The America-that-once-was dies a little each day.
A Republic (like Gods) lives only through the love of its people.
The New America emerges a little more each day.
It’s a quiet coup, now rapidly gaining strength and momentum.
.
We’ve discussed this on the FM website since July 4, 2006 — but as something difficult to see, a complex hidden trend. That’s no longer true, as this evolution has become the stuff of daily news headlines. The FM twitter feed flags these articles for you every day. You can subscribe using the button on the top right of the page (secondarily, it provides updates on the other themes of the FM website).
All posts about this historic transition are listed at the FM Reference Page America – how can we stop the quiet coup now in progress?
Sidenote:Â there’s a Tip Jar on the side menu if you wish to support this website. It takes a lot of work to run.
.
.
America is a chicken-driven clown car packed full of nitrogylcerine, veering toward a cliff edge…and the big argument in 2012 is that the wrong chicken is driving.
Oh. I thought the argument was over if a chicken or a turkey should be driving!
Mitt Romney should put his mouth where his money is and run for President of the Cayman Islands, not the USA.
The “cliff” of course being the “fiscal cliff”?
Good one
That’s brutal. A honest, accurate metaphor. But brutal.
The ugly truth is that America has always stolen other peoples land.
First they stole it from the Indians, then they snaffled the bottom half of the USA from Mexico in a war they began for that purpose. Next they grabbed Hawaii and Cuba. Then they stole the Phillipines. They dominated central America using the military until this very day. They invaded Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and overthrew legitimate governments in dozens of countries. They trashed the people of Palestine by allowing the Jews to take the country by force of arms.
And then they tell the world they represent democracy and freedom!! That they believe their own bull says it all.
Broomhall brings up two important points.
First, we have lost touch with our history — replacing it with myths. That makes us weaker, and deprives us of the valuable lessons we might learn from past mistakes.
Second, our history — like most people’s — contains many dark episodes. We deal with it by amnesia. Instead we can accept it, resolve to do better, and move on.
Norman Broomhall’s comment above cites some parts of history and presents them in the most negative way and does not mention the fact that every state in history that has been able to has taken other people’s lands (who took the land from the Indians? America didn’t exist at that moment. Perhaps he’s referring to European colonizers, who also “stole” Australia from its native inhabitants and thus created that country.)
However, the comment does help me present my original reaction to this article:
(a) America, as all other countries, does change and has changed every day of its life. And every day throughout its history someone has complained that the constitution or the founding father’s ideals (as they interpret them) is dying. I don’t see a greater pace of change (or degradation, as this blog sees it) than in other periods. To take an example of the comment I mentioned, I don’t see how the use of drones or government eavesdropping today is worse than taking the top half of Mexico a century and a half ago.
(b) Change in itself isn’t necessarily bad, and the original text of the Constitution or the way it was interpreted should have and was amended in very important ways. That is not to say that the changes that Fabius Maximus identifies –I understand it to be the loss of personal freedoms and concentration of way too much power in the Executive’s and other actors’ hands and away from the peoples’– are bad and should worry us. But just the fact that the Old America is dying each day and a New America is emerging isn’t necessarily bad.
I haven’t read every single post on this topic, but from what I have followed in this blog, I sometimes have the feeling that it envisions a mythical America-that-once-was in which everything was good and fair, and the Constitution was not only perfect but also respected. Am I wrong?
Patrick, as you say, America has been a work in progress (the history of reforms has been examined in excellent detail by FM, keep reading!). However current events represent a regression to old paradigms that had previously been reformed. Such regression is in very real danger of destroying the structural possibility of reforms such as were accomplished in earlier times.
Anglo-american democracy rose out of the ashes of the Roman empire, but it took almost 500 years for that to begin to happen, and about another 500 to fully accomplish. (oversimplification)
American State Capitalism as it has been known for 100+ years is probably dead and gone (see Habermas on the “colonization of lifeworld by systems”). Either the plutocrats will take over via brutal regression, or the system can transform via a Holistic/Transpartisan reform movement.
Evolution tells us that all culture is tribal. Civilizations and empires are unstable super-tribes.
Hmmm…. noticed the Australian thing too… figured he might be aborigine, though. I mean, if he’s gonna say stuff like that, it would be silly if he was anglo, right?
(1) “I don’t see how the use of drones or government eavesdropping today is worse than taking the top half of Mexico a century and a half ago.”
(a) The problem with assassination by drones is that it is not just ineffective, but probably counter-productive. It’s one expression of our inability to cope with 4GW, a separate issue from the rise of a New America.
(b) It’s a commonplace of history to take neighbor’s land. While God might disapprove, that doesn’t threaten the Republic. When government’s turn their full power against their own citizens, the Republic dies.
(2) Change in itself isn’t necessarily bad”
I’m sure we all agree that progress is change, and progress is good.
(3) “That is not to say that the changes that Fabius Maximus identifies –I understand it to be the loss of personal freedoms and concentration of way too much power in the Executive’s and other actors’ hands and away from the peoples’ – are bad and should worry us. But just the fact that the Old America is dying each day and a New America is emerging isn’t necessarily bad.”
But those bad things your mention are among the distinguishing characteristics of the New America. That’s the point. I know of nobody saying that all change is bad. That’s why the Constitution has so many amendments, and why the government has changed so radically beyond those described in the amendments.
Not all change is bad! We all know that. After all, Hitler made the trains run on time, and that was a clear step in the right direction.
Until his other political decisions resulted in the railways getting bombed so badly the trains didn’t run at all, that is…
Many times, desperate societies have turned to tyrants, hoping that a single strong person’s will could make the hard decisions that needed to be made and lead effectively. Sometimes, the tyrant would even step down after the crisis was past, and resume cultivating his garden. None of us look at such profound changes in a political system and see them as all good, and all bad. From my point of view I look at a lot of the changes in the US and think, “worrisome. very worrisome.”
Hitler is an interesting example. Unlike “trains ran on time” Mussolini, Hitler in fact did rapidly revitalize German’s economy from the depths of the Great Depression. Autobans, the people’s car, full employment, etc. Hence his high popularity (until he lost WWII). The benefits were not equally shared in German society, as the NAZI regime expressly suppressed wages.
“Many times, desperate societies have turned to tyrants, hoping that a single strong person’s will could make the hard decisions that needed to be made and lead effectively.”
Let’s hope you do not describe America. As I wrote in Our choice of a leader reflects our true self. What does 2012 tell about America?
Free book on Transpartisan politics: REUNITING AMERICA – A Toolkit for Changing the Political Game By Joseph McCormick and Steve Bhaerman