Opinion/Editorial

SALVATION

It’s what’s coming next. It’s not about all this small change the current administration running the White House has been tossing about like cheap tips. No, it’s what is coming to America that must be thought about and debated, because, as Leonard Cohen, the singer/songwriter and poet so brilliantly predicted, “Democracy is Coming to the USA.” If you ever heard this tune, or paid attention to his deeply thought out lyrics, then you would have heard these words: “It’s coming from the feel, That this ain’t exactly real, Or it’s real, but it ain’t exactly there, From the wars against disorder, From the sirens night and day, From the fires of the homeless, From the ashes of the gay, Democracy is coming to the USA.”

I didn’t write those words, Leonard did, and he was predicting from his own position. How far does it have to go, this real democracy coming to the USA, before the citizenry can stop it…because the kind of democracy Leonard was writing and singing about was revolution. There’s a revolution going on in Syria. Check out the television reports, and take a look at the areas that used to be pastoral scenery and vibrant cities and towns. There aren’t any of those left. Check out the rubble in the cities of Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s the result of revolution. Is that what the people, who never stop shouting, “let’s take our country back” want? It might be, but one would think that this cry would come from the poor black and gang-ridden portions of America’s supposedly crime ravaged cities, and not the aging white men it is actually coming from. What’s coming next is only predictable if you listen to distant drums. They are beating, although without special mental equipment, you cannot hear them yet. Is this what the people really want?

Or, is it more personal and selfish than that? Today’s America is a country plagued by success. There are stories of failure abounding everywhere, of course, sprinkled among the vastness of the country’s success. Because of the genetic nature of the human species, stories of failure predominate the news simply because humans are constantly afraid of, and preparing themselves for, how to survive if failure comes along. But the stories of bounding success should not be overlooked or ignored, particularly if any sort of comparisons are made.

This nation is hugely powerful, with a solid educational system (by far the most successful and largest grouping of colleges and universities in the world), a giant military presence (currently spending more than all other countries combined on such things, without including private investment or black projects), a crime rate that continues to spiral down every year since the eighties, and a nearly universal system of freedom and justice that allows most citizens to be able to say what they want, when they want, without much in the way of reprisal. Six of the world’s most profitable companies are based in the United States, and two more of the other four are owned by Americans. Although there has been a giant step backward in manned space exploration by the United States, the USA is still the only country that possesses space vehicles which can land and take off vertically, and are reusable. It also has the only viable plan to return to the moon, and then go on out to Mars.

The nation is not failing. The public is not living in any sort of generalized misery, and the only real fear it has, as a sociological coherent group, is brought about by watching and believing negative news stories about imminent doom and failure, and being overwhelmed by outsiders like immigrants, other countries and the outsourcing of American industries. The mass media has also conditioned the public to pay attention to, and reward with viewership, news reports about murder, mayhem, terrorism and other forms of violence. Statistically there actually is very little violence in America today, but that fact is overwhelmed by the media’s prioritization of violent stories, and the fear reports put out nationally, and in local mass media outlets, every day.

For all the fear some of the public has about the destabilizing effect a Donald Trump presidency might have, please note the ‘small change’ kind of effect he’s had on the country since his election. This minimal effect, brought about by potentially the most destabilizing president of all time in the U.S., leads to only one conclusion; the salvation of the USA.

Salvation is grounded in size, quality of all forms of production, and a resilience a diverse population and collected cultures imbue a society with, to absorb tremendous body blows, and even applied leadership misdirection, without the entire culture suffering failure or even significant change. The technology of high finance, the development and application of most computer advancement and sustenance, and most ownership and capitalistic endeavor, is firmly grounded in the USA. America is not going anywhere soon, and if it does over time, it will do so very slowly. Salvation is not in the details. Salvation is in the solid main body of a braided and complex intertwined belief system, and real ownership.

When the American flag waves and American’s, for the most part, put their hands over their hearts and sing the national anthem, they are ratifying, praying for, (and in their combined performance) guaranteeing that this huge evolved country that dominates almost every aspect of life on the planet, will continue to do so well into the future.

America can see all enriched nuclear materials now from orbit. Sleep well knowing that. America has lost less than twenty percent of one Army Division to terrorism (in terms of troops and civilians of all kinds) over the last twenty years. The U.S. Army alone has fifteen divisions, and the Marine Corps some more. President Roosevelt said in his famous speech following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” It is exactly this emotion, fear, that has been sold to the American public for as many years as the media has controlled the dissemination of most information across the U.S. Stop being afraid. Your country remains the world’s greatest powerhouse, and you, as one of its citizens, are one of the most powerful people in the world. If you would only come to believe it. Believe in salvation. You’ve earned it.
~~ James Strauss