A lot of the problems that we have are rooted in the difference between the expectations and image that Americans have of themselves (as built and expressed in American Mythology) and how the world actually is.
In other words, what we think we are, what we see as being the thing (the nation) is a long ways away from what the Mythology tells us.
The frontier closed over a century ago. Civilization advanced. You don't usually hunt to put food on the table these days. But guns are still somehow a central part of the American Mythology... even though there are no hostile natives to fight (we keep trying to reinvent those, in justification though--in the person of criminals and illegal aliens/terrorists/drug dealers/whatever). No militia can effectively stand against a modern, professional army--if that Army wants to win. And there are no longer any chattel slaves that are going to rise in rebellion (though we try and reinvent that too through BLM).
And the stupid justification that something that was an arm of the government in time of war (militia--so there did not have to be a standing army) is somehow a bulwark against tyranny. George Washington (the only US President to take the field as CinC) summoned the militia to crush the Whiskey (anti-tax) rebellion--so if anything it was a tool of tyranny.
The closing of the frontier also closed off an important societal relief mechanism. You could no longer pack up and leave to escape the government. No more cheap or free land to claim (or steal from the natives). Just less and less space (and higher cost) as time passed.
But we have a lot of societal myths and expectations that are built around that frontier mentality.
Throw on top of that the fact that after WW2, the US largely WAS the global economy as the last major power standing undamaged. GI bill, the rise of the middle class, suburbia, the rise of consumer society and credit... these things are largely the result of an extraordinary economic situation, NOT an ordinary one.
But we still have expectations built on that, too.
The inability to separate ourselves from or actually understand our past and mythology is one of the primary reasons we are approaching destruction.
A lot of the problems that we have are rooted in the difference between the expectations and image that Americans have of themselves (as built and expressed in American Mythology) and how the world actually is.
In other words, what we think we are, what we see as being the thing (the nation) is a long ways away from what the Mythology tells us.
The frontier closed over a century ago. Civilization advanced. You don't usually hunt to put food on the table these days. But guns are still somehow a central part of the American Mythology... even though there are no hostile natives to fight (we keep trying to reinvent those, in justification though--in the person of criminals and illegal aliens/terrorists/drug dealers/whatever). No militia can effectively stand against a modern, professional army--if that Army wants to win. And there are no longer any chattel slaves that are going to rise in rebellion (though we try and reinvent that too through BLM).
And the stupid justification that something that was an arm of the government in time of war (militia--so there did not have to be a standing army) is somehow a bulwark against tyranny. George Washington (the only US President to take the field as CinC) summoned the militia to crush the Whiskey (anti-tax) rebellion--so if anything it was a tool of tyranny.
The closing of the frontier also closed off an important societal relief mechanism. You could no longer pack up and leave to escape the government. No more cheap or free land to claim (or steal from the natives). Just less and less space (and higher cost) as time passed.
But we have a lot of societal myths and expectations that are built around that frontier mentality.
Throw on top of that the fact that after WW2, the US largely WAS the global economy as the last major power standing undamaged. GI bill, the rise of the middle class, suburbia, the rise of consumer society and credit... these things are largely the result of an extraordinary economic situation, NOT an ordinary one.
But we still have expectations built on that, too.
The inability to separate ourselves from or actually understand our past and mythology is one of the primary reasons we are approaching destruction.