With a Little Help From the Creator

The job of the artist is to synthesize life's experiences and their human reactions and to make sense of them.  American popular culture always has been the stage for this process, and luckily we as a nation valued and funded this important and necessary outlet.  American popular culture through music, television, film, and theater gave life to the American experience.  As a populace we were experiencing the trials and tribulations of survival along with the more infrequent spoils of the freedom democracy provides.  It was a balanced equation, a core component of human existence.  We work hard and we reap the reward.  This was the beauty of freedom and the social and economic mobility a free market seeks to provide for everyone.  Over time and in recent decades this "American Dream" has diminished.  Globalization has not been fruitful for mainstream America.  President Obama would call it "Main Street."  The push for Globalization came from corporate America, not the American people.  American citizens who value their country, their freedoms, and their opportunities come to America for these opportunities.  Corporate America sold us out for their own quest for wealth, power, and world clout.  We would be hard pressed to find any evidence that Globalization has helped the American people.  Contrarily I contend it is the one single most damaging policy enacted through federal politics in Washington, DC.  (second only to the legalization of microwave wireless communication)  NAFTA failed and decimated many economies in South America in the process.  Without blinking American companies outsourced their jobs in manufacturing to markets in Asia that would pay pennies on the American dollar.  America was robbed in one fell swoop, and never have we recovered.  The power of the American economy, our ability to build a worthy product, pay laborers a fair wage, and provide peace and security for our people is gone.  We have become a Third World nation.  Is is possible for entrepreneurial savvy still to achieve the American Dream?  This continued to happen in America, but the focus went from real products, products people actually use in their everyday lives such as clothing, furniture, and appliances to software-based "App's.'  (An "App" is an application engineered and coded for a desk top computer, but with the advent and marketing of the smart phone, the term application became passe.)  A new operating system was developed for the smart phone, and this became and still is the majority of the American economy.  That is not much to offer when someone asks you the value of your country.  What do you produce?  What are your products?  What do you make?  What value does your currency have as a result of their worth?  The stark and bleak answer is not much.  The American dollar never has been weaker, and one only pays ten dollars for a value meal at McDonald to realize how little the American dollar is worth.  Perhaps inflation accounts for some of this, but I think not.  America is not worth much, and what we do is try to sell weapons to minors for profit.  We have lost our mind as a nation.  When I sit down to blog I don't choose to spew negativity.  The truth is the integrity of American life is a pittance.  One makes decisions and choices from one's environment, and Fayetteville, North Carolina is no shining star of progress.  Contrary to what anyone will try to tell you, Fayetteville has disintegrated into chaos.  I thought I may understand what life in the ghetto meant, but never was I afraid for my life.  I am not fearful of my life now, but it is unmistakable that most of society is impoverished, desperate, and on the verge of psychological despair.  It is difficult to see day in and day out, and there is no immediate solution in sight.  In reality the disparity or distance between the wealthy and the poor is great with no way in sight of changing the balance.  The streets offer no salvation or living, because most everything in America is controlled by the rich including the drug trade.  They want and do control everything and much of the manipulation is through city hall with local legislation.  How is it possible a federal half way house is being built within existing middle-class homes in a neighborhood in Fayetteville?  No one wanted this, and concerned citizens and proponent groups sued.  They lost, and some local business will reap its benefits with slave labor for their business.  The name Wesley Meridith comes to mind.  When government, elected officials, and city employees odiously disregard the will of the people, democracy has been lost.  When America was functioning at her best popular culture at its best.  Music, television, film, and theater were valued and had market value because they reflected the sentiments of the people.  Popular culture is the voice of the people, and this voice is mute.  There is no replacing the influence of radio and television, when there was no distraction from the internet.  If we do look we will find that before streaming and wireless technology America substantially was better in knowledge, sensibility about the arts and their representation of our life struggles, and human relationships.  Covid and the internet turned us into androids governed by our palms.  I struggle with this everyday, because unfortunately I am an artist.  I can exist on a plane without the artistic process but not for long.  My soul dries up, and I turn into a shell of a man.  When I do indulge in social and moral conscience, I am overwhelmed with grief.  The reality of my existence in perspective is emotionally suicidal.  There is no solution present for America's failings, and what is the point in spending time on traditional humanities?  Of course these always has been nothing but the great abyss unless you choose something.  You have to choose something, and for me it is the vocation of music, but the place of music as America's soul has been exorcised.  The controlling rich do not want thinking, feeling, compassionate citizens, because they are the ultimate threat.  The story remains the same.  Christians were hated for the good they sought to do.  Jesus was loathed, because he sought to provide love in the world.  Evil has found a foot hold in the world, and especially in America.  It is difficult to revel in the rewards of God's kingdom, when we are at war with Satan.  Life has gotten tough, and little by little our supportive infrastructure is disappearing.  In a short time we will be down to hand to hand combat devolving to cretins.  Sometimes we need the help of the creator.