The Demise of American Culture

America is a relatively young country compared to Europe and Asia, that's true, but we do indeed have a national culture. This culture can be found in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and reiterated again in the Bill of Rights.  This American culture is one of individual liberty, of being a citizen of a nation that respects individual rights and responsibilities, and a very, very limited government.  It's a culture of strength borne of prosperity, of personal responsibility, of faith in something greater than oneself.  But in the last six decades, something has happened, something that has turned our established culture on its head.  That something is liberalism as defined by the progressive movement.

Instead of elevating all to a sustainable socioeconomic level, as conservatives seek to do, liberals want all to "share" the misery of those who cannot, or will not, take responsibility for themselves.   It's based on emotion:  who doesn't feel sorry for the homeless in the streets, or for the dirt poor trying to eek out a living in an urban jungle?  Of course we do.  That's why Americans contribute more money to charities than any other nationality in the world.  But when progressives seek to level the playing field - which is pretty level already, given the structure of our constitutional republic - they do far more harm than good.  A conservative may see a man in a hole, and he offers his hand to pull the man out.  But a liberal sees that man in a hole, and wants all of us to climb down in there with him, to ensure that he's comforted in his misery.  Insane.  And completely ass backwards.  So now in the last sixty years we have lawmakers who have been elected to provide folks with stuff that they neither earned nor deserve.  Think LBJ's Great Society, a government program that sought to end poverty.  What's the end result of that program after sixty years?  Billions of dollars thrown away and yet even more poverty, as well as the creation of generations of people who know not self reliance, but only guaranteed government assistance.  What does that do to instill initiative and a sense of self worth?  Does it feed the economy?   Create jobs?  

Then we had the notion of political correctness, where the truth was muted so as to not offend anyone.  Perfected by Germany's Goebbels, it has developed now beyond ludicrous, it even eclipses Orwellian repression.  Forget about the truth - it's a casualty of that ill begotten need to share the misery.  We can't state the facts about crime and its source - we must blame guns.  We can't call a Muslim jihadist a terrorist, he's a freedom fighter or an enemy combatant.  We can't celebrate competence - we dictate that high school football teams can't win by more than a certain number of points.  And for some reason black people refuse to be called by their race - Negro - instead opting for African American.  I'm Caucasian of Scot and Irish heritage - am I a Scot American?  I'm proud of my heritage, to be sure, but I consider myself to be an American.  Period.  Why do Blacks want to continue to be segregated?  Why not just be an American? But we know the answer.  LBJ once said that through his policies he'd have "them niggers voting Democrat for a hundred years."   And they are.  You can look it up.

We wonder why there's such an attitude among certain segments of the population.  Track crime thorughout the US and you'll find that it's those who most rely on government who perpetrate most of the crime.  They kill and rob with impunity because they have no moral fiber, no self worth.  And consequently they see no worth in others, their victims, either.  You can look that up, too.

And so the demise continues as we slouch toward society's lowest common denominator as our new baseline of behavior. Schools seek to indoctrinate, not educate.  Gangs kill and rob and maim at an unprecedented rate.  The government becomes more oppressive than most dictatorships around the world, playing on our fears of terror or rampant crime.  The victim is charged; the perpetrators are forgiven.  Self defense is a crime.  TV promotes only negative societal messages.  And worse, Americans of faith are not only ridiculed in the media, they are reviled.

Huxley and Orwell couldn't even imagine it being this bad.