America
 

I think a lot of people envied the Americans in the post World War 2 era.... ie the 50s.
They seemed to be getting all the consumer goodies, cars, colour TVs luxurious, spacious homes.... their vast farmlands providing abundant crops to fill the supermarket shelves.
The Americans had it good in the 50s and 60s.

Americans had won the war, they had defeated the fascist bullies in Germany, Italy and Japan,
now they were settling down to an endless era of peace and prosperity.

What was the declaration of independence ?

......" certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...."

Of course they worded it wrong, what they meant was
......................".Life, Liberty and the pursuit of .... Pleasure !"

But wot happened ? with my ear to the ground I sense an increasing unease in America, a rising anger and frustration.

Many Americans seem to feel that they are already living in a fascist state.... as though that by dismantling the Nazi fascist states in Europe , the American Government and the CIA had learned all the fascist tricks................ concentration camps, mind control etc... and the state is ready to use them on the American population.

Americans see their jobs being exported to the low wage economies of the third world,
they see the only growth industry left in America being military spending as the American military deals out death and destruction in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Meanwhile at home the Waco massacre is only one example of how ruthless the American state can be against its own people....
Add to that ..... lethal taser guns are now in daily use against the American population and causing
a considerable number of deaths.

The easy going, laid back American cop seems to be morphing into a masked member of a military style swot team.......... surveillance cameras are going up in every city and town in America.
Homeland Security imposes endless rules and restrictions on the freedom of the individual.

I wonder, is the American dream turning into the American nightmare ?

Having visited America several times I was amazed at how "un free" it really is. It is nearing a police state. And Europe will follow suit unless we are careful.

stardust2003,

Jeez. that's a heck of a question and difficult to answer. Just for my two cents though I think this is what is going on.

I believe that working class and middle class Americans are finally waking up to the point that the cards are all stacked against them. The list is so long that I wouldn't even attempt to put a comprehensive list together, but here are a few:

1. Wages have been stagnant since the 1970's when adjusted for inflation.

2. Health care costs have gone through the roof. If you get seriously sick here be prepared for bankruptcy or at least losing most everything you have. Health insurance is ridiculously expensive. Most people I know are paying about $1,200 per month for coverage.

3. Educational costs are now mostly prohibitive for many people. Your average student at a State institution now comes out of a four year program with $20,000 or more of student loans. A PhD or MD can leave a student more than $100,000 in debt. And those debts can not be included in bankruptcy. They stay with you until they're paid off.

Primary and secondary schools budgets are being cut left and right. Something like 30% of all students in the US now don't finish high school.

4. Around 40% of all US mortgages are now underwater. US financial institutions are doing nothing to help except foreclose on anyone that gets close to getting into trouble. And the federal government has done absolutely nothing.

5. Just normal everyday expenses (food, gas, etc.) have been steadily creeping up for a long time now (even though the government says there is no inflation). And why is there no inflation? Because the government took those things out of their calculation that would really define inflation.

I could go on and on. But it really boils down to the knowledge that the government cannot be trusted to tell us the truth and that corporations and the rich are receiving all the benefits while the rest of us pay for it.

Kind of simplistic I realize, but I think that's why people here are a but surly.

Makes you wonder if those weirdo survivalists with their guns and months worth of food, are maybe the smart ones :D

The Yanks are currently taking over Celeb Big Bro in the UK

Micheal Madsen is one cool dude... walking round the set in cowboy boots and growling like a mountain bear !
The Shannon Twins... ex Playboy Mansion ... are in there too.

The conversation got round to the male penis .
" Almost every guy in the USA is circumcised ..." said one of the Shannon twins, "they kind of do that at birth ! "
I was surprised at this statement... needless to say none
of the Brits in the house are circumcised .
Micheal was asked ... are you ? and he said yes he was !

I have guns and ammunition.
I have knives.
I have swords.
I have axes.
I have bows & arrows.
I have enough food and drink to last me a couple of months.

I guess that makes me a weirdo survivalist.

:D

With the present economic situation, this being 2012, and the Zombie apocalypse about to happen, you aren't weird but you might survive :D

I also have a couple of baseball bats and one cricket bat which make very effective clubs if needed.

But no golf clubs. I hate golf and refuse to have any in the house. Plus they don't stand up well to repeated clubbing of things over the head.

You should always test these things, you don't want them letting you down in an emergency :D

American Prestige

Back in the 1960's American prestige was very high in the world..
Hollywood was making lots of movies with lots of blondes in them,
the Beachboys were Surfin USA .. the whole music scene was buzzing
...
But beyond that, the economy was buzzing too ..... American science
and innovation were leading the world, just like they had done back in
the 1950s.
But the real " Jewel in the Crown " during the 1960s were those spectacular manned space flights.... each one more adventurous than the one before...
Three men circumnavigating the moon.... in Dec 1968 was a big success....... soon it would be the big one...
a space flight that would put men on the moon.... and Americans at that !

The engagement and hot war in Vietnam was worrying , but at the time
it was just a sideshow.

When the moonlanding finally happened in July 1969 it was a spectacular success ... a high point for the former British colony..... a time for America to celebrate it's spectacular achievement and for Russia to watch, enviously from the sidelines.


Today America has lost much of it's prestige it feels itself being drawn into a worldwide struggle against terrorism and the future seems full of endless wars and global conflict.

With an ear to the ground I sense that Americans today are losing a their sense of Nationhood as politics becomes more and more global and politicians prefer to strut on a world stage. Americans no longer trust their politicions or feel that they are representing them in any way.
The Congress Critters just have their snouts in the trough and don't give a damn about the genuine concerns of their grass roots support.

Maybe what America needs today is another Space Spectacular....
some bold Space adventure that will lift the nation and inspire the youth of the Country.
Why not another flight to the moon ? this time with the object of
erecting the very first building on the moon.... a house, an office.. whatever.

It might need two space ships... one to carry the 3 man crew and one to carry the building materials. Another innovation could be the astranauts riding on electric motorbikes.
A date could be announced for the simultanious take off .... two rockets blasting off together...... and there would be high excitement and anticipation as the flight progressed.
With the progress and success of this audacious space mission America's prestige would once more be sky high... its Universities, Science and Industry once more proving that America has the know how and innovation to carry out such a mission and once again, the Russians would look on enviously from the sidelines.......