Example Of The Closing Of The American Mind Essay

America was built on the values of what we call “freedom.” But we are finding on deeper and deeper levels that “freedom” in regard to citizenship in a country is a concept of deep relativity. And that is a vast platform of relativity. The collective mind of America loves freedom and the concept of it. But many times that “freedom” is confused with a right-to-rule concept. Right-to-rule is the idea that each individual citizen gets the opportunity to push society in the direction that he or she chooses by casting a free vote in a free election.
The idea is that “freedom” should be bourn out of those votes. This is actually more complicated concept than the founding fathers perhaps dreamed. As a result, America is on the verge of a shift in how it governs “itself” or total collapse because the polarization of different factions in the country. The founding fathers set a country in which the people would govern themselves and choose those that would represent them as leaders. They were on the cusps of one of the greatest societal revolutions of all time: a pivotal point in world history indeed.
The idea behind self governance was the idea that men of every walk and rank of society would have the right to cast a vote and ideologically make their voices heard. This was quite a revolutionary concept in its day. In fact, the word “revolution” should be expanded passed the idea of the revolution of a country but a revolution of how the world was governed all over the world.
Another fact to point out is that throughout world history following the American revolution would be the fact that all of the “revolutions” following the American revolution would have some semblance of the desire for men to self govern through elected officials. The word “freedom” had, by the mid-twentieth century had become vogue. This idea is not erroneously bourn out of ignorance of revolutions prior to that of the American revolution. But it’s rooted in the idea that the American revolution was unique in that it did not come about because of men who wanted to elevate a favored man or king above others. It was the first full-out fight to give those who had no power, the power to govern themselves.
As their victory was won, other countries would follow suit. Just over one hundred years after the world would see Africa and Asia cast off the yokes of colonialism and slavery in the West. They fought on the premise of freedom for all people. This is not to be confused with the ideologies of Marxist revolutions that would focus on human rights and not necessarily self government.
So then the idea of self governance fuels the protests and insurgencies of this day. Most of these armies and protestors fly under the banner of American-styled “democracy.” People across the world want to become, in some ways, like America, even while the American citizenship is plagued with soft insurgencies of its own. One of the reasons these countries want to be like America is to taste of the fruit of self governance. One of the things that these people don’t recognize is that the American system, though it is the best in the world, is flawed from the foundations. What people don’t realize in this is that when the majority rules, the minority (regardless of how large) is under the yoke of bondage to the majority. While majority rule is best, the majority rule in America is literal majority and not based on vast majorities.
Passing of laws and selection of leaders based on vast majorities carry with them a feeling of great certainty. On the other hand, the literal majority leaves room for civil distress and war. Perhaps the founding fathers of America aimed at what they could get for democracy and decided on the risks of civil war. Actually this may be the case because civil war in a philosophical sense is legal in America. Americans have a right and at times a responsibility to civil war.
These ideas make the average America citizen feel larger than life. With the right to vote in leaders and direct public policy, the average citizen feels more empowered. While this is true, it is also true that Americans are steered clear of realizing how manipulated they really are. As an American citizen, each individual will experience tremendous amounts of media manipulation to influence their choice of voice. This is a general dumb-down process for the American citizen.
Media moguls rule the day in America not the American people. Politicians are subject to the whims of quick-typing news wire surfers and aesthetically pleasing faces on television and online cameras although the media rules, the American citizen fairs better than the average citizen of the world. The behavior and domineering of the media do not change the fact that American voters do better than citizens under a king or dictator.
Citizens of non-democracy countries face the realities of living at the whim of one individual or family. This indiscriminately limits the abilities of the people of such countries to have a “say” in their own destiny. The very fact that I can right this paper speaks to the fact that Americans are “better off.”
The problem lies within American citizens perceptions of itself. Being “better off” because of “certain inalienable rights” makes the American forget to count his blessings and live in a delusion of self superiority. The pride comes in as American citizens view the citizens of other countries as less educated, less progressive and over-all less advanced. This air of superiority helps to seal the American idea of superiority across the globe.
Americans often regard the lives of others as less valuable. While this is true of everyone alive on God’s green earth, the idea of the value of life above another can be attached to one’s idea of their world position. Because America is the last standing reigning super power, its citizens tend to believe that they too can dictate the comings and goings of others.
Ideas like this and others like it are initiated and supported by the American press. The press, as in any country, will define the overall opinions of the American people as they select worthy stories and report on with a twist. The chief issue with this phenomenon is that media moguls will often work on the behalf of the powers that be. Those powers will either invest money and words into the population to maintain the status quo or move to shift society into a mental position that favors another power broker.
Currently, American society is split into a bipartisan war of words and money. Each side uses its tool of the media to propagate the ideas and platforms of the highest bidders. Currency in this arena can be money or highly esteemed personalities. These chief promoters of self define justice and the boundaries under which is supposed to operate. Just look at the justice issues of the day. Are these truly issues of justice or are they simply the whimsical fantasy excerpts from a politicians mind?
Another aspect of the American mentality of superiority is the idea that America is generally a just and, for lack of a better word, “righteous” nation. As a “righteous” nation, Americans see it as their right to intervene in particularly unjust situations. The good side to this is that this builds a sense of common good in the collective heart of America. On the worse side, what can be perceived as unjust is defined by and propagated by the mainstream media.
Often, these entities will distort the truth or, in the least, leave out important elements of the truth; which, by the way, is the worst kind of distortion. Take for example, the covering up of the Benghazi scandal. The top news dispenser, perhaps in the world, covered the government mishap of not calling this a terrorist attack, when in fact it clearly was. This was an attempt to curb the restlessness of a citizenry that may have blown a collective fuse at an inconvenient time for a particular side of the bi-partisan divide. People bought the lie.
This act of manipulation is an example of the mis-education of the American people. As a result of this mis-education, the American populace stays in a collective fantasy about itself. Citizens collectively maintain the fantasy of being a self-governed, righteous and progressive element of the world. This virtual self portrait is problematic to the rest of the citizens of the world.
Americans will feel above citizens of other country as a point of patronization. This patronizing feeling will come in the form of pity and, worse, not affording others with proper opportunity. If I’m superior to you, I will not groom you to work next to my son. The fore fathers of America did a great deed indeed; but they missed it on a few points. Their hypocrisy shined through like a beacon displaying their pride. But there are a few things that they did not take into account. One thing being the freeing and winning of the right to vote for African slaves; another being the right of women to vote; and still another, that their direct descendants and those closely related to them would day become the minority.
This is the reason for the huge split in the American politics and part of the reason for such desperate control of the population of America. Self-governed and righteous are just monikers to keep us in control.