That's what we've done collectively as a nation - we've humped ourselves into a corner.
Who's we? Well I for one contributed to it. I know some dudes that've also contributed to it. Other factors are probably any combination of the following: oil companies, the media, politicians, Satan, fear mongers, Hollywood, "Give-to-Get" schemers, assorted corporations, video games, government programs, global warming, the Internet, pirates, lolCats.
Do I honestly think Ceiling Cat or DOOM have anything to do with society's free-falling humpfest into the first circle of Hell? No, not really.
What I do think is responsible is our (the "general" populace of the United States of America) contentedness with the way things are, our apathy to the current state of our nation, our lazy "let someone else fix it" attitude, and/or our greedy "me first, me most, me now" attitude (again, any combination of these items).
Scandal sells. Sex sells. Pain and misery sell. We want it. We crave it. It's part of our nature.
Think not? What would you rather see: bare flesh or a baby playing with toys? A rather odd set of choices sure, but it speaks a lot about values.
And what we value is people who'll give us more of what we want. So we elect and follow leaders (corporate or government) that promise and sometimes deliver exactly what we're after: more scandal, more sex, more pain and misery. More stuff to satisfy the individual's fleeting lusts than what's actually beneficial to society as a whole.
I'm not talkin' communism or socialism or anything like that, no. Forget that junk - it don't work. Sure some dude made it work or some dudes who get theirs by taking it from others make it work.
No, we're a democracy here. We want a government of like-minded individuals to tell us it's OK for a minority with a loud voice to overrule the silent majority and steer the nation. And seriously, all things considered, in a democracy, who is the minority and who is the majority is largely irrelevant when the only thing politicians understand is "the baller with the fat stacks tells me what rules to make".
And so what we have here is a system where dudes spend millions of dollars ($350 in groceries/week into $1,000,000 dollars is enough food for 2,857 weeks of food {or approximately 55 years}) telling you they're going to change the system and get you your pogostick back because you were overtaxed, up to your curlies in debt, and the repo man took it away. And then what happens? The other 1,500 dudes are like, "No way dude, we just voted ourselves a pay raise and have a 3:30 at Megaresort™. Forget you and the people who believed in you."
None of the parts work together and the parts that do are secretly wondering how long it's going to be before they get all their stuff swiped by the other parts.
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I think we as Americans need to seriously overhaul every corrupted inch of this Hindenberg before it punctures us fatally and the country goes down in flames in mere minutes.
It's late and it is decreed that we follow the 8-hour, 5-day work schedule without error so I need to hit the planks. I'll continue this later...
Oh, and if I ever die the day after making a post, you'll know a conspiracy's afoot. /tinfoilhat. :P
-Some Rando