Make it Better

One of the problems people identify frequently in various interviews is that they feel the country is moving in the wrong direction.  What they mean by this varies tremendously from moving towards a totally socialist society, a sharia law society, a dictatorship, fascism or an anything goes society.

The one thing in common is that they don't like where it is going.

This played well in the last election as we saw two quite diametrically opposite candidates, Trump and Bernie Sanders do better than expected against establishment figures.  In fact, the election of Barack Obama probably was a result of this underlying American and World angst.

The world and America is changing and has changed dramatically.  Human nature for the most part can't keep up.

Things that were totally taboo just a few years ago are now routine.

Our approach to sex seems to have gone totally haywire in that we see it everywhere in public ads that would have been the stuff of pornography once yet have adopted stricter rules about what is permissible without explicit permission.

I was recently at an amusement park and it was hot so I would take fairly frequent breaks sitting on benches.  The outfits worn by young girls and slightly older women cover less and less of areas that used to be, well, covered up.  Its hard when you're from my generation to figure out the appropriate behavior since I wasn't there to ogle, just to rest.  It made me think of the movie Gigi where Maurice Chevalier would sit and admire the Parisian beauties strolling.  Of course they were wearing many more clothes.  The song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" sounds a lot like a pedophile by today's standards.

So are we going to hell in a hand basket or are we becoming a nation of repressive accusers?

I think the problem really is that the answer is yes to both depending on your point of view.

The country is becoming more and more diverse every year or at least more and more exposed to the rich diversity we always had.

We always had major differences between say a city kid from the Bronx to a country boy from Alabama or a surfer dude in California or a coal miner in Kentucky to a rancher in Wyoming, or a farmer in Kansas.  It was just that the diversity stayed pretty diverse, while the global communications network of today is making everyone aware of everything.

Are we more or less god-fearing?  Well both.  Are we more or less promiscuous?  Once again both.

There is not single America and even from the days of the Pilgrims in Boston to the Settlers in Virginia, the Dutch in New Amsterdam, the Swedes in Delaware, the Catholics in Maryland, the Quakers in Pennsylvania and of course the slaves brought here in captivity, we have been a diverse nation.  It helped make us great.  There is no single "American: way, we are a recipe of many ingredients that together make one great American nation.

Enjoy it, its constantly changing.  We need to make sure it gets better.