America, a Nation of Excess

Patiently I have been waiting for the right moment to express my dismay with the current Conditions of America.  It far easier is to criticize than offer relevant solutions for social, cultural, and economic change in America.  First the reasons for change must be recognized and understood.  At the moment we are a country in denial.  It far easier is to bury one's head in the sand than to understand how problematic America has become.  I will start the ball rolling.  It would not be surprising I would cite the demise of America's music industry as a problem.  If you were reared without any cultural music education spurning music appreciate, it wouldn't matter.  Also I would cite the demise of America's print media.  More specifically I would cite the rapid death of newspapers and journalistic periodicals.  It was not that long ago the print industry was a building block of America.  Now America no longer seems to care about truth, substance, or history.  How can the American economy rebuild itself with such a chasmic void?  There is nothing to base it on except hype.  It is far easier to spew antagonistic rhetoric than factual history.  Only those with an education could understand that factual history will aid us in our pursuits.  Only ignorant in-denial millennials possibly could think otherwise.  "Our lives are good.  We have our iPhones, our streaming music services, and .....?"  The shallow, addictive, self-serving accoutrements of this generation are not capable of understanding the future or the history of America without a keen interest in both.  Covertly the institutions that have constituted Americas social culture and thus economy have been rendered impotent.  What I do not understand is how nothing has replaced these institutions.  Truly an extinction has occurred and it is not timely, helpful, or necessary.  Instead it is a product of economic competition on a wholly unhealthy playing field.  If we cannot respect our past institutions and find ways to coexist with them while evolving, what is to become of America?  Has it been prudent to discard the cornerstones of America and replace them with selfish superficial entertainment?  Only a generation so sheltered from American history could have created such a monster, and all with a simple PC.  With all of the creative code, app's, and games nothing has attempted to replace the necessary institutions America needs to survive.  Media moguls like Ruppert Murdoch have embraced the speed and instantaneousness of the internet and discarded their equity with nary a peak of consciousness.  Newspapers are dead, and yet what has replaced them?  Nothing.  Magazines are dying, and yet what has replaced them?  Nothing.  With all of the You Tube videos, streaming music, and pornography nothing has or ever will replace these watershed American institutions.  Therefore we have lost a great war, America's next domestic war, with millennials as the victors.  These victors like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini have great plans for America.  [sic]  What are these plans, eliminate factual history so that Big Brother can do as he pleases?  This sounds familiar, and it sounds familiar because George Orwell wrote about this occurrence in his novel "1984."  1984 was a long time ago, but we do understand great artists often are ahead of their time.  Simply I will ask the question, "With what are you going to replace these necessary institutions?"  It will prove to be a cataclysmic mistake thinking internet gaming, music streaming, and online pornography will make the next great America.