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We have a ticker that shows how large the national debt is. We have a calendar that tells us up to what day in May or whatever month we have to work to pay our taxes. Why not have a clock that tells us how far back into time Amerian civilization is hurtling? You know, a clock that takes into account the rollbacks American civilization is experiencing. Sure we keep creating better computers, bigger cars, larger TVs. But what about social interaction? Here are some factors that help us roll back that clock.
-In some parts of the south (maybe elsewhere?), segregation is alive and kicking. Public schools hold segregated dances and other events. White people who have more than two nickels to rub together send their kids to whiter schools.
-Our citizenry in general is still trying to ghettoize by race
-Americans seem to hate gay people more than ever. Gay people are so depraved that the constitution of the country has to be ammended to make sure that they never get all the benefits of heterosexual Americans.
-Courts, legislatures, executive offices, etc. are doing everything they can to reclaim male control over womens' bodies via eroding away abortion rights.
-Women are still raped, beaten, paid less for the same job, considered vessels for carrying babies, and otherwise marginized and objectified, now more than ever.
-The very basis of biological, geological, and astronomical sciences are more and more under attack by fundimentalist religionists, who seek to replace centuries of scientific observation and research with their own creation accounts
-Education, especially that beyond secondary school, is becoming a dirty word. The more educated you are, the bigger egghead elitist you are. That is, unless the educated person ignores what he or she has learned and goes along with whatever superstition or hoax is in season at a given time.
-Conservatives and Liberals are becoming more and more polarized, and the country is at the same time. Dialog is giving way more and more often to sniping and backbiting. Each side demonizes the other.
-Freedoms that Americans hold dear are eroding. Many Americans belive that speech is too free. "The Press" has become little more than a government mouthpiece. Freedom of religion is eroding as the limits of seperation of church and state are tested. Searches and seizures are becoming more frequent and questionable. Habeus Corpus is eroding. Many in and out of law enforcement hate Miranda Rights as too burdensome. Innocence until guilt is proven is more or less a joke.
-Gains the unions made in the 20th century are eroding in the rabidly "neo-liberal" business environment of 2004.
So after this littany that only scratches the surface of what is really going on in 2004 America, what year are we really in? How far has American society retrogressed? Is it effectively 1953 again, when seperate versus equal was still legally present? Is it the 1940's, when Japanese Americans were herded into camps? Is it 1910, when workers were more or less still serfs to their bosses? Is it 1800, when superstision molded the average Joe's life, not science and education? Can we combine all the features and come up with a composite year that it is, which ticks backwards with the date as American society erases the strides it made up until the late 1970's? If so, give a date that you would say it is.
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