one possible root cause of our issue - my feeling of how we face big problems these days

[NRaleighLiberal]

this thought was stimulated while listening to The One A on public radio in the car while doing errands. The topic was about a potential vaccine - how much it would/should cost, who should bear the brunt of the development cost, etc. The discussion was pretty good - touching upon the typical types of answers to this - those who invest need to see a return on investment, what happens if China or Russia gets a vaccine first, how to get the vaccine to everyone (they probably brought up the impact of anti vaxxers, but I was only in the car for bits of the hour).

But then it stuck me. Whether this is a recent phenomenon (I suspect not), COVID has shone a bright light on our current versions of human beings (not all of them of course, but particularly the "haves", big business, and politicians. The first question asked - "how can (I, we, our country, our business) benefit. The second question asked is "what if people who are undeserving get it - is that fair? We need to make sure that someone is not gaming the system and getting something for nothing, or their laziness, or etc etc".

In other words, many people today, many governments, don't see us all as in this together - it is about the competition - it is set up as "for me to win, someone has to lose". Citizens United, rise of authoritarianism, impact of religion ("my way or the highway - I get saved, all others go to hell" ), a weak sauce media, and toxic social networking.

Unless things change, humanity is on an arc that leads only to our own annihilation And, sadly, we are reaping what we sow.

[Wounded Bear]

1. It's the result of profitizing everything...

Nothing gets done, now matter how important it might be or how much good might be done, unless somebody makes a profit off of it.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. exactly. It is all about "me". not "us". Very short sighted, narcissistic, selfish.

[SheltieLover]

3. Yup

I actually had a high-llevel VA exec use this as excuse for why healthcare must be for profit.

[redstatebluegirl]

4. The me me me groups are strong.

Many are democrats, I know we don't want to think that, but I dealt with many of them. Parents of college students and their offspring who only care about themselves not the collective we. The last time we were united as a nation was after 9/11 and I don't think it will come again in my lifetime.

As an example, how many of you have friends who are always taking selfies? I have never done it, it seems so self absorbed to me. But today it is all the rage, it is also very telling about our society, where we are, and where we are headed.

[NRaleighLiberal]

5. exactly. thanks for your comments...some times we are in, hey???

[redstatebluegirl]

6. Very scary times.

[Moostache]

7. I don't recall the post-9/11 world the same way...

United?
Maybe on the 12th or for possibly a week after...
But not much longer than that.

I recall starting to have arguments with people on 9/14 about the calls for revenge and bombing and war being extremely upsetting and premature and pointless - I first told someone that you cannot bomb "terrorism" on the 15th of September 2001...and I never have felt common cause or bonds as countrymen with many of them since that day.

Anywho, the enemy is as it has always been - unfettered, unrestrained capitalism and unilateral class warfare by the rich upon the poor; which it turns out is VERY much fascism in a suit instead of a military uniform.

The virus has exposed the failings of for-profit healthcare, the ways it drives those at the bottom into early graves to benefit the profit whores and thieves at the top.

The virus laid bare the fractures in our society and exposed the experiences of millions as being really not aligned with "the greatest country on Earth mantra/delusion/lie".

The virus enabled people to finally understand that the minority experience of America is not equal or just and nothing like the experience of white America - and it never has been from the founding to today.

I recently rewatcehd 'Amistad'.
I am struck by the line from that film, given to Anthony Hopkins, as John Quincy Adams at the climax of final trial.

"If it means Civil War, then let it come and let that be the last battle of the American Revolution."

It DID come and it was WON, but the south never gave up on an evil and antiquated economic model, ever. They started to rewrite history as a fight for 'state's rights' and the myth of the 'lost cause' was distributed as a salve for their wounds instead of pursuing a lasting and just peace. They (the descendants of that mentality) have continued to oppress without end - first and longest and harshest against the formerly enslaved black people and then their generations since up to and including today; but also pursued genocide against the native peoples in a crime against humanity that has been whitewashed away from the history books; subjugated the poor and all minorities via atrocious laws and policies and have continued through to the present nearly unabated.

COVID-19 is not the cause of our national demise. It's not even the trigger of it. It is a mirror that doesn't care what we WANT. It does not care what people WISH for. It cannot be bullshitted like a TV audience or single-issue dumb-ass voter.

COVID-19 is a mirror, and it sees us for the flaws and ugliness endemic to our failed current government and our inability to live up to and improve upon the high-minded ideals and ideas that was 'America' in the past.

[llmart]

8. I didn't get the impression that we were united after 9/11.

Many of us saw the attack as something we should have seen coming, since we have a long history of thinking the US is the end all and be all of countries. We think might is right and other cultures are less than.

My opinion is that this constant emphasis on measuring a country's well-being on only the economy and unregulated capitalism run amok dupes some people into thinking that's what makes one successful. The growing disparity between the haves and the have nots fosters self-centered behavior.

I certainly haven't any of the answers to how a society which has gone off the tracks can change, human nature being what it is, but I know that I'm old enough to where I probably won't see it in my lifetime. It took decades for us to get from the "all in it together" culture after WWII to the Reagan years when it all started falling apart.

[NRaleighLiberal]

10. I agree with you both (this response and the one above) - I don't think 911 united us -

it helped cement the polarization between those scared shitless that were happy to support having their freedoms stripped, hatred of other started to emerge, and it was just one more step - a Bush and Cheney led lie fest - to help put us where we are today.

[llmart]

11. Absolutely!

I agree with that summation.

We need to guard against giving Bush/Cheney a pass just because we've now experienced a complete and utter failure/criminal as our "leader". Bush was just a puppet of Cheney's and Cheney is as evil as they come.

[PETRUS]

9. Yes.

Capitalism!