Land of the Free Home of the Brave??

What the hell has happened to our nation? Why does it seem like everything is going bad all at the same time? I would suggest it is because we believed the lie which left us vulnerable for the cosmic sucker punch.

Symptoms of a downed System

Virtually all man made, and natural systems are broken at the same time because they are completely and totally in the hands of a few selfish people. Of course, you already knew that, so the question is how did this happen? You see in order to have this many billionaires, or this few rather, in control of our food, money, politics, or health, etc. in a democracy, you have to convince people on several tiers to believe the lie.

On the first tier, you must convince politicians to believe the lie so that, where some of them were once inspired to serve people and this nation, they instead cling to power and grift off the system as their only goal. Each viewing their role as not so bad because the lie will rescue us.

On the second tier, you must convince corporate leaders to believe the lie so they will shift from an ideology of free and fair competition as a cornerstone of our economy, to a focus on monopolies, corporate celebritism and protecting the uber-rich. But no worries, the lie will buoy us above the obvious damage.

And the third-tier acts as cover for the previous two. Here you have to convince a voting majority that, despite living in the most privileged moment in our species’ history, they are victims if you address disparities within this privileged moment. Doing so will ensure, instead of acting with courage, empathy, and fairness they can embrace cowardliness and the lie will paint them as patriots.

But know this, the lie is powerless on its own, it must have a history, a foundation, its own lore and even statues.

Foundation of the Lie

As a young kid, learning about U.S. history, civics class, and the like, we were taught, to be American is to inherit your portion of the lie. We learned the permanence of the lie’s institutions and marvel in the glory of its star-spangled heroes. We built monuments to burnish the lie in the identity of all our citizens and even waged war to protect it.

The immutable lie positioned as a universal truth is written across the heavens. The lie? Is, we, as a people, as a nation, are exceptional. That our manifest destiny is to touch every wretched tribe from all corners of the world and have them drink from the sweet nectar of exceptionalism, as many have with patriotic fervor. For with our American Exceptionalism a people can engage in all manner of nation building debauchery, societal cannibalism, they can adapt hate and fear into their governance and still emerge pure, and powerful.

The lie, even to this day, has many believing that any threats to this nation would surely come from outside. Never from the inside, for we are those exceptional people.

Although everyone could see our obvious flaws in our systems of governance, economics, and national character, it is agreed we are progressively fixing those flaws on our way to becoming, as Reagan put it, that shiny city on the hill.

You see it never occurred to many of us, and despite all the evidence still cannot consider we are no more exceptional than every toppled empire before us. Some would argue even worse than previous empires, because we have the benefit of a well-documented history, but still cannot find the motivation to pull our heads out our own self-righteous ass.

Instead, we lock arms and just keep repeating the lie, over and over and louder and louder. We fly obnoxious flags from our gas guzzling 4 bys and curse those who shine the light on any facts that counter the lie.

Culture of Cowardliness

Here is the funny thing, a truth that one, cannot be avoided and two is manifesting itself right before our very eyes. If you are on the wrong side of evolution, life is nothing but concentric circles of deepening hell.

Roughly more than 50% of our fellow citizens feel personally attacked when you point to the lie and call it as such. They dig into their ideology of virtuous victimization and take great pride in their ability to hold ignorance and power in the same hand.

Reasonable people are quite shocked that so many, at so many levels, cling so desperately to exceptionalism as an identity. But we shouldn’t because for them, it’s working. For now. Even as their exceptional claim of the  “Land of the Free, and Home of the Brave,” is quickly morphing into Land of the fear and the home of hate. We would have never believed one who openly exposes fear and hate could ascend to the highest podium not once, and certainly not twice.

We simply didn’t believe that fear and hate would have such a big and alluring tent. That many would jump on its bandwagon and gloat at what they’d done. But did they do it, or did we, do it? After all there is little distinction between the parties. But that is a conversation for another time.

Exceptional Lie

And even more insidious is that we, the exceptional people, are in locked step in our commitment to our constant pursuit of the pillars of exceptionalism, freedom, justice, and equality. This has been proven, in stark and astonishing colors, to be a lie.

It is said that you can judge a tree by its fruit. And the fruit of the people has produced institutions where:

• Legislators serve corporate interests.
• Housing is exclusively for the highest subscribers.
• Surveillance State with unchecked data collection by government and corporations.
• Healthcare looks upon the sick and injured as repeatable profit nodes.

Intro to AID

So now the question is, for the handful of people who no longer invest in the lie. Exceptionalism, have discovered walking away is damn hard with ever-tightening control over one’s ability to live. How do you break free when the lie dominates the airways, digital communication, food systems, policing, and healthcare? And how do free radicals point this nation toward the lofty principles of freedom, justice, and equality? 

If yaheard me say it once, yaheard me say it gobs of times. Breakthrough is always proceeded by a breakdown. Others would put it, where there is chaos, there is opportunity. An opportunity to turn your attention toward the radical concept of being free and unmolested by the systems of the ensuing dystopia. Breaking free is simple.

And here it T I is. As much as possible, ensure your voice, your vote, and your dollars are in alignment with AID: Authentic democracy, Inclusive prosperity, and Institutional dignity for people and nature. Build community around these principals, as we learn from each other and hey, try to have some fun on the journey. Learn more at ChaosTheory with a K, dot co.

PEACE!