The Melting Pot has become a crucible.Are We, the People steel or slag?

Prior to 2001, I sometimes heard people say that the US public is so far out of touch with the issues that affect it that it would take a war to wake them up. Occasionally, I was one of those people. Now that we're fighting not one, but two wars, the public still seems to be wrestling with reality in a hypnopompic state, which, while promising, is still maddening to people who are cognizant and rational. Now some people think it will take something more immediate, like a foreign invasion of our shores or a nuke, to bring the US public to full wakefulness.

I tend to agree with the overall sense of this remark - that is, that it will take something yet more immediate than what we have so far experienced - but an invasion ain't gonna happen. A nuke could, in theory, but is really unnecessary since our runaway government is already driving us toward a severe depression. We responded improperly to 9/11, as bin Laden figured we would, and we are now bankrupting ourselves trying to defeat radical anti-Americanism using tactics that just breed more of it. From al-Qaeda's point of view, it's probably now just a matter of letting the topheavy machine tear itself apart struggling to regain its balance while trying to fight fire ants with fire.

In light of this, I have a question for members of the Fall-In-Line faction of any political persuasion:

When are you guys going to admit that we've all been lied to and betrayed for decades, by the mouthpieces on both the left AND the right?

The politics of division is literally destroying the republic, and it's doing so by deceiving people into buying into false dichotomies, most notably of "right versus left". And it's effective because too many people accept simple stories to explain complex realities.

The truth is, we cannot see the virtues of each others' points of view when we are polarized against each other.

For example, I hear some on the right rail against socialism in every form, without even giving a thought to the fact that our fire and police departments, and our libraries, are examples of socialism. Our schools are, too, although there's a case to be made against that -- or at least in favor of an extreme restructuring of it.

And on the left, we hear the thoughtless assertion that restricting gun ownership will necessarily lead to a less violent society. Yeah, and tyranny without rebellion wouldn't be violent, either.

There are many, many more examples I could cite, but the most maddening one of all is, both the left and the right claim the MSM is a tool of the other side. This should be a clue, people! The media isn't as interested in reporting the news as it is in fomenting controversy around the news. So it has a vested interest in polarizing debates, granting publicity to wingnuts & zealots, and elevating opinion to the same stature as facts. The MSM is not a tool of the left or the right, it's a tool to distract, and to keep Americans locked into a no-win battle of perceptions with each other.

As Thomas Pynchon said, if they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers.

The fact is, none of us have the whole picture. We all have a lot to learn from each other. And we have to do it by leaving the wrong questions to wrongheaded people.

I'd like to suggest this article: Our Phony Economy [pdf] as essential reading for every US citizen. It helps spell out, in very clear language, how the social ills that concern left and right alike, such as divorce, abortion, disease, government waste, medicating our kids, privatizing our military and our prisons, depleting our resources, and many more, are actually tallied in the PLUS column when measuring the strength of the economy.

The simple fact is, we will not solve our domestic OR our foreign problems while powerful people are reaping obscene wealth by perpetuating them.

And I'd like to suggest more broadly that respecting our differences does not mean agreeing, but it is a necessary step toward seeing eye to eye. If we are open to seeing a broader view instead of pigeon-holing each other, we may have a chance of reforging our nation to be stronger, and wiser, than before.