before the fall of the Empire.

Sadly, while these same conditions exist here in America today, we are choosing to ignore them – and their consequences. Did the vast Roman Empire survive this internal strife? No, and neither will America if we don’t learn from history, instead of revising it.

We have so lost our way in this country that up seems like down and doing the right thing is somehow wrong (sorry Spike Lee). We can’t be civil or polite to each other. Hell, we can’t even be kind to our animals. And forget caring for our youth, our elderly, our veterans, our disabled, our infirmed. It’s every man, woman and child for him or herself.

I'll admit that I give in to this selfish, uncivilized streak myself. I become outraged with what I perceive as anti-women, anti-education, anti-equality rhetoric, and question how people can be so stupid as to not see things as I do. And I spend at least 75 percent of my driving time hurling epithets at other drivers whose sole purpose is to slow me down. But I do not want to live in a perpetually pissed-off state just because I don't agree with others, or because our difference of opinions lead them to think poorly of me. This lack of civil discourse is one reason this country is in the mess it is now.

Contrary to current popular belief, America was founded on religious freedoms, liberty and tolerance. Now we cannot tolerate anything different from our own personal beliefs. We won’t even consider discussing an idea counter to our own, let alone entertain it as a possibility. We have taken to rewriting history, the Bible, scientific fact to suit our own agenda. Instead of holding our politicians to a higher level – instead of expecting them to be statesmen – we have allowed them to become outrageous hypocrites and grifters – and we reward them for their behavior. The likes of Gingrich, Romney, Santorum should be ashamed of themselves for their deceit and hypocrisy, while Obama and others must own up to their failure to deliver on their promises.

What has happened to the spirit of “bring me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses”? Given the current state of mind in America, let’s change that inscription to “fuck off, we don't want you here.”

But do it quickly, before we go the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird. Before our descent into the rabbit hole becomes complete. Before the fall of the American Empire.