The Berlin Wall Has Fallen and the Cold War is Over

Trying to shed the dead skin of a bygone era is difficult. With what are we left to try to distinguish our existence? When traditional boundaries are broken, although new realms may appear, we are faced with the daunting task of continuing to define ourselves in anachronistic views. With the Cold War over, how is America to define herself? The metaphor of the coyboy and the Indian, while ironically appropriate, is not substantial enough to define America in modern times. Extreme Islam has clouded our fish water, and America is left squirming beached on the shore. Shouts of “Socialist” at Barack Obama’s recent campaign rally’s raise a necessary point in understanding the infrastructure of a Capitalist society. It would seem America is a childish naïve country a percentage of the age of the rest of the world’s nations. Although founded upon idealistic political principals the real history of the United States is dotted with controversial socio-political policies. That aside Americans should try to understand the sub-structure of Capitalism needs to be shored up, because the founding forces of big business are failing. The once stable free market system is teetering on its very brink of existence. American can not and should not be defined as a free range where people can get rich, although this is a common misperception. Without a business infrastructure that is honest it would be difficult for anyone to make money. The federal government, Wall Street pundits, and political candidates are shouting about “liquidity” never taking the time to explain that if Americans don’t have money they can’t spend it. This simple fact has been clouded in the recent decade just like the defining principals of America. If we can’t understand and redefine who we are as a country in the eyes of the world, can we attempt to understand the Capitalist system? It seems it should be the other way around. Capitalism once used to be the guiding light of personal prosperity. It was a system that allowed the oppressed to rise up, work hard, and prosper. Over time and under the Bush administration that has changed. The Cold War ended and a new generation began, and we have yet to come to terms with it. It could be defined Generation Jihad. It could be the metaphor of the cowboy and the Indian is still applicable, but it is more difficult to understand when “evil” is disguised. America is guilty of murdering her native people, and that alone gives us a clouded history. Slowly over time we are developing a newfound respect for Native American’s erasing a once popular depiction of the foundation of simplistic America. George Bush, with his simplistic views, still is trapped in this anachronistic definition. Any “superpower” must attempt to understand with globalization America has become multi-cultural, and proceeding stereotypes of “good guys” and “bad guys” have become obscured. The mainstream has disappeared or at least become disguised because America has not been successful redefining herself. The federal government has not engaged the American people to do so, because they do not care about the American people. Capitalism in the last decade has only exploited the American people leaving a vast chasm between Washington and Americans. The foundations of our country have been subverted by Wall Street. Why is this? The answer is multifold. Salaries have not keep up with inflation. Manufacturing jobs have been outsourced to India and China. Moving money around Wall Street has taken over as the major determinate of Gross National Product. Somewhere in the last decade making money America’s traditional way with factories has been replaced with “moving money around Wall Street.” Prudent companies kept their stock private immunizing them from the negative consequences of Wall Street hawking. Wasn’t this a more favorable example for Capitalism? It has been repeated in the recent presidential campaign the GNP has become determined by consumer spending, not the value of what we export and sell. If this is the case and consumer’s no longer have “liquidity” or “credit,” the GNP will plummet rendering what appears to be a recession. Although the last decade has defied the concept, Americans cannot and should not be able to spend money they do not have. It also has been repeated on talk shows that small businesses without access to credit cannot function. “It takes money to make money.” Does this not go against the grain of the concept of Capitalism and mean underneath the disguise of Capitalism we always have been a socialist nation? If you ask any employee of the Post Office, the military, or town hall what they believe, they could say we are a Socialist nation. Recent survey’s have shown the federal government does employee a great majority of Americans, but the Capitalist market remains free to those with entrepreneurial tendencies. Most Americans do not learn business practices in school. Not every American wants to wake up everyday and be forced to “sell soap” as Chevy Chase would say. Some of us are not Capitalist’s at heart and want to enrich our lives with art and the finer things in nature. We don’t think about money everyday. Why do such extreme stereotypes such as drug addicted hippies in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco have to represent this view? Americans have been spoiled by the laying of groundwork by honest Capitalistic Americans, and that systematically has been dismantled during the Bush Administration. 9/11 has attempted to redefine America, and it has succeeded. It is only that both governmental leadership and the American people have not succeeded in arriving at a new definition. It is difficult. What we should understand is that the traditional values of America should and still stand. Education for our youth, health care and social policies, good jobs, quality of life, low inflation, national security. All of these things should usurp the negative issues that are dominating media. Racism was a social ill confronted decades ago, and America is grown up enough to have settled that issue. With globalization such a highly-prized commodity in government and big business, the necessity of social programs to deal with the consequences should become paramount. The federal government is spoiled with no real understanding of their role in leading America. The cloudiness will only begin to clear when such issues are discussed in an open forum.