As I See It: Reasons to see us as a ‘damaged society’

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As I See It: Reasons to see us as a ‘damaged society’

Post by vnatale » Sat Mar 11, 2023 7:37 pm

Anything incorrect in his facts #'s 1 through 8?




https://www.recorder.com/Col-Huer-(ForS ... y-50186311

Opinion > Columns
As I See It: Reasons to see us as a ‘damaged society’

By JON HUER
Published: 3/10/2023 4:34:26 PM
Modified: 3/10/2023 4:34:13 PM

Often it’s instructional to know what foreigners think of America. Prominent in the Week magazine (Nov. 11, 2022) is French journalist StephaneFoucart for Le Monde who called America a “damaged society,” in reference to our rampant political violence, misinformation and opioid addictions — America’s “markers of despair.” As if to second Foucart’s verdict, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked the U.S. as “the most-depressed society” among the advanced (OECD) nations. The Week’s American editor-in-chief William Falk agrees with both Foucart and the WHO, by pronouncing that “the massive derangement (in America) is likely to get worse before it gets better.”

America a damaged society? The most depressed society? No way, especially to those of us who believe that, just now, our nation is riding the very crest of world power and influence. To clear our own heads, however, let’s consider the following commonly available facts about ourselves:

1. The world’s largest number of prison inmates. The U.S. has 4% of the world’s population, yet it has 25% of the world’s prisoners. The U.S. number is six times the average of advanced countries. Unique among rich nations, we put people in prison for writing a bad check. (European criminologists call the U.S. justice system “rogue.”)

2. The world’s longest television-watching time. We spend more time watching TV, at 8 hours a day, than anyone on earth, Greece being second. TV-watching, like all other forms of distraction, makes us forget our reality: Why are we trying so hard to forget our reality? Is our reality that bad?

3. The world’s longest “digital” time for children. Average American kids spend 60 hours a week, per USA Today, with digital gadgetry, while top high-tech executives at Google, Apple, Yahoo, and Hewlett-Packard send their kids to a school that allows no computer access. There, the kids are required to read books, obviously groomed for an elite future.

4. The world’s largest advertising expenditure. As part of our alternate reality, U.S. advertising expenditures match the next 10 advertising nations of the world combined, including China whose population is five times America’s.

5. The world’s largest drug-taking population. One out of every three Americans (over a 100 million of them) is on mood-altering prescription drugs, while opioid addictions are “killing white Americans in their prime,” says Beth Macy in “Dopesick.” (More than 100,000 die annually from drug overdoses, according to The New York Times.)

6. The world’s fastest-growing obesity rate. The U.S. leads the world in obesity as close to one-third of Americans are classified as obese. Experts are warning that the food industry’s increasingly processed foods, saturated in sugar, salt and fat, are slowly killing Americans of all races (unless you can afford to live on organics).

7. The world’s largest number of lawyers. Over 75% of the world’s lawyers are American, and 94% of the world’s lawsuits are filed by Americans against other Americans, revealing their deep distrust and disharmony.

8. The world’s largest wealth gap, military expenditure, and national debt. We maintain the world’s largest wealth gap between rich and poor (second being China), the world’s largest military power (larger than the next 20 largest militaries combined), and the largest national debt as we spend more than we earn. (Individual credit card debt is $6,500 per capita).

Now consider our profound inner conflicts and contradictions:

We live in the “America” of our ancestral dreams but are conditioned by “the United States” of violent reality, and nobody escapes from this anvil of contradiction unscathed.

We are now divided between good and stupid, and stupid is gaining — personally and nationally.

We produce all of America’s wealth but share little or nothing of it.

We defend, not resent, those who hog our nation’s wealth and keep us poor.

We are pampered for our dollars and votes but not loved as human beings.

We live with guns and locks around us but with so little security or peace.

We fear other Americans more than we fear foreign terrorists.

We have the world’s strongest military but live in perpetual anxiety.

We have entertainment around the clock but are not happy.

We see smiling faces everywhere but do not trust any of them.

We want to be loved by everyone but do not love anyone, not even ourselves.

We have “help” phone numbers on everything but never find real help.

We are critical of everybody but have no shame about ourselves.

We are told how special everybody is but only elites get respect.

We are told how free we are but seldom feel free as individuals.

We earn money like slaves but spend it like fools.

We are loud as customers but silent as servers.

We say we believe in God but act as if we are gods ourselves.

We say we believe in equality but we want to be superior to everybody.

We say we believe in hard work and merit but always want something for nothing (think lottery and stock market, all for free money).

The U.S. is history’s first “Natural Society,” created to promote one primeval idea, that is, the idea of freedom. But freedom is a contradiction unto itself: It frees you from social obligations, but it also sets you adrift from social bond and community solidarity. Without human bond, even with abundant distractions, we find only misery in our solitary existence. We struggle to overcome our individual misery with the bravado of national fantasy as Americans — proud and strong — but, privately empty and lonely.

Indeed, if freedom is our personal dream, then capitalism is our collective shackle, as our dreams become nightmares in capitalist traps that giveth and taketh away.

Jon Huer, columnist for the Recorder and professor emeritus, lives in Greenfield.
Above provided by: Vinny, who always says: "I only regret that I have but one lap to give to my cats." AND "I'm a more-is-more person."
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