David Michael Green: Broken Shards of My Heart: The US in Decline

[marmar]

Published on Saturday, June 9, 2012 by Common Dreams
Broken Shards of My Heart: The US in Decline

by David Michael Green




I could tell you that my heart was broken by what happened in Wisconsin this week, but in truth that’s not quite accurate.

I grew into political awareness and maturity in the middle of the 1970s. For people my age, then, our entire adult lives have been one long witness to the dismantling of that which we grew up taking for granted as a foundation for any further progress that might come. We lived in the relatively egalitarian country of the New Deal and the Great Society, with its robust middle class and a measure of earnest compassion for the poor. Today, that seems like a foreign country, if not a remote planet.

Over the course of our adult lives:

We watched in shock and horror as the country turned to a Hollywood washout, who was literally a national joke candidate five years earlier, and made him president, following him down every path of joyful self-destruction and absurd deceit. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/09

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[marmar]

2. It's harsh, but hard to argue with a lot of it.

nt

[xchrom]

3. Our world has ever been harsh - hopefully the goal

Of civilized, sophisticated folk is to make it less harsh.

Without that wisdom being undermined by stupidity and then never challenged.

We let stupidity stand as though it's 'Wisdom'.

[bemildred]

4. Gloomy fellow.

But I can relate to how he feels.