|
By Jim Randers |
|
July 2008 |
|
WHERE ARE THE REBELS? |
|
My wife and I were talking with some friends recently about social issues. One of our friends is a teacher and works with young people on finding careers and planning their future. One thing leads to another, and the comment came up that there is a lack of rebellion in our society now. It made me think, what has happened? Have we turned complacent? Is any existing status quo good enough? Does anyone care anymore? Are we doomed to live in a gray world with no extremes, with no contrasting colors? Pliable and passive, ok with however the wind blows? There was a time when we wanted more. Rebellion isn’t a negative thing; it often is the advent of positive change. Our country is based on rebellion, by the very fact of those that had enough of Europe and came to America in the first place, for a new life: Rebellion in America against English or French rule; rebelling against taxes by taking real action; the Boston Tea Party was a symbol of rebellion against the establishment (which was a huge deal in its day); people rebelled against the Vietnam War by the millions. There have been music rebellions, clothing rebellions, voting rebellions, civil rights rebellions, sexual rebellions. Out of all this has come change, and I believe change for the better. So what has happened to us in the last 20 years or so? When you look at most of the things happening in America today they are more about “I want mine you get yours” and less about “ours”. We still do not think in a world picture but a local picture. That has to change for us to be successful in the world. I just watched a show by Bill Moyers, The American Dream In Reverse? on the haves and have-nots. This web site will explain it all -www.pbs.org/. They call this the 2nd Gilded Age in America (Mark Twain coined the phrase originally). The first was in 1880 when there were extremely rich people and the rest of the majority were less than middle class. According to many experts it’s happening again. As The Wall Street Journal reported, a recent study found that the top .01% or 14,000 American families hold 22.2% of wealth — the bottom 90%, or over 133 million families, just 4% of the nation's wealth. The difference being that in the 1880s the people and certain politicians pulled together to make a change as one social unit against the rich, and it worked. It is not working today. One reason is the super-rich have aligned themselves with the people against the bureaucratic government. A false belief in that the rich benefit by working with the government, getting laws passed that serve their interest. They have gotten a new group of voters to vote with them that had not in the past, and it is giving the corporations the power to control the government and pass laws that help them get richer while Americans get poorer. They have broken the unions and jobs fly out the door to foreign countries. The best explanation I can give you to understand this is in the book What’s the Matter with Kansas, by Thomas Frank. It is well laid-out and easy to understand, yet it happened so subtly that no one got it. We are living with the results now: super-high gas prices, the mortgage fiasco, food costs, etc. Everything will go up in price because of this. Along with a costly war in terms of American lives and monetary expense that shouldn’t have even happened. Guess what? The super-rich are getting richer than ever and everyone else is struggling more than ever. Where is the anger? Where is the outrage? Where is the protest music? Where are the people in the streets? A war that shouldn’t be; a world turned against us; the value of the |
|
dollar declining; gas prices that are crippling; a mortgage fiasco that’s hard to comprehend. Yet everyone is quiet. Complaining yes, but people complain in the best of times. What has happened to American spunk, American leadership, American rebellion? One pitfall is a belief in consumerism; meaning that Americans are more concerned about getting theirs than about the good of the society as a whole. The spin-doctors are leading us down the road with a magic flute while the wolves are nipping at our heals. Like sheep we follow. Money is the mantra, fear is the message, and we become numb and isolated. 60 Minutes did a segment on happiness on Sunday. Denmark is listed as the happiest country in the world, and we are 26th. When questioned about this, the Danes’ answer was our needs are met and we have an acceptance of what is. Personal satisfaction with their life is more important than the acquisition of commodities. They think as a whole and not simply as individuals. In studies about happiness the number one thing that makes people happy are relationships - family and friends, not goods. Have you ever wanted something so bad then once you got it after a few weeks it just sat in the corner and was no big deal? What happened in the 70s? We got it about gas mileage; there was a direction, a unity. The speed limit was lowered, the Big Three carmakers made smaller cars, there was a pulling together. It just drifted away and today, 30 years later, everyone is surprised. Can you imagine what could have been accomplished in the last 30 years, where we would be right now with auto technology? I ask again, what happened to the rebellion when the super-big SUV came out? Have we become comfortably numb? Is war justifiable even if the information is flawed? We have been the biggest polluter in the world for the last 100 years and use the majority of all the worlds’ resources yet we whine about China and India wanting what we have now, as if it’s not fair. We should have had leaders telling us a long time ago to prepare for this and we as individuals should have seen it coming. We should have never stopped rebelling in the 60s. Now we are just scrambling to survive and keep up, as we move into second place. We are more concerned about what books Oprah is reading or a new computer game or a fantasy movie that just came out than we are about the fact that young people are reading less than ever before, that we are becoming a second rate country, that we look like the terriost in the world. The world is afraid of America and what America will do next!!! We are like the autocratic father who forces his family to live the way he says is best and in the end he looses his family and is left a lonely old man. Let’s not allow America to become a lonely old Uncle Sam. As Johnny said in the Wild Ones when asked “Hey, Johnny, what are you rebelling against?” He said, “What’ve you got?” Question authority. Don’t accept what anyone tells you until you find it to be true yourself. In the service we had a saying that went like this, “Don’t believe anything you hear and only half of what you see.” That would be a good slogan in America today. Had we heeded it, we probably wouldn’t be in this predicament. Blind obedience is the downfall of good intentions.
|
|
PAGES |
|
A little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, And as necessary in the political world as storms The physical. Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, Jan. 30, 1787 |