01-04-2018, 11:48 PM
(01-04-2018, 06:14 PM)nebraska Wrote: Hollywood, the media, and advertisers brainwash Americans to be immoral, go on anti-depressants, get fat, take out student loans, go in debt, take out mortgages, get married, get divorced, go on welfare, support tyranny, and embrace wars, but maybe part of the reason the US is collapsing now is because these actions conflict with traditional American values of being moral, staying healthy, being responsible, being independent, loving freedom, and supporting peace.
Part of our current troubles is a divide between old values and new. Yes, in some ways it would be nice to embrace the old values, turn back the clock, and live in a past that was in some ways better for some. But, would it not be nice to correct flaws as well? Are not many attempts by some to be more moral, healthy, responsible, indepenant, free and peaceful progressive?
No historical culture has been perfect. To get better you have to change. Different people for good reason see different needs to change. Much of it is cultural and values driven. Both clinging to the old and striving for the new can be driven by greed, mistaken, unaffordable, partisan, or otherwise flawed.
But mostly, the grand experiment of Democracy has run into the partisan divide of both cliques trying to force the other to change culture. Cultures do not change lightly. One size does not fit all. People believe their own culture correct, the other fatally flawed, and cease to believe the other guy has good intentions.
If we cannot grow beyond that, we cannot grow.