America went teabagging when the future arrived
It appears that some Americans are having difficulty making a choice between the world that was, and the world that is. To be fair, present day America is a scary place, but we are there now anyway. One can accept the pull of gravity, or resist it, but at the end of the day it is a force of nature that cannot be denied. Why are some Americans assembling at Tea Parties, not surprisingly using an symbol of the past? Why do others, in the same country, products of the same education system and culture, look a the tea bag attendees, and question their grasp of reality? The US is a country divided, and neither side can see over the fence to the other’s point of view. To aid understanding, it might make things a little easier to use an analogy. If you were to imagine, rather than picking an America ideology, you were examining two countries to select one as your future place of residence.
The first country you look at is a little stolid but dependable, harping back to the good old days of world supremacy. It is easy to understand. It promises low taxes and the economic riches of the past, but does not know how to deliver them anymore. It advocates a strong military, an insular set of foreign policies, and a good dependable nationalistic pride. It is a country that looks back not forward, and is endeavoring to return to what once was. Things then were good, simple, and reliable. It was a world of comfort and security. It is a wholesome country who follow God’s commandments. It is a country where government sets moral values, where one is protected, and made safe by a secretive government , but where social responsibility is a dirty word. The right to bear arms is a civic responsibility not a privilege. It is a country that would be familiar to our parents and our grand parents. However, when you look more closely, it is a country mired in debt, with decaying infrastructure, and one that is not perceived well by many other countries. It is a country that loves God and equates socialism with the devil. It is a land of absolute rights and wrongs – there are no shades of gray. It is an ideology out of time and out of place. It is the America that was, sorely missed perhaps, but in actuality, long gone.
In the second country, there is an acceptance of a need for progress, even if that may be scary. There are past problems to clear up, wars to end, and bridges with other nations to rebuild. There is pride to be regained and trust to be earned. This government talks in terms of ideals, values, candidness, sacrifice, and hope. It too is a country mired in debt, but one with a government willing to invest to rebuild infrastructure, to stimulate demand, and one that is advocating tax changes to help retire the past debts and fund the long needed improvements. It talks of reaching out to the world, engaging in dialog, pulling back from reckless military campaigns, and looking for different solutions to energy challenges. This country has high ideals, but there is a fear of the unknown. There is risk in its approach, but at least the potential for a payday at the end of the hard yards. This government may well make mistakes as it charters unknown waters. This is a land of change, turmoil and uncertainty. The government is comprised of a more diverse thinking, more pragmatism than partisan policy. Morality is based on individual choice and not mandated by religious code. This is the world that America has to embrace, like it or not, kicking and screaming if needed, but the future just caught up with the good old US of A.
Today, there are clearly two Americas. Americans face little choice but confront the reality ahead. The understandable desire of the Tea Bag organizers to magically return to this paradigm of a 1950’s America is sadly, in reality, not achievable. The world moved on and the situation changed. It is like clutching on to a favored typewriter – known, solid and reliable – when everyone else has moved on to a laptop and Internet. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing but it is a memory. It is not the future. The divide is now generational, cultural and aspirational. Some yearn for the past and are scared of change. Some are frustrated with the present and want a different future. It is not purely age driven, though the 18-29 age group are more internationally focused. 56% carry passports and see themselves as citizens of the world. 23% of them see themselves working overseas in international cities during their career. America has to be part and parcel of the global economy it kick started – disengagement would be tantamount to economic and social suicide.
This division though is increasingly not age, income, party or geographically driven. It is an aspiration mind set that marks the forward thinkers from the nostalgists. Some have pleasant memories of days gone by, sadly some have been made bitter and incited to anger, like these commentators at Malkin’s site, where she feeds their fear and ignorance with daily doses of scorn and diviseness. This is the backward slide that the teabaggers offer – termed by some as the ‘rifle, race, revolution, and religion crowd’. Some of these type of people want to forcefully drive the country backwards, but thankfully their are others striving forward – this is the way of man’s evolution. The America that was is gone as the last few days evidence.
At best estimates maybe 500,000 Americans turned out to join the much-hyped Tea Bags protest to reclaim ‘old’ America – which means over 300 million Americans did not. Protests against Sarkozy in Paris have seen attendance run as high as 3 million as a comparison. While the Tea Parties went on in America, on the same day, far away in a country looking forward, that being India, 700 million eligible people started voting in the largest democratic election in the world. There are more honors graduates in India than there are children in the US in total. China will shortly have the largest English speaking population in the world. That is the modern age. It cannot be hidden from. It is the reality the teabaggers would attempt to hold back. It can be embraced or viewed with fear, but regardless of which way you greet it, the future just arrived. Tea bags have a valid use, but not as a basis for an ideology.
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