Grow Up, America.

[babylonsister]

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/25682


Grow Up, America.
Submitted by stacybannerman on Sat, 2007-08-11 18:39. General Discussion

It is becoming increasingly clear that we are a nation of infantile adults; small minds, little hearts, in big – very big - people’s pants. We bicker and scream and backbite and fight, pushing the peas of politics around on our plates, throwing tantrums on TV, kicking and screaming on the floor of the House. It is time to grow up. The social and environmental problems of the 21st Century, most of which we have knowingly, purposefully, created, demand that we put away childish things.

This nation and the world haven’t got much longer to wait for Americans to move out of their arrested development. An emotionally immature nation is a bully, demanding what it wants, when it wants, and how it wants, with no thought whatsoever to the needs of others, no concern at all for fair play, and never a moment’s consideration of who will be harmed, much less how they should be helped.

Self-centered, isolationist, materialistic and stupidly, ridiculously arrogant, it’s all “mine,” and no “ours.” No shared responsibility, no communal sacrifice, it’s gimme gimme gimme, until we’re so sick and fat and torpid with junk food and fake "news," that we barf or bloat or, most often, beg for, or buy - on credit, no less - more. The self-constraint that used to be an admired trait of adulthood has become something to be ridiculed. Compassion disdained, responsibility derided, truth-telling demonized.

We applaud the selfish, attempt to emulate the tragically, cosmetically self-obsessed, and mock the people who care about – and cry for – what’s happening in Iraq, in New Orleans, in Darfur and Sudan, when tears are the only appropriate emotional response. Too often, from the comfort of a supersized sofa, people find pleasure in the media’s crucifixion of those who have the temerity to do something about it. And we call ourselves a Christian nation. Jesus is weeping still. A mature being, a wise nation, engages what they know. Authentic adults live in alignment with their stated values. Integrity is the hallmark of coming of age.

Grow up, America. It’s time to become who you have said that you are.

P.S. for the "America: Love it or leave it" bumper sticker crowd: When a nation is literally and figuratively eating its young, there is no higher love than to demand that it stop.

[stillcool]

1. so helpful...

in educating the masses.

[babylonsister]

2. No, she's an angry young woman trying to wake people up; that's

what I got out of it anyway. Probably not written for DUers, or most of them.

[stillcool]

7. I understand the anger..

but other than her need to share, I don't understand what is to gain by bashing ordinary people for being ordinary people. Maybe we who have the time and the energy ..to read..and absorb what is really going on...should take the time invested in ranting, and instead type up a little newsletter and drop it at the supermarket...maybe actually inform someone. I'm sick of individuals who take the subversion of law that's occurred over the last many decades, and place it firmly at the feet of the never ending scapegoat dujour. If they once...considered themselves..as being a part of that populace, they so love to trash..it might be more palatable. But...I guess that's just me.

[babylonsister]

9. She's been doing it for awhile and is heard:

http://www.stacybannerman.com/biography.shtml

Plus this:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/18/MNGHNONEQ81.DTL

snip//

Strains on a marriage

In early 2000, Lorin Bannerman was called by a recruiter with the Washington National Guard. Bannerman was 40, recently engaged and working as a food salesman. Back in the mid-'80s, he had enlisted in the Guard, and he had mostly enjoyed it for 15 years.

At the time he met his future wife, Stacy, in 1999, Lorin was taking "a little break from service." But the recruiter reminded Lorin that he had just five years to reach retirement and full benefits.

Stacy was 34, a peace activist and then-executive director at a Spokane nonprofit, worried about Lorin getting dragged into a war, but he assured her, "What's going to happen? The world is a pretty peaceful place."

In late October 2003, two years after the Sept. 11 attacks had shattered the country's peace, Lorin walked into Stacy's office. He wore a grim look. "I got the call," he says. Stacy began crying.

"That was the moment our marriage started to end," she says.

Within a week, Lorin was filling out paperwork -- for his funeral, for his will, for power of attorney. Stacy tried to talk him out of going to Iraq, but she never had a chance.

"He would never, ever desert his men," she says.

By mid-March, 2004, Sgt. First Class Lorin Bannerman was stationed in Iraq at Camp Anaconda on Balad Airbase as part of a task force patrolling the area. Nothing could have readied him for the next year. Not for the randomness of the mortar attacks, which occasionally came as many as 20 a day; nor for the countless roadside bombs the task force encountered. Lorin said the unit lost five men and many others were injured.

Lorin returned home in March 2005. The Guard, he says, did little to prepare him for reintegration. He went through several days of processing, but basically it was, "You're done, bye, see you, have a nice life, these are the benefits available to you."

The Guard and Reserve provide services to ease the transition for returning soldiers like Lorin, from emotional counseling to employment help, but there are persistent challenges. According to a 2005 Department of Defense study, citizen soldiers are typically dispersed throughout the country, making it more difficult to obtain benefits information.

"You have a service member in the Guard or the Reserve, and they're coming back to their hometown in say, Oakdale, Calif., which is this small cowboy town in the middle of the Central Valley. The families are not surrounded by the same resources as someone on active duty," says Nathan Johnson, the Global War on Terrorism outreach director for the Concord Vet Center, who meets with Guard and Reserve soldiers to explain services that are available to them.

Stacy Bannerman knew to go slow, lower her expectations and not pressure her husband. But she found a different person in her house. Lorin was more self-contained, less tolerant. His language was saltier, he was prone to giving orders, he was distant. "His heart was in a deep freeze," she says.

Lorin noticed some changes but didn't think he was all that different. Maybe a little less focused, bored at times, perhaps somewhat more shut down, slightly edgy. He also was missing something. Part of him wanted to go back.

"I definitely noticed the need for the adrenaline rush," he says. "I just had this feeling of, 'OK, I need something.' "

Last December, Stacy decided she had to leave Lorin and their Kent, Wash., home. She packed up most of her things and moved to Washington, D.C., to continue her anti-war activities. She also is part of a Bay Area organization called the Coming Home Project, which holds workshops to help veterans and their families with the reintegration process.

Of her husband, Stacy says, "Some essential part of him did not come back."

more...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/18/MNGHNONEQ81.DTL

[stillcool]

15. well...I guess if she...

and you think that bashing ordinary human beings for being ordinary human beings is a good tool for motivation..go for it. I prefer to include myself in the populace she wants to 'wake up'..and I recoil from such language...but ..then again..that's just me.

[treestar]

22. You just proved her point if ordinary people being ordinary

is as the OP describes - you're agreeing that's the way ordinary Americans are.

What does help people like that be motivated to change?

[stillcool]

30. in my case ....

it was trying to make sense of things...and the fact that I'd been lied to....that sparked the interest...but I don't think I, or other Americans are different from other human beings. Shame is not something I see as an effective tool for any use.

[NotGivingUp]

53. self delete

[nosmokes]

35. If you don't understand the point in calling someone out on their apathy

then mayhaps you aren't paying close enough attention? Fact is some folks *need* a swift kick in the ass and a wake-up call.Part of belonging to that populace is a responsibility to participate. And I don't see her as trashing it so much as calling it to action.

[stillcool]

38. Perhaps you are right...

I'm sure there are many who believe a 'swift kick in the ass' beats education every time. Peace.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. "...put away childish things". K & R

:kick: MKJ

[That Is Quite Enough]

4. Recommended.

Good read.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Excellent!

This says it all:


P.S. for the "America: Love it or leave it" bumper sticker crowd: When a nation is literally and figuratively eating its young, there is no higher love than to demand that it stop.

[Middle finga]

6. Rec'd, you hit the nail on the head with this one

[patrice]

8. One way the World could get "us" to comply with the kinds of changes

needed to respond to Global Climate Change and Environmental degradation would be to turn on us economically, sell our debt, and devalue the dollar. That would end our fossil fuel gluttony and poluting ways.

[sanskritwarrior]

11. Yes the American economy should be destroyed

that will show us how modern, tolerant and progressive the world is, we rebuilt Western europe after World War 2, their payback to us, destruction of our economy....... Yes that is most generous............ :eyes:

The stupid in this thread burns.......

[patrice]

14. Why do you think our economy should be destroyed?

We could change. We could create new jobs in new alternative energy industries. Even things as simple as reductions in the size of packaging, or using more recycleable materials will make a difference.

Other countries are getting tired of our selfish ways; they can turn on us, but just because something can be done doesn't mean it should be done. Often such actions produce the opposite of what is intended.

Speaking of stupid, just in case you don't get it, you are the one who used the word "should", not I.

[sanskritwarrior]

19. I was being sarcastic

as in how stupid the author of the article is......

[patrice]

20. I seems to me that you said that I was saying that our economy

should be destroyed.

I do think we need to change, but I'm not that stupid.

I only made the observation that other countries could use our debt as an instrument of behavior modification.

[patrice]

24. Okay, I will admit that the article reads like something one of

my high school students would have written (back when I used to teach, i.e. not any more).

The uni-dimensionality of characterization makes me think is was written by someone relatively new to "the study of human nature".

[babylonsister]

28. Sounds like you either had very bright students or insulting. She also

had a personal issue involved which might reflect in her opinions.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1568067&mesg_id=1568679

[sanskritwarrior]

10. How special

she is telling us how we ought to live.........Go fuck yourself Ms. Bannerman, some of the greatest benefits of being an American are we don't have to listen to pedantic lectures by uptight assholes........

[babylonsister]

12. Sorry, but her opinion is as valid as yours. nt

[sanskritwarrior]

13. Never said it wasn't as valid

But I can still call it what I want.......And I would bet most of this country would agree with me, and that is really all that matters in a case like this where you have a scribe that publishes hate filled screeds against my country. Her opinion might have to be tolerated, but that doesn't mean I have to play nice........

[babylonsister]

17. You have the absolute right to disagree, and good for you, But I don't

find much of a problem with this. She's talking about us to a point, but also about this admin and their hubris that has damaged this country so greatly.

Self-centered, isolationist, materialistic and stupidly, ridiculously arrogant, it’s all “mine,” and no “ours.” No shared responsibility, no communal sacrifice, it’s gimme gimme gimme, until we’re so sick and fat and torpid with junk food and fake "news," that we barf or bloat or, most often, beg for, or buy - on credit, no less - more. The self-constraint that used to be an admired trait of adulthood has become something to be ridiculed. Compassion disdained, responsibility derided, truth-telling demonized.

[Booster]

29. Ms. Bannerman hit a nerve, huh?

[I Have A Dream]

50. Sure looks that way.

:eyes:

[sanskritwarrior]

55. I'm being polite

my true feelings would include a beatdown for someone as grossly wrong as Ms. Bannerman

:patriot:

[Hissyspit]

31. Hmm, you don't like pedantic lectures by uptight assholes...

:)

[babylonsister]

33. Zing! nt

[southerncrone]

36. Your ranting is EXACTLY proving the author's point.

This is the very thing she refers to in the article. ALL of us must look inside & find how we contribute to the lack of maturity in our nation & try to grow up. Pettiness is, I believe, is one of the main problems we as a country are needing to move beyond.

[mudesi]

40. She is telling you how to live. And she's right. Grow up. (nm)

[woo me with science]

16. These screeds are so predictable.

It's always the great unwashed masses who are deluded and stupid and selfish.

Everyone ELSE's education was insufficient.

Everyone ELSE is rude and unsophisticated.

Everyone ELSE is deluded by the media.

Good thing we have the clear-sighted, superior author to let us know how things really are.

[patrice]

18. She does use first person plural pronouns without qualifications

to exclude herself.

Many writers assume that references to "this nation", "this society", "our culture" include themselves.

Unless you can find where she says something such as "except for me" you are, like an earlier poster, putting words (the word "should" in his case) that YOU want into what the author said.

[babylonsister]

27. We read different articles because I don't know what you're talking about. nt

[Hissyspit]

32. Um, she says "we." n/t

[mudesi]

41. Look, another child! This author is being proved right over and over again. (nm)

[treestar]

21. Kick

Great rant.

Only Americans have human rights - we're so special because of where we were born, you see. Why worry about whether people born somewhere else are treated fairly.

We got ours and those that don't should just shut up, go away, disappear, and no exist.

We try to get out of jury duty then condemn any random jury decision we happen to hear about and call the court system a "failure."

We have to be number one and call whoever gets second prize, even if it amounts to international recognition, a "loser."

If we're not number one in math, then math doesn't matter. Everyone else is supposed to admit and recognize this.

[scarletwoman]

23. "When a nation is literally and figuratively eating its young, there is no higher love than to

demand that it stop."

Awesome closing line!

And I think the whole essay's right on. We ARE an immature, adolescent country.

rec'd,
sw

[Joe Chi Minh]

34. I think maybe 'adolescent' may be understating the deficiency. I once read on here that

many young men were scared of being seen with a very plain girl, in case people thought she was their girl-friend!!! Now that is infantile. Not even adolescent. In itself, nowhere near as serious as the matters concerned in the article quoted, but if true, very indicative of a pitiful lack of character. The worst females, I think, are capable of being worse than the worst males, but I doubt if any ever lack maturity too quite that degree

There is also about Americans, generally, an amazing lack of awareness of the world outside the US, and I don't believe for one moment that that occurred by accident. Indeed, thanks to the right-wing governments of the past 27 years, there are many young Brits today who don't even know who Winstone Churchill was. In fact, I think my wife told me the other day she read that someone didn't know who Blair was... he'll love that.

Many would have to rely on the TV news, now, because of the very large number of adults who either can't read or write or can only do so to a limited extent. So, we share that insularity, but the vastess of the US has historically compounded the matter. A godsend to the far right.

And the article quoted didn't seem to me to be just a rant against poorer folk. Indeed, the implication was that the morally deficient among poorer folk were little better than the rich, materialistic arch-predators of the right, who have done so much for so long to stunt and kill their growth as human beings.

On one or two occasions, on here, I have referred to the vainglorious triumphalism of the German troops, as they strutted their stuff, goose-stepping into Paris, and the sorry contrast with the misery of their counterparts after their defeat at Stalingrad. However, if you look closely at the faces of those soldiers marching into Paris, you will see that not all of them, by any means, were cock-a-hoop about the matter. The point being that, in order to understand the world we live in, we often have to generalise. Of course, generalisations don't have to be valid at all; indeed, they may amount to no more than the emptiest and vilest bigotry.

But, in this case, while an evident generalisation, it seems that the article states an important truth. Maybe, though, the references to over-eating are hurtful to many, who perhaps over-eat by way of 'comfort feeding' or have to rely on take-aways. It just 'goes with the territory' of discussions.

People afflicted in a certain way are naturally sensitive to what appear to be attacks on what amounts to a personal affliction that they, themselves, suffer. More often than not, such apparent slurs are simply used as metaphors - as you might speak, for instance, of a 'moral pygmy' - all the more easily of course since real live pygmy people would be unlikely to read or hear that kind of expression.

[alarimer]

42. I think you (and the author in the OP) have pretty much hit the nail on the head

What scares me is the Authoritarian streak in American society. I read "Conservatives without Conscience" and I was just chilled to the bone. Many, many people (and not just conservatives) will accept something like a dictatorship, rather than rebelling against it, because of their need to be taken care of. They need someone to tell them what to do, how to think and what to think. There are lots and lots of people out there more interested in the latest American Idol than in the Presidency. Some of it is the fault of the education system and the Democratic Party for not getting the message out in the correct way.

[Joe Chi Minh]

43. Yes, it's not essentially a failure of the people, but of their leaders,

both temporal and spiritual. Arguably, more spiritual even than temporal. But that's a matter of very long standing.

St Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) said that when justice leaves a society, what are its leaders but mighty bands of robbers. It's been making more and more sense this last quarter of a century, hasn't it?

The rich have at all times struggled to disempower the rest of the people of whatever power they had, and that certainly goes for their war against democracy in the West in modern times. The lack of knowledge of poorer folk about the way the world operates, and the lack of hope that it engenders, are key weapons in their arsenal. People have to settle for bread and circuses for want of any hope, and as little bread as the rich can get away with dispensing, it seems.

I think if you are familiar with Christ's white-hot fury with the political/religious leaders of his day, who effectively denatured by their hypocrisy the religion they were supposed to be upholding, into some kind of spiritual Monsanto franken-food, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that America's leaders, in particular, will be vastly over-represented in the pits of Hell. They have - both parties - plundered many of the poorest countries of the earth and its poorest peoples without conscience for so long; visiting such tortures and depravities as even Mengele could only have looked upon in awe. And their own people are always the last of the colonies of imperialists.

[bread_and_roses]

51. That's a great quote from Augustine (n/t)

[Joe Chi Minh]

56. It is, isn't it? Ironically, I first read it in connection with Nixon and Watergate.

But each passing day seems to confirm its truth more emphatically.

Augustine had an exceptional prophetic gift, and his scriptural insights are very enlightening as well.

[scarletwoman]

46. Well, to be more specific, I should have said "arrested emotional development" adolescent. (nt)

[BeHereNow]

45. One has only to observe the "adults" with iPods glued to their ears to conclude this.

Gadgets galore- the latest this and that.
No awareness of any one around them-
just absorbed with their "stuff."
BHN

[scarletwoman]

47. This is something that really freaks me out, actually. The fact that NO ONE seems willing to

abide silence and stillness and being alone with their own thoughts.

I don't have a cell phone, and don't plan on getting one. When I see all the people walking around holding an electronic device to their head -- talking, talking, talking -- I just can't imagine what they could possibly be needing to talk about every minute of their spare time.

It worrys me terribly that there are so many people around me who seemingly can't bear to just be alone with their own thoughts, who seemingly place no value on just *being* in the space where they find themselves -- observing the minutiae of life going on around them.

It just seems to me that this *can't* be a good thing. To disconnect and disengage with the life going on around you in the moment, and instead substitute a disembodied (and self-focused) connection that places your consciousness at a remove from real-time sensory experience -- how can that be good?

I think it is psychologically unhealthy to continuously avoid solitude and aloneness with one's thoughts. And absolutely spiritually unhealthy, of course -- but I generally avoid references to spirituality around here, it's not worth the trouble. ;)

sw
:loveya:

[BlooInBloo]

25. About time somebody blames the public..

[Jack Sprat]

26. That's what I am talking about. I'm with you.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. Actually, I think the people "calling ourselves a Christian nation" are the PROBLEM.

Maybe it's time to become a nation capable of critical thought- capable of accepting that the SCIENCE around things like evolution and global warming are FACTS.

[stirlingsliver]

39. "Literally Eating Its Young?" Us?

I'm sorry, but I just don't see how the US is "literally" eating its young.

Apart from Jeffrey Dahmer, I don't know of anyone who is or was literally eating young people.

[Jed Dilligan]

44. It's time for our leaders to grow up

As for the people... Anyone who sits around waiting for a mass spiritual awakening will... sit around waiting. Forever. Because it never, ever has happened or will happen.

[broadcaster]

48. Diarist, I agree with you 100%. Thanks for posting this. n/t

[GeorgeGist]

49. A 'Christian Nation'...

and 'Jesus weeping' are childish concepts.

[tactics]

52. exactly which parts were way off base?

the media would push all the bs down all of our throats if people didnt want to watch it. people care about paris and britney, instead of the war and politics. people would rather watch tv than read a book. people will play a mmorpg than go outside, the biggest and freest mmorpg. were not even smarter than 4th graders anymore.

primates fed an american-style diet, one of saturated fat and high glycemic carbs have diseases they do not get in the wild. mcdonalds isnt even food but so many eat it.

capitalism requires at its essence for some to have more than others, and it teaches greed is good. the savings rate is actually negative, which is unheard of.

even though it is specifically written we are not a christain nation by jefferson(tripoli 1792) people claim it is and berate you for disagreeing. these same people pick and and choose from a book, written by a man, what suits them and at what time.

people steal elections.

if you give a caged animal enough toys to play with, eventually it forgets its a caged animal. me



really freedom requires intelligence
if a nation expects to be both ignorant and free ,it expects what never was and never will be. jefferson

i would hope, as a zen student that the mass would WAKE UP: to the nature of reality and the cause of suffering.

[NotGivingUp]

54. I can't help but to agree. It didn't just happen on its own.

The powers-that-be guided us down this path every step of the way. They've done it through movies, tv shows, commercials, music, advertising, magazines, etc. They promote the lowest of the low and play us against each other and against ourselves. They try to distract our minds from anything of importance. They have severely perverted our society.