Complacency: what your forefathers warned you about
I guess we now know the answer to Ben Franklin’s original “A Republic if you can keep it.” statement. Who else to know the difficulties that lay ahead for us than those that had just had a revolt and risked everything, and yet we let it slip away.
It didn’t happen quickly, but slowly as we forgot. The value of customs, things that we lack here, I suppose, helped make it so easy. But, perhaps, other cycles are at work here.
For instance, why did the US population become so complacent to begin with? Did we not have enough enemies to keep us busy? Perhaps too many enemies to keep track of? Perhaps not knowing who the enemies are?
I’m blogging that a simple feedback cycle was created that caused the complacency, and that the other part of the cycle is rooted in our economy. Not the economy that existed in the 18th century, but the economy that developed over the past 50 years.
The economy today is based on the fact that people don’t know simple things any longer, and have to rely on the State and/or Big Business to keep them alive. Not so in the 1700s, but today how many of us even know how to make bread, the most basic of foods? How many have actually picked fresh fruit? Made clothes? Walked or rode a bike to get somewhere, and not just for fun?
The question remains: which started first? Did someone decide that complacency was required in order to destroy our liberties so Big Business could take over? Or did Big Business just get too greedy and not see that they were causing Americans to just become little consumers, at the expense of everything else, and that this would result in a Constitutional Crisis?
Publicus said,
March 8, 2006 @ 7:39 am
Enemies of democracy are not so much conspirators and opportunists. Nobody planned the last 50 years. Indeed, today’s “leaders” don’t even have the foresight to realize that their own descendents will suffer from the crimes they are committing today.
I’m not convinced the bad guys will win. While the “other guys” are detained, deported and tortured, most people don’t much care. But tyrants tend to overreach, and if Iraq is hard to control, imagine a restive America—including the “gun nuts”—under tyrants who rule with an iron first, allegedly for our own good…
Of course, these tyrants may stumble out of power for it comes to that. I certainly hope so.
john said,
March 8, 2006 @ 1:09 pm
Great comment Publicus, thanks.
loretta said,
March 13, 2006 @ 10:21 pm
Materialism, drummed into us by the corporate/capitalist machine has contributed to destroying our values. Religion has usurped true spirituality. The nun in “The Motorcycle Diaries” who refused food to those who didn’t attend mass because “you have to feed the spirit before you feed the body,” is a perfect example of the perversion of Christianity that has swept our country. It’s not a big jump to our bombing and maiming hundreds of thousands of people to make them “free.” I don’t think human nature is to blame, but we are as a specie very malleable. Also, civics used to be a required part of the curriculum in school and now the kids are so ignorant. T.V. is another culprit, creating passivity and receptivity, rather than critical thinking. Whatcha gonna do? Sullivan for Senator!
john said,
March 15, 2006 @ 2:44 pm
Sure, but I think the machine itself isn’t to blame, it is the structure that allows the machine to act the way it does. And therefore it is possible to make adjustments to fix the problem without having to get rid of the machine.