@xris,
xris wrote:I have been sadly disappointed in American attitudes and the coldness of its response to it fellow citizens.A social attitude of the frontier soon made way to the harsh detached ways of the successful having no sympathy for the less fortunate.It results in views that i can not assimilate with and my socialist politics find Americans so very far from their proposed ethical intentions.
Absolutely, as are the verbalized -vs- real life ethics of most countries. But in terms of the country of which you speak, I think that most of this is due to our deification of the almighty dollar.[INDENT]Life revolves around it, our value system is entwined in it. We judge the 'success' and 'failure' of life around it. Add to this our pop culture with the TV-and-Internet couch potato syndrome and what you have are a bunch of separated, over consumerized people who live and die by their ability to consume things. In a depressed neighborhood I see king-cab after king-cab (30,000 Dollar-plus) roll down my street with fat, unhappy people complaining as they roll along to mcdonald's, their children left unattended at home.
For these people, their minds are as shut and locked as their doors. Fear and consumption our are watchwords; blame and consume are their battlecries. Then, these same people log on to forums like this and complain about 'whiners'.
[/INDENT]This "Shoot the Whiners"-attitude is - essentially - the end of human compassion.
But take heart, there is still that small town goodness - it's just not as widespread as it used to be. I obviously have issue with this 'dark side' of what we've become but I know - and happily see - the goodness that still exists amongst us. Besides, since when has any country's politician's been representative of the 'way things really are' in their country :p
Thanks (apologies for the rant - it's an axe of mine)