By s.i. wells
Enough already. Enough. Enough. Enough. Turn off the noise. Shut down the talking heads. Stop moralizing morning, noon, and night. “Fear the future.” “Terrified of the coming titanic tragedy.” “Duck and cover because America is circling the drain and our hegemony is about to evaporate.” “Our beloved dollar will no longer be the currency of reserve.” “Our obese citizens will consume until their eyes bug out of their heads and we collectively explode as a nation from sloth, trans fat, and indifference.” Stop the noise! Please…because you’re all wrong.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. If you think America is over, then move to…well, you pick the country that offers a better flavor of freedom of speech, religion, and assembly. You pick the country that abides by due process and the rule of law more effectively than the United States. You pick the country where the dream to become something better than your roots is not only possible, but really doable.
Fat, sloppy, and lazy…or just resting up. “Don’t scare sleeping dogs,” I say. “Don’t try to hold us up or starve us or beat the American Dream out of us.” America is not, NOT, NOT a country in decline. America is a loud experiment in opinionating that, at the moment of real crisis, awakens to solve the problems at hand.
There is something in the American spirit that cannot be quantified or distilled into a convenient, slick description. It is that “something,” that “feeling,” that “inner spirit,” that “just knowing” that solutions will be found at the last moment before the barrel goes over the falls.
As Winston Churchill once said, “Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing...after they have exhausted all other possibilities.” And that is the genius of our country. We are not a command economy like China. We are not ruled by a dictator or a Monarch or even, dare I say, a news commentator. America is ruled by everyone, everyday, every which-way from Sunday, all the time…but ultimately according to Hoyle. And, it is that collective sense that when finally pushed to deal with the seriousness of a situation, we know that America and Americans will always come through.
We are not a country that sacrifices today for the betterment of tomorrow. We are a country that goes out and builds something or invents something to bring about the next industrial revolution, technology revolution, digital revolution…and the next and then next. Looking in the rearview mirror is not in our DNA. We are dreamers and doers, we are energized by challenges, always knowing, feeling, believing that if called upon, we will all come together as one giant, creative, powerful force.
Invade us…well you know what happens. Attack us…same result. Try to ruin our economy, just wait and see what happens to yours. Ego? Myopia? Insulation? I don’t think so. Just an unstated assumption that when the crisis is really breaking down our front door, we will awaken, rested and collectively ready, willing, and able to do the right thing, first for ourselves, and then for the rest of the world.
Please stop sounding the alarm. It’s not how we work. Wake me when the house is on fire. Until then, don't expect my undivided attention.
