Reflections on the United States, Fourth of July Edition
I spent this past 4th of July reflecting on everything I've seen and heard over the past weeks, and I find myself flummoxed.
I live in the United States of America, and have done so my entire life. I have been fortunate enough to travel and see various lifestyles across Mexico, Germany, France, Canada, and Japan, as well as various locations across the US itself in the forms of Maine, Georgia, Vermont, California, Florida, North Carolina, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Delaware, Tennessee, and Missouri.
I grew up in the northeast area of the US and elected to go to college in the southeast; I was really done with snow and mosquitoes for the most part.
I remember growing up financially secure, but probably lower-middle class if I had to judge now, looking back at things. My father worked full-time, commuting to a nearby state as there were no reasonable technology sector jobs in our state of residence, and my mother stayed at home to look after the house, myself, and my brother. We took one vacation week for the summer, visiting a small rental room at a local lake. The rest of the time we were at home, maybe not having the newest or nicest things, but we ate well, saw doctors regularly, and never really worried about keeping the roof over our heads or the bills not getting paid. That said, I mean, I was told 'no' plenty of times, and we never really ordered food out beyond the occasional pizza or some such. I distinctly recall performing a technology leap from the basic Nintendo Entertainment System to the Nintendo 64, for frame of reference.
I look at the world now and I do not think such a lifestyle is remotely feasible anymore.
I remember growing up hearing about the holes in the ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbons, and acid rain. Society had agreed that these were serious problems; laws and regulations were established to restrict usage of deleterious emissions and encourage conservation, as well as renewable energy resources.
I look at the world now and I do not think such events and change are remotely feasible anymore.
I remember growing up and slowly learning more about politics, about the various parties present in the United States and the ostensible tentpoles on which they were established. While it seemed like there was often arguments and disagreement across the aisle, it appeared that problems could be identified and agreed upon, though the corrective actions or proposed solutions often differed, sometimes drastically.
I look at the world now, and I do not believe that the structures of power represent views of progress or societal development.
What I see now is a country that has wholly bought the comfortable lie that existing for own personal welfare at the expense of others is acceptable, much less encouraged. I see the gears of power completely seized by monetary forces, using the survival of others as part of financial hostage negotiations with government bodies. We live in the shitty cyberpunk dystopian future, but without any of the interesting side effects of the resurgence of magic or the fascinating technological advances. We are dealing with multinational corporations who have enough money to throw around that they are able to squeeze profit-friendly laws into existence (if not outright writing the entire bill to be rubber-stamped by bought-and-paid-for politicians).
I see homes being constructed that are completely unaffordable for anyone in the vicinity to actually live in, businesses creating positions that are unfillable due to wanting unicorns that fit the job description perfectly. I see people losing their jobs; their work just getting permanently migrated to other employees and their position never existing again. Salaries are frozen, seniority and loyalty are not rewarded or encouraged, and people are worked to the bone all for the sake of appearances.
I remember the COVID shutdown - we were able to find the money to pay people to survive, to allow people to work from home, to trust them when they said they were sick and encouraged them to stay home as a matter of precaution. People had time on their hands to explore weird rabbit holes of information, to tinker and experiment while researchers, doctors, and nurses toiled away racing to find a vaccination and treatment protocol.
But that's not good for the bottom line, is it? What will the investors think? Where's the payout? The line didn't go up as much this quarter, so something has to change.
Back to work. Back to 'normal'. Back to pretending that everyone is fine, or faking their problems, or not really sick, or not really hurt. Get back in the box and make the numbers go up. Do whatever it takes to make the quarter numbers better, sustainability and burnout be damned. Keep bending the rules, scorching the planet, turning people against one another all for the easy, almighty dollar.
Humanity as a whole has the resources, the means, and the intelligence to solve the problems we are all facing. Unfortunately, those WITH the means have decided that solving these problems isn't profitable. So now we scratch, scrabble, and scrape together whatever meager means of survival and sanity maintenance possible, all while selfish, boorish adult-children play with the world like it is but a marionette for them to manipulate.
I do not think we can sustain this for long - I do not know what to do, though, given the immensely poisoned well of knowledge being pushed in the form of toxic social media, LLMs such as ChatGPT and Grok being tweaked and adjusted to simply amplify the loudest voices instead of those from qualified individuals such as researchers and academics in a given field. Social media and news encourage the loudest voices, not actual representations of truth. Anything is debatable and nothing has meaning when we destroy the definition of terms and always present "both sides" when there is a definitive right and wrong. We as a people are being reduced to a number by the great financial forces in power; our value only meaningful so long as we can keep giving them money and god forbid the average person ever want anything back. The human being has become a speedbump between the corporation and the wallet.
At the same time, on the small scale, I see people sacrificing their energy, their time, their lives all trying to make the lives of those less fortunate better. On the local level, people still care and want to help one another; artificial boogeymen are propped up and presented as fear sells, stress sells, and panicked individuals are not able to make good decisions.
We as a people need to resist however we may be able. Get involved - politics in the US are overflowing with those who are actively ossifying in their position of power. Get involved - people around you need help, and sometimes even knowing the smallest thing about technology, art, science, or literature can help those who are trying to improve the lives of others.
We all lift together.
