It is becoming increasingly evident that America is facing a crisis over institutions and authority!
The average American is disillusioned and angry with all major institutions and centers of authority, the feeling that the interests and viewpoints of the average American are being ignored, and that they are victims of the corruption and malfeasance that exists in all of these institutions and centers of authority!
The institutions are big business corporations, banking and finance, auto companies, insurance companies, but also organized religion, the news media, labor unions, major league sports, the most prestigious universities, and most disconcerting of all–our own local, state and national governments! 🙁
All of these institutions and centers of authority have witnessed corruption and scandals, and many have them have shocked average Americans who feel a need to believe that our major institutions work! But, along with corruption and scandals, we have also witnessed incompetence and a level of arrogance that has totally alienated millions of Americans, who feel as if they have no anchor to latch onto, no institution that can assure them of stability and reliability! 🙁
A lot of this feeling is due to the horrific economic situation that millions of Americans have suffered through in the past two and a half years as the economy has gone through the biggest meltdown since the Great Depression of the 1930s!
But the difference is that the average American has been accustomed to more materialism and prosperity prior to the Great Recession, than was true before the Great Depression!
Having become accustomed to more, the loss of economic status now is far worse psychologically and in real life situations than it was in the 1930s! This is a loss of economic status that affects not just those who are racial minorities (although they are comparatively suffering to a greater extent based on statistics), but also the white majority which also sees minority advancement and immigration as major threats to their own status, which has been rapidly declining as well! 🙁
So while there are racial tensions, and accusations back and forth this week between the Tea Party Movement and the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People, the real crisis is not race itself, but rather CLASS! The middle class is being rapidly destroyed, the poor are worse off than ever, and the upper class is becoming more stratified and narrowly based!
The dangers of violence and radical action, while certainly always possible between racial, ethnic and nationality groups, is much greater on the issue of class! Basically, the “American Dream” concept is being destroyed, although many would say it has always been a myth, that anyone can go from “rags to riches”!
This disillusionment and tension in America explains why millions have no faith in their national government under President Barack Obama, or even in the state and local governments!
This complicates the issue of how to deal with the economic crisis we face, if citizens complain about the power of corrupt economic interests, but also remain angry at government attempting to resolve the issue!
The danger is that the lack of faith in government could lead to anarchy in America, which is NOT acceptable as a solution! So the crisis of confidence in America’s future, and how to deal with it and resolve it, is the major crisis the country faces as we move into the campaign season for the midterm elections of 2010! 🙁
A major proponent of this class distinction has been the Republican Party which caters to the middle class but votes for the rich. I think you are right on with the assessment of class but I think it goes even deeper to the point we are beginning to look a great deal like the class society of Victorian England.
You are absolutely correct, Fred! Some studies say that America is more stratified now than Great Britain has been in the past and in the present! In other words, we have an aristocracy of wealth similar to the centuries old aristocracy of Great Britain!