Yes, the latest Gallup poll numbers showing the public’s lack of confidence in some of our country’s major institutions are distressing. A nation needs to believe that its political and economic leaders have the character and vision to lead the country forward.
But it’s not as if we haven’t been here before. America has survived hard times in the past, and it’s not Pollyannaish to say that we can do so again.
There have been various times when Americans wondered if our heritage of national optimism had come to an end.
That was the case in the 1890s and the 1930s, times of dire economic hardship. It was true in the 1960s, an era of social upheaval and the nation’s divisions over the Vietnam conflict. It was true in the 1970s, the years of Watergate, “stagflation,” oil shocks and the Iranian hostage crisis.
Dispiriting times, all. Yet in each period, our country managed to move ahead with confidence renewed. …
Previous generations of Americans did not surrender to hard times and frustrations. They overcame them and built a stronger future. There is no reason why the present generation can’t do the same.
Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald (July 23)
Actually, no, we haven’t been here before. Global warming is accelerating. Global energy production is stagnating as prices skyrocket. 7 Billion people want to be fed, and climate shifts are destroying harvests, leading to unrest like the Arab Spring, and more.
Our financial markets are not only corrupt, but based on assumed growth that the fundamentals don’t support. Old people are expecting pensions but the young have no jobs with which to pay into that system, and the ratio between old and young isn’t what it used to be, so pensions and Social Security will inevitably fail, no matter who is in office.
Our soils are depleted, our aquifers are running low, and our farming systems based again on that unreliable petroleum supply, both for tractor power and for fertilizers. Our seed stock is controlled by a few, and regional varieties are absent. Few know how to garden without power tools. Few know how to garden, or butcher, or preserve food for winter. Kids consider manual labor to be beneath them, and labor is bussed in from Haiti and Mexico to do what used to be summer jobs for high school students.
We have old nuke plants dotting the countryside with radioactive waste, dependent on the grid or diesel generators to keep it from overheating and blowing out of the casks.
We have new pests, imported from all over, and the bats have died off from white nose disease.
No. We haven’t been here before. And a meaningless pep talk from Omaha won’t change that.
This byte of yours sounds like a page from the past. I guess there has always been and there will always be naysayers.
Each generation rises to new challenges. Historically there was always a “culling of the herd” though and the successful rose above it. The baby boom generation was probably the first generation not to face such a “culling”, so we figure that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Our parents probably did us no favors in protecting us and we seem to be unable to stop robbing from the next generation as if it is our due. I’ll make no dire predictions but I believe things will get a lot rougher before they get better, but they will get better.
Things were far worse after the Carter administration and we came roaring back with pro-business policies put in place by Reagan (with a Democrat Congress). The same thing will happen when Romney is elected. The Obama administration’s attacks on jobs and success will give way to an administration that rewards success and celebrates accomplishment. 2013 can’t come soon enough!