Chapter 1. The state of affairs here in America
Well, I want you all to know that I am so happy the Great Hall of Mini- Economics sent me to the United States from my hometown of Nottingham, England (or Snotingham as our critics used to call it).
The great mini-hall has sent me over the pond to the mid-west part of the American republic to report on the cultural gestalt here in this state of Michigan. And I have been employed to write stories about my life here and report back to the Great Hall on politics, the taste of food and beverages and just the over-all mood of the living here in Michigan and probably I will build stories around just what people have on their minds here in Michigan or even stories about what ever words should fall out of their mouths.
And from the moment the lovely Rita and I first set foot in our new home here in America it became very clear that all sorts ofpolitics were brewing here in Michigan and it became clear to me that my first report back to the Great Hall was going to be a political observation story and I am here to report that the presidential election of 2012 is the backdrop for my first report on the cultural gestalt here, in a mini-economical sort of way, and the Great Hall has sent me over here in America to write about the cultural mood of the mid-west part of the country politically, you know, out here and yes it struck me that onecould positively begin to imagine that a national election on this large of a scale and in this great nation of America had thepotential to make things better for everyone and you would certainly expect that this big of an election effort would reflect a positive difference afterwards to the citizens, you know, once the election was concluded and really for god's sake you would expect that there would be some small satisfaction for the people of the US especially after all of the money that was spent by everyone for everything that you could ever imagine in an American election And you would think that after all of this time and effort and money spent by the American political culture that the outcome of the election would make some sort of positive difference in a country as wonderful as the United States and it seems that that didn't really seem to have happened in the election of 2012. And people have been telling me, ever since, that the same old political faces and even some new old faces seem to be perfectly satisfied stoking the dissatisfaction in America and these talking heads seem to be perfectly content in consistently dividing Americans even further from each other.
I do find it culturally fascinating, being English and all, that Americans who have so much are so dissatisfied with their lives and I began to think about what satisfies me in this life and I look around and I have to say that Americans seem to have a lot of what the rest of the world is looking for and I don't really understand this grandiose American sense of discontent with the present moment. It seems that half of the Americans want to go backwards in time to a more perfect time for them and the other half of America is ready to bound into the future and make a better world for all. Well guess what? The people going backwards don't want to pay for the people going forward and the people going forward think the people going backwards to a more perfect time are kind of backward people in general.
So hence the rub and the sense of dissatisfaction that I find in America these days and I have to agree with the current President that America is pretty great right now. I could go on about that, and who really wants to listen to me, but really my job is to observe and report and not to pontificate. I understand that a lot of us have to overcome a real difficult journey to get opportunities in this life and racism and stupid people litter the path to a better life both socially and economically and don't forget the religious persecution stuff too.
And I know we would all like to have more money and be treated fairly by everyone and no one should have to live with hate of any kind and we have got to work on that stuff really hard but hey really people in America really don't you understand how lucky you are to be alive and living in America and not in Syria or the South Sudan and I could go on naming horrible places like 1938 fascist Germany or in Russia under Stalin or maybe just living in the path of Genghis Khan (I almost forgot to mention living with Chairman Mao).
Well anyway, I'm here to say that for a guy who is from Nottingham, America is ok to me. I do understand that I'm English and white but my last name set the kids off laughing at me in middle school and I've been really poor before and it really didn't feel so good and I am quite aware of what a dead end life is like with no one but yourself to help you go forward and I know America is rough around the edges sometimes and in the middle too and I guess all around, from time to time, as well, but I'll take it any day over living one day in North Korea.
I know my examples of a hard place to live in are kind of extreme and I'm sure if your people were in charge America would be greater than now but from where I sit I'm not so sure about that. Listen to me and I can't even vote.
And as I said before all of these political faces on the TV appear to only be making things seem even worse than they really are in America and truly all of this negativity and being disgruntled seems to be representative, politically of course, of all these Americans that I live amongst here in Michigan and all of this disunity in America seems to be representative of the dissatisfying difference all Americans seem to want to enjoy or not to enjoy in their country right now. This dissatisfaction is feltby all the people and be they the people on the right or peoplebeing to the left kind of people or people who are just right up the middle of all this crazy we live with and what is it that all these people in America really want any way, you know, what do they want from this crazy world we live in? I'll bet they are all fixated on that golden time, when all will be better, either a time in the past or a time in the future and the conservatives are hoping that going back in time will be a lot less expensive than going forward with the futurists because probably the future is simply more expensive than the past especially when the past is really past.
And it seems to me, as your mini-economist type of reporter that the next coming presidential election, in the great old US, in the next year (2016), will only make things seem even more apparently worse or at least as worse as the politicians want us all to believe that things are bad and getting worse and in this regard and also in the aftermath of this coming election when it does happens in that not so distant now and in that not so distant future after this next coming election and I do hope all Americans are ready to suffer even more dissatisfaction among the factions than they are now and I hope Americans are ready for that. And this time I think that who-ever loses, either the back-warders or the for-warders, that they will express even more kinds of dissatisfaction than we have seen in a long time.
And I certainly am not prepared for this inevitability of more dissatisfaction but I am a foreigner in this land and this is my excuse and I feel a bit strange in this land and I hope to be a stranger here no more someday in the future because I am already missing my hometown even after only a few weeks.
And what I am really truly saying right now, with the heart of an admiring observer, is that I just hope for the best, politically speaking of course, for all of us in America now and in the future down the road kind of way and that is what I am truly saying to you and really what I want to share with you right now is this hope for the best and maybe I want to really share this hope with the gods as well if they are in the right kind of mood to be sharing with me and if they really do care to hear from me.
And of course, I am sounding pretty much like a middle of the road kind of guy because I am an English mini-economist with a lot of Scottish blood and we are definitely middle of the road kind of people and sometimes we people find ourselves stranded out there in the middle of the road with no where to go for cover.
So to end this piece about American politics I just have one thing to say and that Americans need to prepare themselves on how to deal with this onslaught of never-ending dissatisfaction because Americans are speeding down that highway of dissatisfaction pretty fast and someday that road will close andsome bodies are going to have to pay the price for re-opening the bridge.
-- JP
-- JP
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