on the eve

The twentieth century saw an astounding increase in the United States in the ability to market perceived need to the masses through radio, television and then the internet. Few are unaffected by the powerful draw of keeping up with the Lopezes or the Trans or sometimes even the Smiths. Children are immersed from earliest age in a media-driven consumer culture that insists on presenting product as parity. “If they have it, I must have it”. Not a unique thought, but something that has long troubled me.

In that we are a largely immigrant nation depending on just how far back you go, otherwise a completely immigrant nation, one might expect tremendous cultural diversity, and with it constant innovation. This has been a hallmark of America’s short history, but seems to have gone into hibernation for the past several years. If not hibernation, then subsumed by the corporate created and media driven desire for sameness.  

We have grown fat and lazy even as we bitch. Skills that were critical for thousands of years are being lost in two generations. How many people do you know that can actually grow their own food, clothe themselves, and provide shelter from their climate. Mass transit helped to create overpopulation through expanding physical boundaries just as mass communication helps allow a better industrial worker class by insuring that the same information is evenly programmed into them. The American Dream.

Periodically we are challenged in this country to reinvent ourselves and often for good reason. We tend to latch onto whatever works at a given time and ride until she drops, and then ride a little longer on the carcass. It appears that we may be near such a point. In this Christmas season, historic this year for political and economic reasons, let us hope, and if we pray, pray for a survivable storm, one that prunes rather than takes the tree to the ground. Of course if the tree should fall completely, we could all use the firewood assuming we could figure out how to cut it.