No We Can’t

Or is it, No, We Won’t? Or, No Way, No How? Or, perhaps, No, we shouldn’t expect to limit our ideals to shallow campaign sloganeering?

Poor President Obama, who’s gifted with a rare talent for silky, resonant rhetoric, made a promise he’ll never keep — Yes We Can. Sure, it sounded great, particularly as an antidote to the Neocon nightmare W had supported. But, really, how was it ever going to be possible? A New World? A New Politics? A New Way of Thinking? No way. Not even close.

Now what once smelled fishy smells even fishier. What was once corrupt is now more corrupt. The problem? The fix was in. The writing’s been on the wall for a long time, indeed, before Cheney got his hand on the joystick, though a few on the Left would have you believe otherwise. Yes, replacing the wicked Administration was a positive sign, but it wasn’t a panacea, which, unfortunately, is how the Democrats portrayed it. So put on "It’s Crying Time Again" and fill the jiggers.

First, the notion of reducing vast complexities into visceral hop, of simply characterizing huge problems requiring intensive inquiry into appealing speeches was bound to fail. And the main problem is that exploring those complexities, revealing the grave inadequacies in a culture attuned to instant gratification and saccharine sentimentality is, likewise, bound to fail. Quite simply, America is ill-suited to comprehensively understand the serious problems it faces, collectively work together, and respond appropriately. And everyone, ranging from those who knowingly mislead to those dispensing snake-oil remedies to Joe Sixpack, uncomfortably ensconced on the edge of his seat, know it. But the pretense — Healthcare "reform," the "new" changes in banking, the economic "growth" stimulating Wall Street — continues.

Part of the superficial consciousness ruling over America’s affairs can be traced back to the 1950s when individuals working for General Foods encapsulated the emerging zeitgeist in the term — positioning. The concept sat on the shelf until Al Ries and Jack Trout claimed it in the 70s as a way of bolstering the success of their ad agency, Ries Coppiello Colwell. They insisted, "Positioning is thinking in reverse. Instead of starting with yourself, you start with the mind of the prospect....Changing minds in our overcommunicated society is an extremely difficult task. It’s much easier to work with what’s there."

If you’ve paid attention to what was there before the great financial meltdown, amply recorded by Alexis deTocqeville, Thoreau, Thorstein Veblen, Michael Harrington, John K. Galbraith, Eric Hoffer, and the reactive conservatives, like Irving Kristol, it was obvious: Trouble Ahead. In "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism" Daniel Bell profoundly observed that the introduction of the credit card, which sundered the sense of delayed gratification still widely upheld by secularized religious values established "the institutionalization of envy."

In terms of positioning, that meant "Give Me, Now." And before America knew it "I Want my Maypo" evolved into the Me Decade, which evolved further into "I Want My MTV." I Want My BMW. I want a house 10 times larger than my budget. And out came the ARMS and legs to get the deals signed. Thinking? Out. Thinking in reverse? In. That’s where we’ve been. That’s where we are. And that’s where we’re going to stay for a while.

Our representatives would have us believe our problems are mainly political. Our evangelists, impatiently counting the minutes until the End Times arrive, claim our problems are exclusively religious. The truth is, the overwhelming problem is cultural and there’s no one, or group, who has the authority to serve as leader capable of leading us, in secular fashion, to the Promised Land, to the land of Yes We Can. As soon as someone like Bill Cosby talks about personal responsibility he’s demonized as a meddler, a know-it-all, an egotist. President Obama attempted to inspire school kids and what happened? Widespread rebuke. "He’s an ideologue, a meddler, a know-it-all, and an egotist."

Character assassination is a finely rendered weapon, used by both the Left and the Right, religious and secular, young and old to dismiss the unpalatable, to obfuscate the facts, to dismiss the truth, but, above all, to sustain thinking in reverse. The facts have been clearly presented, but the reception’s been chilly. In "What is Authority?" (from Between Past and Future) Hannah Arendt traced the loss of authority and its consequences. Who really cared? In "A World Split Apart"
(->http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/SolzhenitsynHarvard.php) Alexander Solzhenitsyn asserted that America was experiencing a spiritual (not a religious) crisis, a lack of collective unity, dysfunctional values, and a dangerously low level of courage. He was widely condemned for the speech.

Yes, strapping weapons and rations on and heading into battle takes courage. But so too does facing the enemy within, the character flaws of one’s culture, the inadequacies of one’s own precious nation. That kind of courage is in short supply, especially in DC. In his latest column for Newsweek, Niall Ferguson notes that despite all the talk about banking reform and lapses in regulation, nothing of significance has been done, and won’t likely get done any time soon. Congratulations Phil Gramm, your Deregulatory Revolution remains as strong as ever despite the fact the entire world almost collapsed.

So many Americans are in a hurry, including Obama who moved to healthcare before solving the Financial Crisis. Didn’t he and his team get the memo explaining that the public has trouble concentrating on one subject, much less two at the same time? Before the plague of instant gratification can be cured, it has to be commonly acknowledged. Aiming for victory on behalf of political expediency only furthers it.

America, sadly, is in neutral. heading backwards on a hill called life. Its people — a mix of every color, ethnicity, religion, reform, cultural background — are great. On paper, its constitutional protections are unprecedented. But, in fact, like all great nations without the will to truly reform, America is rapidly descending into decline and fall.