(Also published at The Agonist)
(thanks to Brian Kane for the idea….)
It’s no wonder people in this country aren’t willing to find real solutions to real problems…according to a recent poll conducted by Fox News (yeah, I know…) a full 77% of the American public actually believes in the power of prayer to heal people. Even self-identified liberals, who are usually a more skeptical and reality-based group, came in at 65%. Every time I think we have finally bottomed out, there’s evidence that there’s still room to drop.
Some of y’all may not have noticed, but America is faced with some seriously intractable problems these days, the sorts of problems that require dedicated cooperation and brainstorming to resolve. Time was when we could find it within ourselves to set our differences aside long enough to pull together and fix what was broken. That was then…and this is now, when a significant portion of the adult population is willing to let America burn if they don’t get 100% of what they want. Even worse, Americans in general seem unable (or unwilling) to seriously consider the problems we face and contemplate how best to fix them.
When a significant proportion of Americans still aren’t convinced that Barack Obama is an American citizen, that a single-payer health care system is “Socialism”, and that Fox Noise Channel is “fair and balanced”, it’s difficult to gin up anything resembling optimism about our collective future. When the 2012 GOP Presidential candidates fall over themselves offering simplistic solutions to complex problems and appealing to fear, hatred, and discrimination in order to sell themselves to an unquestioning electorate, how does one even begin to feel optimistic? When more than 50% believe in the power of prayer to heal, it’s not a stretch to think that a majority would also believe in other fantastical things. Not to denigrate religious belief, but the problems we face today- war, health care, infrastructure, education, etc.- require a firm grounding in reality and a willingness to deal with things as they are, not as we might like them to be.
I’d like to think that the 2012 campaign will be a chance for Americans to think about our collective future and what we can do to get America heading in that direction. Realistically, though, what we’re destined to get is more propaganda, fear-mongering, gay-bashing, and race-baiting. REAL solutions to real problems can’t be boiled down to a 30-second commercial or a ten-second sound bite on Fox Noise Channel or MSNBC. Americans evidently lack the time, inclination, and/or the ability to seriously THINK about what’s happening around us and how we can get from where we are to where we want to be. No, it’s far easier and more satisfying to scream at your ideological doppelgangers and belittle those you disagree with. Smug arrogance makes for a damned poor argument, but it can certainly help you feel better about yourself and your intellectual/ideological/moral superiority. Too bad that won’t get us any closer to finding the solutions we so desperately need….
