How to win friends and ...

The easiest way to get people to be irritated with you is to say one thing and then do another. This is especially true if you are powerful.

The United States of America has stood for the following precepts:

• Representative democracy
• Opportunity through hard work to rise beyond your birth status
• Courage to face hardships and the challenges of the future
• "The Melting Pot", where all people of any cultural origin, religion or race can live and work together respecting and enjoying each other's uniqueness, yet working and communicating towards common goals.
• Charity for those in need
• A common ethic of beliefs that family, community, nation and world are all important and worth preserving
• A legal system that made it easy for anyone to get fair and just treatment

The above depiction of America is what was commonly seen in the movies of the past, at least up to the 1960's, and what the world as a whole thought of us. Whether or not they agreed with our value system, they at least respected us for our (apparent) consistency. DocBrain would argue that, while we were not perfect in achieving all the elements of the precepts, we at least attempted to move in that direction. Progress continued to be made.

However, what others now see is a different picture of America, an America that has subtly changed, yet still pretends it has the same values. It is that inconsistency in conjunction with our power that makes us the enemy for some people and less respected by others.

For example:

• The electoral process is under attack. Whether the Presidency is decided by a handful of votes or the paper "chads" don't work right or the electronic machines can be hacked, or votes are bought with tax dollars, we see the swiss cheese effect of the voting process. Our government is not so much representatives making decisions for us as a ediface of bureaucrats, gumming up the flow of knowledge, rights, goods and services in a modern society.
• We see the emergence of the "luck class" in America, where the rich seem to get there through luck and gaming the system rather than by hard work. This form of wealth is celebrated, while the hard work pathway is denigrated and devalued, both in our culture and in our cinema. When was the last time you saw a businessman portrayed as a good person?
• We seem to whine a lot these days. We need stress management for even the smallest of events. When did Americans become less tough than life itself?
• America has become Balkanized. Our news, movies and television portray this and even celebrate it.
• Instead of relying on the goodness of the American people, much of charity has become a system of rights and taxation, where lifestyles of suspicious value are actually supported by largesse from government (and taxpayers). Instead of a new direction, those falling into these lifestyles are given cash, free and clear, to use as they will. Those truly in need often fall through the cracks in the government bureaucratic system. Those who need us to look after them and to have structure in their lives are set free to roam our streets in filth and disarray.
• The decline of "family values" is actually celebrated by some. People often know much more about celebrities than their neighbors.
• Our legal system has become a web of laws, precedents and procedures that only the most intelligent and experienced attorney can possibly navigate. Laws are enforced (or not) according to some formula not known to the average man on the street. More and more, the laws seem to be a web to catch the honest man and to excuse the villain.

We need to either accept the new America we have become or to return to our core values. We need to be consistent in our message, and walk what we talk.