The Sinister Moose

I'm fairly certain that if you and I sat down while enjoying a tasty beverage, we could identify most of the problems plaguing the United States. Our concerns would probably be echos of the concerns of our parents, only changed ever so slightly to prevent being accused, of being our parents.

We would probably point the blame at one political faction or another, and say if it weren't for "so-and-so", this country wouldn't be in this mess. Chances are we would both be right without regard to which political faction we accused. I could say red, you could say blue or vise-versa and in the end the general consensus would be that there is a problem even if it's really purple's fault.

We may, after another round of tasty beverages, be able to offer a viable solution to the problems and come to an agreement that we're sure would work. Naturally our solutions may not make everyone happy, but you can't please all of the people all of the time. It's just not possible.

Unfortunately, we're not "in charge" and because of that, our solutions will probably never see the light of day, because our solutions cannot be forced down the throats of those that disagree with us.

It is said that "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." and this statement has a great deal of truth across the board not only for horses, but for people.

Personally, I believe that the horse has to be intelligent enough to decide it needs to drink when it's presented with water. Let's face it, if the animal refuses to drink the water, there is one of two things wrong. Either there is something wrong with the water, and the horse has a better sense of it than you do, or the horse is just too stupid to drink the water.

I'm not average, that's not an arrogant ego speaking, but more so an admission of guilt. In these politically correct times, while we're being entertained to death by idiotic mass media, and enraptured by the latest fad, admitting that I'm not average is tantamount to saying I'm a tin-foil hat wearing elitist jerk, because I'm not allowed to feel as though I'm better than anyone else. Everyone is a winner. There are no losers. Even if you fail, you're still a winner.

Seriously?

Pardon me while I put on my foil hat, and gather my friends around me to kibitz problematic issues. Yes, we may sound like conspiracy theorists at an aluminum foil convention, but don't feel bad, you're still a winner in your own special way.

One of my favorite bumper stickers is "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." I'm sure this statement had it's origins somewhere in the ecomentalist movement, but I find it just as appropriate today, and highly applicable in a myriad of areas. In all honesty, I think the most appropriate situation to use this statement is when speaking of our government.

I would love to have this statement engraved in marble and have it perched prominently on the steps leading into Congress. Surly if anyone should be rudely awaked it is our government. You and I can see the problems in this country, but for some reason, the majority of our government are too blinded by financial gain to pay any attention to the problems at hand.

I think we can all agree, that Detroit is in ruins, despite Chrysler's claims to be reviving it single handedly while building cars in Canada.

I don't believe that anyone will argue that the disaster of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans has been "fixed" yet.

And I certainly don't believe that anyone would argue that the situation with the border between the U.S. and Mexico is being handled properly, let alone Constitutionally.

Lastly, I feel that the general consensus, certainly among my friends and acquaintances, is that the United States has allowed our country to be pillaged by megalithic corporations who enjoy the tax benefits of being an American company, while actually manufacturing everything overseas.

Call it "Nation Building", or "Empire Building" or call it "Isolationist", because I don't really care. The fact of the matter is, the United States is not what it once was, and it seems to be following the same arc as numerous other "civilizations" which can end only one way. Failure.

I have even began identifying, what I believe to be, the root cause of this collapse of greatness.

Pride.

It seems as though, and this may only be my layman's perspective, we are breeding, educating and entertaining the pride out of our nation. Celebration of success is frowned upon, and called gloating, and mean-spirited. Being prideful of one's accomplishments is considered shameful. Being stupid is "totally hot". Children are looking up to people like Paris Hilton and that "Snookie" creature from reality shows that in-no-way resemble reality.

There are small segments of our nation that spout phrases like "Proud to be an American" however if you ask them if they're proud that our government is enabling drug cartels to move copious amounts of drugs across the U.S. Mexico border, I'm pretty sure they're going to say no.

Ask someone under the age of 20 what the "American Dream" is, and chances are good they won't know. Ask them who has the best hair on Jersey Shore and they'll have an opinion.

To be honest, I don't care anymore. If the world is going to end in 2012, I'll don my foil hat, stand on the roof of the house and giggle, knowing that I won't have to grow old in a world where our Republic has fallen, and our society has degraded into a real life version of Idiocracy the movie. If the world doesn't end… I suppose I'll have to sit around with some friends, drink a few tasty beverages, and just bitch about everything or maybe I'll learn to play the violin, to take my mind off of the inevitable collapse.

In the end, I'm no longer proud to be an American, because the path this country is on, leaves me nothing to be proud of. I'm torn between calling it apathy, or entropy, but a lack of national pride and a lack on the part of it's citizens to have any personal pride, disgusts me.

If we closed our borders tomorrow, and attempted to live only on what this country produces, we wouldn't last a month. When Walmart ran out of televisions, clothes and food, that would drive the last nail in the coffin. When the oil in the national reserves ran out, that would be the last shovel full of dirt on top of the grave in front of a tombstone that read, "Here lies the United States of America, once a great country" and at the bottom of the tombstone probably scrawled in crayon will be a little "Amendment" that read, "Did anyone see what happened on Real Housewives last night?"