Forget Alfie. He is not relevant here other than perhaps serving as a representative of the great unwashed, wondering what values to choose, which paths to take, what decisions to make. But unlike Alfie, whose decisions take place in a movie, the decisions we make, in real life, are not rescindable. Even should a decision be overturned down the road, the harm has taken place already, or the harm will presently take place, depending upon the time set of these decisions. Hence the question: What's it all about, America?
We can dodge the question no longer. It has become a question whose answer demands great attention and inner examination. It requires an understanding of the harmful effects of a snowballing mob, rolling all along with it, growing in an intensity which negates individual will, morphing into a new entity, generally harmful in intent and consequence. Read accounts of Jan. 6, how individuals lost their uniqueness, merged into that new monster called "Mob of Rebels".
So what's it all about, America? It is about a decision we must make in the immediate here and now. It is the decision we must make about our national character, our defining characteristics and values, a determination as to whether we accept the responsibilities that have devolved upon us from the past through the present, hopefully into a less questionable future. What will America choose? That is a question whose answers have demanded the riveted attention and concern of nations of the world. Certainly, at least as of yet, we remain a force for good, less so than before Trump, but remnants remain of that impetus. Weaker, more exposed to existential harm, it has not yet left the room totally, without recourse or room for hope.
There is much to take into account, to be overcome, before we return to a position of sanity and faith - for a viable future for our kids and grandkids. It is vital that we look into consequences of our decisions. Immediate, even perhaps selfish, demands must take second, third and last place in a race for a non apocalyptic future. That future has been described, even annotated as to the year we will have crossed those red lines that cannot be erased any longer. That year, those years, are actually within the lifetime of most Americans living today - and the rest of the world as well.
Will we choose policies and thought over cultish veneration of a personality? Will we lose our individuality, merge into the "mob", the entity which enables us to allow our prior moral roadblocks, to be subsumed, consumed, into, by, that 'mob', that living, breathing fire and danger entity negating all that oppose it, negating any defiance to it? Will we enjoy it? That possibility, that world of Hitlerian resemblance and modeling, has been proven to be possible, eminently so. The mobs of hate, the ugly crazed, screaming beings willing to do harm, even kill, in the name of that hatred, for that 'leader', are real. People willing to throw kids into cold, harsh conditions - and justify it - are here. Been there, done that. Our own homegrown Nazi wanna be's. If we allow the backward and oh, so very dangerous Trumpian values - or lack thereof - to determine, to choose our roads, we will have indeed, that very ugly future and an inhabitable world with a very limited future. Of some sort. or none.
See, at this point it is not only Trump, but also those who would follow in his footsteps, who endeavor to outdo him in all his ugliness. Hawley, Cotton, McCarthy, DeSantis, Abbott, Cruz, Gaetz, Greene, even Haley has joined in. No lack of wannabe purveyors of hatred and hopelessness. None. At all.
I read a definition of the dementia caused by Alzheimer's. "no survivors.....It destroys brain cells and causes memory changes, erratic behaviors and loss of body functions. It slowly and painfully takes away a person's identity, ability to connect with others, think, eat, talk, walk and find his or her way home." It is ugly, a very real possibility as our population ages. Worse, apply it to a nation that has lost its way, incurring a national dementia, acting within that deadly, ever darkening night. Are we, have we, become that demented nation, developed national dementia as we sink deeper, ever deeper, into a national Alzheimer's?
What's it all about, America? It is about us. It is about who we are. It is about who we will be, the values we will champion. Life? Or Alzheimer's? What's it all about, America?
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