America Is and Always Has Been Rotten, Immoral, Corrupt
The crimes are endless... just in the last 11 years, the inhuman evil we've committed as a nation is stunning, grotesque, sick, unthinkable, paralyzing in its implications.
And yet... life goes on us, in a not so terrible way, for most of us... most Americans have a comfortable standard of living compared to the vast majority of the world... almost as if our endless crimes are paying for the relative luxury we live in.
We are comfortable until we confront our history, and contemplate our actions overseas, the actions of corporations hidden away, the evil in places we don't see....
Even something like Indefinite Detention of prisoners at Guantanamo, and the torture of terror suspects, is relatively small in the grand scheme of evil in the world, but they are all still amazingly evil and fucked up.
The Iraq war, The Afghanistan war, an endless drone war in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen-- unbelievable, staggering wastes of life and resources and money.
Pure evil committed by the US, that is mostly ignored, papered over, shunned by polite society. Americans are simply embarrassed to talk of such things.
Other things like the war on drugs and Prison Industrial complex inflict needless and horrendous suffering on Americans. Abuse of women, abuse of the environment, the list goes on.
The evil has always been here too, since this country was founded. The slaughter of native Americans, slavery, constant war.
It makes me sick to hear people say where has America gone wrong, is if there was ever a real Golden Age. We have always been sick and corrupt. Just like most countries-- especially like the countries and people that we like to demonize. The evil others.
Where to stop, where to begin, what to do except for throw one's hands up and say fuck it?
And I haven't even gotten to FUCKING 9/11. Or the myriad other conspiracies or the deeper scarier truths.
But America-- what a strange evil place. So many many good and caring people. So much art and beauty and creativity and intelligence and talent. So much natural beauty. So many good things in all the people.
SO HOW THE FUCK DID WE END UP CO-EXISTING WITH SO MUCH FUCKING EVIL??????
I mean, I KNOW to some extent how and why... I'm more just pointing out the existential angst of it all.
BUT-- I do have hope. I think America is making slow and steady progress toward being a better, more human country. Young people give me hope-- but there are just so many evil institutions that must be battled constantly and eventually toppled. It's almost a never-ending struggle because any major revolution eventually leads to the same crap. It's really a type of evolution we must undergo as a species, and I think the internet is a big part of it.
And yet... life goes on us, in a not so terrible way, for most of us... most Americans have a comfortable standard of living compared to the vast majority of the world... almost as if our endless crimes are paying for the relative luxury we live in.
We are comfortable until we confront our history, and contemplate our actions overseas, the actions of corporations hidden away, the evil in places we don't see....
Even something like Indefinite Detention of prisoners at Guantanamo, and the torture of terror suspects, is relatively small in the grand scheme of evil in the world, but they are all still amazingly evil and fucked up.
The Iraq war, The Afghanistan war, an endless drone war in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen-- unbelievable, staggering wastes of life and resources and money.
Pure evil committed by the US, that is mostly ignored, papered over, shunned by polite society. Americans are simply embarrassed to talk of such things.
Other things like the war on drugs and Prison Industrial complex inflict needless and horrendous suffering on Americans. Abuse of women, abuse of the environment, the list goes on.
The evil has always been here too, since this country was founded. The slaughter of native Americans, slavery, constant war.
It makes me sick to hear people say where has America gone wrong, is if there was ever a real Golden Age. We have always been sick and corrupt. Just like most countries-- especially like the countries and people that we like to demonize. The evil others.
Where to stop, where to begin, what to do except for throw one's hands up and say fuck it?
And I haven't even gotten to FUCKING 9/11. Or the myriad other conspiracies or the deeper scarier truths.
But America-- what a strange evil place. So many many good and caring people. So much art and beauty and creativity and intelligence and talent. So much natural beauty. So many good things in all the people.
SO HOW THE FUCK DID WE END UP CO-EXISTING WITH SO MUCH FUCKING EVIL??????
I mean, I KNOW to some extent how and why... I'm more just pointing out the existential angst of it all.
BUT-- I do have hope. I think America is making slow and steady progress toward being a better, more human country. Young people give me hope-- but there are just so many evil institutions that must be battled constantly and eventually toppled. It's almost a never-ending struggle because any major revolution eventually leads to the same crap. It's really a type of evolution we must undergo as a species, and I think the internet is a big part of it.
posted by spooked at 10:00 AM
1 Comments:
Slowly but surely, though, the internet is being sanitized for mass consumption and to placate an order that knows no end to its venality. (It's the little things, like e.g. Google's recent decision to sunset Reader.)
While you are correct that revolutions have turned into their opposite, they have always brought significant progress with them, and I don't think defeatism in the face of past failures should carry more weight than current conditions demand for action on our part.
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