It simply makes me want to puke when people extol the supposed “virtues” of the 1950s—”Family values”, fighting the evil communists, the glory and honor of war, an utterly hypocritical closed-door immigration policy, etc. For what I see when I look at that time is repression, delusion, denial, and ignorance.
How long will puritanical arrogance and utter lack of self-awareness blind people in this country to reality? The supposed cultural revolution of the ’60s and ’70s failed because what this society values—money, status, materialism, “individuality,” lack of responsibility not only for oneself but for each other—were never really in jeopardy. In fact, most of those young people who wore their meager activism as a badge of honor are today living the repressed, materialistic, and shallow lives of their parents.
Until what is fundamentally rotten with this society is dragged into the light and whipped to death, this society will decay and eat itself alive.
America is another Rome, and its fate will be the same. Who can possibly be so blind as to not see the connection: the increasing gap between rich and poor, the rampant violence, which is not a product of free thought, but rather of ignorance, greed, weakness, and utter lack of real self-awareness. Does no one see pro wrestling for the gladiator games that they are?
Time will tell that American society’s arrogance, hypocrisy, decadence, and utter denial of reality will be its downfall. No society built and based on the shallow, confused, and repressive values upon which this society was built can last that long.
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From my personal notes, 6/12/00
