Kerry’s Not to Blame For America’s Delusions
by Nicholas von Hoffman
... Although the politicians and allied panderers to the oversized American ego spend their energy telling those who bother to listen that we are the smartest, most gifted, most liberty-loving sons o’ guns that ever hoisted a flag and pledged an allegiance, in truth we are a nation of fatuous jerks with an oversized opinion of our talents and our accomplishments. When you have had it so good for so long, you don’t realize you’re not smart, just lucky.
Not "lucky," say Americans in response. We are where we are because we work harder than anybody else. No doubt about it: All the figures show that Americans work longer hours than any comparable nation in Europe or Asia. The American work week continues to grow, vacations grow shorter, and the reward that most of us will get is to continue working until we are in our 70’s. The much-discussed Social Security crisis, whatever it may be, will be resolved by raising the retirement age instead of the taxes. The prospect of returning to the 19th century, when only millionaires retired, has brought forth only the most muted of outcries.
The political pitchmen on TV who make their money flattering their viewers rhapsodize about American individuality, entrepreneurial boldness, freedom-loving go-it-aloneness, but a better case can be made that it’s American docility, American credulity and the American willingness for settling for second-best which has made the nation great in modern times. People get their medical-insurance bills doubled, their pensions abolished, their work hours lengthened, and not a boo-hoo. You wonder why Americans nod when they’re told about the joys of free speech, because their most salient characteristic is taking what’s handed to them without a complaint.
The American motto must be: Work long, work hard and work stupid. People brag about the hours they put in. In most circles, the highest compliment you can pay someone is to say that so-and-so has a good work ethic or a blue-collar mentality. Never mind that the person is as dumb as a post: These richly praised and underpaid dopes work their butts off while taking a slight pay cut every month, even as the people on top are being paid 100 or even 200 times as much money for running the company into the ground. Although increasingly incompetent American upper management holds the key to our collective and individual future well-being, nary a grumble can be heard.
It is not the fault of the work-till-you-drop American laborer (of whatever color collar) that we sell less than we buy, that we have been going into debt to foreigners at the rate of a half-trillion dollars a year. The blame for that goes on to the thieving, blundering, ineffectual C.E.O.’s at the helm of so many of our formerly great corporations. But nobody seems to mind overly much, regardless of the unhappiness and busted dreams these business disasters cause employees. Ironically, criticism of the C.E.O. fools who cannot get it right is usually only found in the business press.
When people do get indignant, they lather themselves up over some silly-ass controversy, like telling research scientists which cells they may use and which they may not. When you recollect that half of the American population believes in angels, you can see why the dumb bunnies adjust their smile buttons and trot along when they’re cheated out of their overtime pay. America is literally a fat and happy nation....
<http://www.observer.com/pages/observer.asp>
Carl