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How America Lost Its Identity

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Hawkeye10

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Megalomania & Small-Mindedness
How America Lost Its Identity
I learned three things on that evening in Burlington: In the fatherland of capitalism, anger with the elite is so vast that even leftists would rather vote for a narcissist billionaire than a veteran of the political establishment. In a country that values freedom of opinion higher than almost any other country in the world, there were now attitude tests prior to admission to political rallies. And many Americans, who are otherwise so polite, lose all restraint when confronted by those who think differently.

Everything that I associated with America seemed no longer to apply on that evening in Burlington. What had happened to this once-proud country?

I found answers to this question on a journey through American society -- to places like Vermont, Maryland, Rhode Island and Virginia. Those are just a few of the places I have visited in the last four years -- places where those symptoms could be seen that together add up to the huge crisis that has gripped America. This self-confident country that has spent decades exporting its values with imperialist hubris has lost its identity. Democratic capitalism no longer works well enough to keep together a country of 325 million people and to guarantee domestic peace.
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Letter from Washington: How America Lost Its Identity - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Right On
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Megalomania & Small-Mindedness
How America Lost Its Identity


Letter from Washington: How America Lost Its Identity - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Right On
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Der Spiegel is and has always been rather anti American and described it in terms like one used here "imperialist hubris". They are traditionally not as lopsided as Süd Deutsche Zeitung but resemble the public media presentation relatively closely on most US oriented issues.

Having said this, the article does make a number of points that are noteworthy, while mixed with spin that misses some important facets of our situation. It is not really a Condition Americana. It is more a Contition Humaine or at least a Condition Democratia.
 
We lost our way when we decided as a nation, industry by industry (including politics, a multi billion dollar per year industry), that a fella with a masters in business new more about each of these businesses on their first day there than the other guy, who started out in the mail room, worked his way up, has been there for 30+ years, and knows every facet of every dept.

We lost our way when those same well dressed MBA holders showed us the illusion of growth, by cutting costs, by making rules that made it easier to cut those costs. When we let the man in the suit fire the 30 year veteran because he makes too much. When we decided that, since these men were so successful at "growing industry" and "creating jobs" (somewhere), that they should not just be our private sector leaders, but our public as well.
 
KevinKohler said:
We lost our way when we decided as a nation, industry by industry (including politics, a multi billion dollar per year industry), that a fella with a masters in business new more about each of these businesses on their first day there than the other guy, who started out in the mail room, worked his way up, has been there for 30+ years, and knows every facet of every dept.

We lost our way when those same well dressed MBA holders showed us the illusion of growth, by cutting costs, by making rules that made it easier to cut those costs. When we let the man in the suit fire the 30 year veteran because he makes too much. When we decided that, since these men were so successful at "growing industry" and "creating jobs" (somewhere), that they should not just be our private sector leaders, but our public as well.
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You sound like Trump.

I a few months back read an argument that at core what happened is that Americans lost the ability/self confidence to judge for ourselves the measure, so re fell back to making lists of credentials and going by those, which of course can be and often are handed out to the unfit. Over specialization driven by technical society would be the root cause, the lack of generalists and public intellectuals a contributor.
 
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joG said:
Der Spiegel is and has always been rather anti American and described it in terms like one used here "imperialist hubris". They are traditionally not as lopsided as Süd Deutsche Zeitung but resemble the public media presentation relatively closely on most US oriented issues.

Having said this, the article does make a number of points that are noteworthy, while mixed with spin that misses some important facets of our situation. It is not really a Condition Americana. It is more a Contition Humaine or at least a Condition Democratia.
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IDK, I have not been reading them for long, but with as bad as American Journalism is taking stock in what others think of us is useful in a "De La Démocratie en Amérique" sorta way. How many people do you know who have been arguing that America has an identity problem? I dont know many, this is a rather fresh idea, and it gets close to what I have long concluded, that at root what ails America is a spiritual problem. It sure would be nice to have a better idea of what you think is wrong with this piece but I am happy to get the impression that you found it worth reading.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
IDK, I have not been reading them for long, but with as bad as American Journalism is taking stock in what others think of us is useful in a "De La Démocratie en Amérique" sorta way. How many people do you know who have been arguing that America has an identity problem? I dont know many, this is a rather fresh idea, and it gets close to what I have long concluded, that at root what ails America is a spiritual problem. It sure would be nice to have a better idea of what you think is wrong with this piece but I am happy to get the impression that you found it worth reading.
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A lot of the loss of identity is due to not having explained in depth, why and which things needed to be done. This failing of the democracies has left most people stranded in the populists story lines believing they had a real view and not a colorful fantasy. The politicians have mostly failed us badly and the media have been busily pushing opinions instead of putting order into the facts and data.
 
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