Why Americans are Doomed...

[Triana]

Why Americans are technology, political, and educational laggards and how it will doom them

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2946&tag=nl.e540

...

Compared to other parts of the world, we're a relatively unsophisticated bunch, us Americans. And that culture of convenience, laziness, and ignorance is going to doom the US in the long run because of how it will deprive America of its edge in other areas where it was once a beacon to the world. Democracy is one of those. Education the other.

On the political front, we are no longer a nation of people that goes deep on the issues and seeks out the truth. I'd like to believe there was a time when the majority of Americans were passionate about democracy and politics. But perhaps I'm fooling myself. The People, helped along by a failing media complex, have established a preference for fast food politics. Forget any real exploration. Just give us the sound bites please, thank you very much.

Just yesterday, our culture of political convenience was probed and picked apart on National Public Radio when Tom Ashbrook interviewed Time Magazine columnist Joe Klein whose book Politics Lost: How American Democracy was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid was published this month. American democracy is being trivialized because we Americans are letting it happen. During the show, one caller remarked on how John Kerry as a communicator was very different in his town meetings leading up to the 2004 Presidential Election than he was on TV in front of the news cameras. Al Gore was the same way.

Before interviewing Gore on stage at one of Research In Motion's annual Wireless Symposiums (this year's event is coming up next month), I spent some time with him backstage. I felt like I was talking to someone I'd never met or seen before. I've heard the same about President Bush too. I'm not sure it's their fault. The law of political information supply and demand practically says there's no demand for the person with the biggest supply of information. Cure the sound-bites please (and kill democracy while you're at it).

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[Cleita]

1. Wrong.

Americans have been able to overcome any challenges, any shortcomings and anything they lagged behind in. This is why when it came time to choose my nationality I chose to be any American because I admired their "can do anything" attitude.

Unfortunately what is going to do them in is their Xenophobia. This is happening today. The new power brokers know how to appeal to the masses by tapping into their fears and prejudices. This is why you have seen the rise of a wacko minority political movement into a position of unheard wealth and power. This is why you have seen the rise of religious fundamentalism.

This is what is going to send America into decline. It's happening already.

[Triana]

2. In other words...

...they're doomed.

[BeFree]

4. Doomed, I tell ya, DOOMED!

Or is it domed? As in salt domed. Ya know, the domes where they are hiding that infinite supply of oil for the SUVs and the overhead dome lights found therein.

As long as America can make money, America is ok. We make lots of money from foreign oil, so we're set there. We make lots of money selling each other real estate, and paper stocks, so, at that, we're doing it to ourselves real good.

But what are our real goods? Exporting democracy by hovering the soaring blimp over their heads is costing us money, and the payback is hell, so that's not real good. Other than that I can't think of anything else we export.

But like Colbert, I thank the press for not bringing up any of this stuff, cause if they did I'd really feel like we are doomed. Bliss. Ignorance is bliss.

[Cleita]

6. We have had our economy exported.

The decline is coming slowly but it is coming. Why do you think boycotts aren't working on big business anymore? They don't need us. They are selling everything they once sold to us to emerging industrial nations in Asia and making rosy profits all the while.

[FloridaPat]

3. I can remember all those great political debates I use to have in

the 60's. So much fun. All the demonstrations. Pro-test marches. They just kind of went away when the Vietnam War did. I think it was like the lobster in the pot that's slowly going to boiling. You just don't feel it. After the war, we had jobs and responsibilities. The gov't didn't bother us much. Economy wasn't that bad. Every 4 years was the only time anyone discussed politics. And not much. There were the Smothers Brothers, Laugh-In, All in the Family. Shows like that kept people aware of the worst. But I guess they went away after the war too. Then came Reagan. The nuts took over. And with the media as bad as they are - they were never really that smart - no one got informed. Just imagine how bad things would be without the internet. If nothing else, sites like these prove to me I'm not insane.

[Triana]

5. Well...guess what the GOPigs are looking to PRIVATIZE next...

..that's right. The INTERNET.

<cynic mode>

You'll be lucky to get to sites like these without paying a premium for access- if at all.

</cynic mode>

I HOPE I'm WRONG. VERY WRONG.

[Al122]

7. There Was Passion for Democracy and Politics When It Was One of the Only

--- forms of entertainment. In the 19th century people used to travel for miles to hear a 7 hour debate. And I mean a real debate over a single issue, not the dueling press conferences we have today. Part of the reason for this was that politics was a major form of entertainment and excitement for people who often lived in what we would descibe today as villages or on a lonely homestead miles from the next family. Those that could read among the average folk were far more literate then they are today. Case in point, the largely self taught Abraham Lincoln devoured pretty much everything Shakespeare ever wrote. But then again, Shakespeare didn't have to compete with "American Idol" for Lincoln's attention.

The only answer for the minority of us who do care and do seek out the truth is to organize politically and make our influence felt by the system. Throughout history, small groups of determined men and women have been able to move mountains in politics.

A good place to start for anyone interested is Progressive Democrats of America. They have a concrete and achievable plan to make voice of progressive/liberal/left rank and file Democrats heard in the party as a whole.

For more info go to www.pdamerica.org