Being American

With apologies to those outside the US, throughout the Americas, naturally.

The meaning of being an American is obviously a bit fraught right now. The US had a heyday in the post-WW2 era, when we ruled the world and enjoyed breakneck technological and economic growth. Many seem to think that the conditions of that era are some kind of birth-right, that a lifestyle of mainline Christianity, hamburgers, and trucks is a cultural patrimony worth fighting for, against the existential changes wraught by demography, immigration, climate change, and education. We have come a quite a way from the days of the Civil War, when a similar fight revolved around the right to keep Black people in bondage, but the current historical predicament does rhyme, as they say.

The US is still an incredibly rich country, and a technological leader in countless fields. But at the same time, other countries with lower military budgets and fewer world policing duties show us up in better living conditions, and more progressive political systems. But that is obviously not what grates on the right wing base- that other countries may be more liberal, prosperous, and happy. (Though in fairness, such competing countries are typically also less diverse, and thus have higher social solidarity, from a tribal / ethnic perspective, which does seem to be striking a chord with the right wing). No, what grates is that their god-given right to the American way is dissolving, for all kinds of reasons, but none that completely irresponsible policy, cynical politics, and general greed and obtuseness can't make go away, at least for a little while.

During the Civil War, Lincoln through his Gettysburg address and other writings tried to forge a new vision of what America was about, one with world-wide significance that left behind the stasis and meanness of slavery for the promise of equal opportunity and human development in an abundant and growing land. It was that vision that propelled the US through the next century, through railroads, flight, military might, the oil age, and to our current age of computer and biomedical technological frontiers.

It is clear that we again need a new vision, now that our peak of relative military and economic power is waning. There is no going back. Climate change is making sure of that, even if the Chinese don't follow it up with other unpleasant facts on the ground. The US of old is irrevocably gone, and pining for it isn't going to bring it back, especially if destroying our democracy is the method chosen to get there. What is worse, our moral authority is even more imperiled than those harder forms of power and influence.

Atlanta Olympics opening ceremonies, featuring lots of Stetson hats and pickup trucks.

Remember the 1996 Atlanta Olympics? Dreadful generally, but what sticks in my mind is the fleet of pickup trucks that were featured in the opening ceremony. How incredibly tone-deaf, and what an homage to greed and planetary destruction. But now, a quarter century on, we are still fighting that same fight, between those looking to the past, and those looking to the future. The past was one of abundance, thanks to the bountiful nature that the US was endowed with (or stole brutally from its occupants). The future looks a bit less abundant, because of the damage we ourselves have wrought on the way to all these technological wonders. Also because our population is itself unsustainable, and needs to be smaller, even after we adhere to more sustainable lifestyles and technologies. The future is going to be difficult, no question, and it will require us to think harder, and feel more keenly about others and the environment around us. Merely raping the environment will no longer do (just as chaining and whipping other humans no longer did a century and a half ago). We will have to work with it and in many cases, make sacrifices to heal it. Even pay reparations.

Land-grant colleges endowed throughout the US, courtesy of far-thinking Republicans of the Civil War era.

That is pretty clearly where the new vision of America should be going. To a prosperous future that is sustainable at the same time that it is abundant and equitable. This is a hard task, politically as well as technically, far more difficult than the great things we have accomplished in the past, like the Manhattan project or the Apollo program. And one can sense that the younger generations are ready for this task- they just need a little encouragement and vision to get us there.

• The Taliban is better at politics than the US, or its Afghan allies, were. Politics, Islamic-style.
• On the importance of spirit and core values.
• Realignments in Asia.
• What do you do if your party is a minority?
• Natural selection at work.
• "Valuing your bodily integrity"- idiots with degrees.
• Trash-talking Larry Summers.