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Edited on Thu Mar-23-06 08:08 AM by SoCalDem
In code-speak, we are always told that our soldiers are "fighting for the American Way".. American Way of WHAT??
There seem to be more myths here than in ancient Greece....
The only difference is that OUR myths seem to be entirely predicated on movie-lore and ad agency memes.
I think the movies of the 40's & 50's shaped the thinking that we are still inundated with. Look at who MADE most of these movies (or financed them). A large percentage of those people were immigrant Eastern Europeans who came to the US as a way to literally save their very lives, so of course, they would have an overly idealized vision of what America meant to them.
They came into maturity at a time when the US WAS flush...flush with money in a post-war economy..a baby-boom... a massive infrastructure-renaissance...union participation with good wages...and the nuclear family was still relatively intact(even though lots of people were edgy)
These same people moved into television and advertising, so it's no surprise that the mythology continued.
The social upheaval of the 60's must have mystified these people, and I don't think that era has yet been "covered" well enough to be understood.. The Madison Avenuers glombed onto the sheer numbers of the maturing boomers and just wanted to sell us stuff, but the myth-makers must have been really surprised by that decade.
I don't think that most people can even TELL you what the American Way is..or if it even exists..or ever did.
Is it success?
What is success?.. a big car?.. a big house?..lots of money? or could it be job security an a modest lifestyle? Is it a fancy job title even though there is no time to enjoy the fruits of the job? Is it being the "biggest kid on the block..able to bully everyone"..but having no friends?
If our soldiers are fighting for the American Way...Do THEY know just what "way" that is?
Is it McDonalds? Target? Walmart? Wall Street? Hollywood? Ford? Mobil? the Bush family?
Is it happiness?
Are Americans happy? Have we ever been? We ARE a stressed nation. We work overly-long hours, take few vacations or even days off..It takes 2+ incomes to adequately run a household.. Kids are often raised by strangers, and then befuddled parents wonder why they cannot "control" their teens..Moms do double duty in the workforce and at home. Moms & Dads often spend more time commuting to and from work , than they do with their kids.
Poor people certainly aren't loving the American Way.... ..Middle Classers are in freefall as they try to hold onto what they can as they slide down the ladder.
The mythological American Way certainly fell flat in New Orleans
The only people who seem to have "the American Way" down pat, are the ones who spend lots of time and money telling everyone else how they should love the American Way, even though they cannot achieve it.
We should be able to DEFINE what it is we value so much, that we spill our children's blood to preserve
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