America: Lobster in a Pot

America: lobster in a pot

My good friend Robert Wilkinson of www.aquariuspapers.com, one of the premier astrology blogs on the internet, describes America as a lobster in a pot of boiling water. Every month the PTB turn up the water a few degrees. It sure seems that way, doesn’t it? I recently asked a friend of mine who has been in charge of several school districts special ed departments in her career as a teacher and administrator if  she had noticed any differences in parents, students and fellow teachers in recent years. She said everything is so much more negative now. The people she deals with-parents, students, other teachers, administrators-are all more unstable,  angry and negative. Their behavior is too often irrational and bizarre. You never know, she said, when people are going to flip. She says she can’t take it anymore and is leaving her position come September. Life is too short to deal with angry, self-absorbed and demanding people all day long who think they are the center of the universe.

There’s alot of rage and upset out there. The middle class has been shredded. People’s net worth has been cut in half. Many have lost everything. Over forty million Americans are on food stamps. All it would take is a little kindling and a match to create a destructive conflagration in the country that the government could use an excuse to impose martial law. With the executive order that Obama signed in March that grants him sweeping powers to do just that the stage is set. Let’s hope people remain calm and cool in a summer that promises record heat.

In Aaron Sorkin’s new TV drama, Newsroom, Jeff Daniels as the anchor goes off on a rant about why America is no longer the greatest country on earth.

“And you — sorority girl — yeah — just in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we’re the greatest country in the world. We’re seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, 25 of whom are allies.”

“We sure used to be.  We stood up for what was right! We fought for moral reasons, we passed and struck down laws for moral reasons. We waged wars on poverty, not poor people. We sacrificed, we cared about our neighbors, we put our money where our mouths were, and we never beat our chest.”

“We built great big things, made ungodly technological advances, explored the universe, cured diseases, and cultivated the world’s greatest artists and the world’s greatest economy. We reached for the stars, and we acted like men. We aspired to intelligence; we didn’t belittle it; it didn’t make us feel inferior. We didn’t identify ourselves by who we voted for in the last election, and we didn’t scare so easy. And we were able to be all these things and do all these things because we were informed. By great men, men who were revered.”

“The first step in solving any problem is recognizing there is one — America is not the greatest country in the world anymore.”

What do you think? Is America the greatest country in the world? How do you see America?