It’s understandable that Americans are seeing their culture descend into the pits of the cutthroat, the bastard, since that’s the character of the man whom we elected (twice) to lead our country.
If you take a minute or two to watch this video on the sportsmanship exhibited by young people, however, you may walk away with a different perspective.
I caught a glimpse of this as a soccer coach about 25 years ago, when my son Jake was a considerable powerhouse when he was little. In the first game of his under-8 season, he scored all three goals in a 3-2 win over an opponent whose dominant player — Paul, as I remember — had scored both their goals. When we walked off the field, I asked Jake if he wanted to say something to Paul. As a coach and as a father, I was lucky enough to hear the brief but poignant conversation. Jake told they boy, who was clearly taking the loss rather hard, “Hey. You’re a good player.” Paul smiled, bowed his head, and replied softly, “Thanks. But you’re better than I am.”
Maybe we’re not doomed to become heartless assholes. Maybe the core humanity with which we are all born will somehow rise to the surface and move us forward.
I would say that the meme here is “semi-true.”
It’s certainly true that he/she will be repairing broken relationships with our historical allies, but I don’t think that will be too terribly difficult. The rest of the world will be popping champagne corks the second Trump’s gone.
The simple answer to the question here is that we’ve become a nation many of whose people think, “I got mine. Go die.”
Now, how did this happen? That’s more complicated, but I suggest that, as I’ve believed since I was in my teens, we’re living through the endgame of free market capitalism.
The rich have gotten richer and have taken an ownership position in our lawmaking processes, so as to take them from millionaires to billionaires. At the same time, the rest of the U.S citizenry has become so poorly educated and desperate that they’ll believe that the people who harvest our fruits and vegetables are stealing our jobs and driving up the cost of housing.
Just a generation ago, Americans were proud that their country led the world in promoting democracy and moral fortitude. Now, we stand for racial hate, greed, cruelty, and war criminality.
Trump is elated that Republicans swept the Arizona Republican primaries.
That’s the level of intelligence we’re dealing with.
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