The communes of the nineteen-sixties, while being derided by many, fell mainly because of human nature. Many, but not all, fell prey to the things that tears the broader society apart. Crime, theft, violence, underhandedness in general, and petty tyrannies. Community, or at least the notion of it, primarily began its rather swift unwinding with the election of Ronald Reagan. Homes were no longer homes, they became investments. Pensions went from defined benefit (a person knew what they got after a certain number of years of service), to defined contribution, subject to the vagaries of the market. Medicine became less a profession and more of a business. And, nearly every American was convinced they were a mini-capitalist, just one idea or paycheck away from financial glory. Schools were no longer places where one went to learn to learn more on your own. They became businesses with the sole purpose (at exorbitant cost) of churning out people with lots of credentials but very little in the way of actual education. Where your neighbor didn’t spend their time worrying about the bush in your front yard and whether or not it might bring down property values. This, though, is the America that people voted for. Time and time again. Agreeing to go along as long as they got theirs, and minor woe to those who failed to do so (with no influence, of course), from the overall degradation of societal opportunities. Americans are the greediest, most selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-referential, self-aggrandizing, people on the face of the Earth. Forty plus years have brought America to this point. And now, it’s time for the American experiment to end. Because it has failed.
The communes of the nineteen-sixties, while being derided by many, fell mainly because of human nature. Many, but not all, fell prey to the things that tears the broader society apart. Crime, theft, violence, underhandedness in general, and petty tyrannies. Community, or at least the notion of it, primarily began its rather swift unwinding with the election of Ronald Reagan. Homes were no longer homes, they became investments. Pensions went from defined benefit (a person knew what they got after a certain number of years of service), to defined contribution, subject to the vagaries of the market. Medicine became less a profession and more of a business. And, nearly every American was convinced they were a mini-capitalist, just one idea or paycheck away from financial glory. Schools were no longer places where one went to learn to learn more on your own. They became businesses with the sole purpose (at exorbitant cost) of churning out people with lots of credentials but very little in the way of actual education. Where your neighbor didn’t spend their time worrying about the bush in your front yard and whether or not it might bring down property values. This, though, is the America that people voted for. Time and time again. Agreeing to go along as long as they got theirs, and minor woe to those who failed to do so (with no influence, of course), from the overall degradation of societal opportunities. Americans are the greediest, most selfish, self-centered, self-absorbed, self-referential, self-aggrandizing, people on the face of the Earth. Forty plus years have brought America to this point. And now, it’s time for the American experiment to end. Because it has failed.