America’s Future is Bleak When Only 27% of the Younger Generations are Proud to be American
I first encountered unabashed pride in being American when I came to the United States in 1951. I sailed across the Atlantic alone. Perhaps someone along the way told me tht I was going to the United States; however, as a seven or eight-year-old I knew nothing about the nation that had granted me refuge. Upon disembarking in New York what stood out was not the awe-inspiring and intimidating skyscrapers seemingly reaching to the heavens, or for the first time in my life seeing a city not lying in ruins from the ravages of war, but that there was a palpable atmosphere of confidence, optimism, self-reliance and above all pride among the people in this new and mystifying country.
I soon learned that this mindset permeated the entirety of this vast nation and had since its founding, thus, enabling it to evolve into the most successful nation-state in the annals of mankind. While no nation can ever create an ideal society, due to certain immutable characteristics of the human race, no country has come closer to doing so. It is the only nation in history committed to right societal wrongs, to live by the underlying tenets of Judeo-Christianity and govern itself by means of a written Constitution that reflects those values.
As recently as 2004, 91% of Americans were extremely or very proud to be American and the United States ranked first in the world in national pride. However, in less than twenty years there has been a stunning reversal that portends a dire future for the United States as a precipitous erosion in national pride has undermined societal confidence, self-reliance, optimism, and cohesion.
A recent poll revealed that a record low of just 68% of the citizenry are extremely or very proud to be American. However, underlying that overall dismal outcome is the reality that among the two youngest generations only 38% of Millennials and 16% of Gen Z are proud to be American despite being the beneficiaries of living in a unfathomably prosperous nation that has not known any profound national adversity since the Great Depression.
What we are seeing play out is the reality of demographic change in America as the younger mal-educated generations account for over half of the populace and are increasingly becoming culturally and politically influential. Within these generations an overwhelming majority have been indoctrinated by socialist/Marxist ideologues to believe that a capitalist United States as founded is irredeemable and must be transformed.
Over the past sixty years, as the oblivious governing generations slept and reveled in America’s prosperity, the American Marxists relentlessly infiltrated the legacy media, the entertainment complex, and the education establishment. Their ultimate objective was to indoctrinate the younger generations into mindless foot soldiers that would foment future societal turmoil -- the primary tactic for achieving permanent political power.
These institutions espoused, in a disciplined and endlessly repetitious manner, a message that is the epitome of simplicity. First, the United States is and always has been an unfair, racist, rapacious and imperialist nation. Second, only the American left and their hybrid socialism/Marxism can guarantee fairness, equity, and prosperity for all.
What far too many throughout American society, but in particular among the Millennials and Gen Z, fail to understand is while this messaging about the fictitious wonders of socialism/Marxism has been utilized repeatedly for over 150-years, the motivation and character traits of those that are currently espousing it in the United State are as old as mankind itself.
Among the unalterable characteristics of the human race since its beginning is the insatiable need by some within a tribe, clan or society to control or subjugate their fellow man. The history of mankind is an endless chronicle of internal wars and conquest of other societies.
With the evolution of modern technology and weaponry, gone are the days when megalomaniacs could by sheer force of determination and arms impose their will on the citizenry within their society. Another means and new tactics had to be found to achieve that end while still relying on military force to conquer other societies.
The mid-19th Century saw the Industrial Revolution and the rise in living standards and literacy among the populace in Europe. It was at this time that the tenets of socialism/Marxism migrated from the obscure writings of a few into the political mainstream.
The segment of mankind that considers themselves superior to and destined to rule the masses, adopted the underlying tenets of socialism/Marxism not because they believed in them but as a mechanism for achieving a stranglehold on political and societal power.
Virtually all of the proponents of socialism/Marxism, including Lenin, Mussolini, Hitler, Mao Tse-tung, and Castro among many others, knew the specious promise that the state through a new ruling class would guarantee the citizenry security, fairness, and unending prosperity would appeal to a significant segment of a fractured society. The key was to either to create or exploit existing societal chaos.
The public relations aspect of that delusive promise was combined with the tactics of pitting one segment of society against another, scapegoating a defined group as the cause of a nation’s ills, denigrating the past, undermining the family structure, promoting secularism, and eliminating any vestige of freedom of speech. All with the goal of initiating societal chaos so that the populace would turn to the socialist/Marxists for rescue and thereby acquiescence to their having permanent political power.
That is the scenario currently at play in the United States and those that are choreographing the ongoing transformation of the country are essentially no different in their motives and tactics than the autocrats of the last 150 years or for that matter since the dawn of mankind.
The Founders of America were extraordinarily aware of this cavernous flaw within the human race. The Constitution’s primary purpose is to make it extremely difficult for despotism to take root without the consent of what the Founders hoped would be an educated, principled and patriotic populace. However, based on the polling, unfathomable ignorance of America’s founding and history, and increasing belief in moral relativism by the Millennials and Gen Z, that consent apparently is in the offing.
Some questions for the vacuous among the younger generations that are not proud to be American and believe that transforming the nation is vital:
- What will happen when the people you blindly support take over and change the election laws so they never lose a future election?
- How will they pay for guaranteed prosperity and equity? Will they have to nationalize all industries and businesses? How will they force the citizenry to work at these nationalized businesses if prosperity and equity are guaranteed? What happens when state-controlled businesses fail?
- How will your utopian government operate the agricultural sector in order to feed nearly 400 million people as the population explodes due to your open border policies?
- How will this newly transformed nation placate a massive restless populace that is not receiving a promised guaranteed income? Print untold trillions in new dollars? Jail all the protestors?
- How will this country, when the dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency due to incessant money printing and hyperinflation, maintain a vibrant economy and service its massive debt?
- How will a transformed but broke America defend itself against implacable international foes who will have achieved global hegemony?
- Will Americans be content to allow faceless bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. to make virtually all their life-changing decision including what they can think and say?
An unbiased history of the Twentieth Century provides the answers to most of these questions.But there is one thing for certain: once this nation goes down this road it will never return.
Traveling that road will also eventuate in the fatuous advocates of transforming the United States experiencing, along with the bulk of the citizenry, the soul-shattering struggle to survive from one day to the next as untold millions have done over the past century in other nations that have followed the same path.
Photo credit: Noah Wulf CC BY-SA 4.0 license
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