America has a problem. And it's not what you might think.
"Well, it's their idiot president, isn't it?"
He's a huge, rancid problem, to be sure. But he's not the problem.
"White supremacism."
Yep, that problem, it turns out, never really went away, and racism is a long way off being called a historical phenomenon. But that's not the whole of the problem.
"Is it the wildly corrupt political system where he who spends the most wins and the NRA literally has a fucking ratings system for the most useful politicians doing the rounds? Or the fact that the great American news media, despite the best efforts of those still working in longform, is basically composed of motormouth rent-a-rants whose nightly job is to turn every development into an elaborately constructed strawman and ramp up the rage bubbling away in their respective political tribes, rather than trying to convey anything like a nuanced overview of the day's events, let alone a cogent and considered analysis of the world as it stands today?"
Well, okay, yes, you make an excellent point, and these are of course all big parts of the story but it's not really where I was going with this. Are you going to keep interrupting or can I talk now?
"Go for it."
Thanks.
Nostalgia. The problem I have in mind is nostalgia. That cosy, cuddly, wistful feeling that tells us we can always go home again. Sepia skies and songs about the open road and the simplicity of childhood. The notion that it was all better and simpler Back Then. The idea that once upon a time, people knew right from wrong, kids respected their elders, there was none of this PC crap, and men were men. Because under this bullshit idea that the world was a better place back in the day is the rather nastier idea that those who held all the power then should still be in charge of it all now, and any upstart attempts to redress the balance and make things fairer for everyone represent a dangerous attempt to corrupt society and freedom as we think we know it.
