Just Another Day in AnyTown, USA
by Shelley Bluejay Pierce
There is an irreverent sense of newness to the passing days
now…as if that giant, cataclysmic “shoe falling from the sky” is not only on a
collision course but is going to be a direct hit on all of society and what we
humans have conjured up as reality. For, in fact, there is no reality in our ‘reality.’
Many years and repetitions beyond count have brought me to this place of
learned helplessness, aided considerably by the propaganda-spewing-media,
political lost causes and the countless talking-heads without brains.
I have
felt all along that the only way there would be a solution to the disaster
called ‘civilization’ that we have created is for it all to be wiped off the
planet. Yes, all of it! There can be no shred of evidence left in the wake of
this clean sweep for if the tiniest particle of the humanity we refer to as ‘progress’
remains? We will grab hold of it like an infant digging for a wet nurse and
give in to our lusts once again. We repeat the repetitions and like worn out
vinyl records, find the built-in grooves that allow us to skim the surface and
slide by….not growing….not changing for the better….just happy to stay in our
warm pile of shit because it is warm and offers nothing else.
So many of the articles I have written in the past reveal my
feelings of impending doom for our society in general. I feel as though very
few readers have gleaned much from my rantings or perhaps I am like one of the
talking-heads they have heard as background noise amidst the onslaught of
techno-information-overload and they have quite simply learned to tune me out.
Warnings about the cancerous deception-growths within our political leadership have
been largely ignored. My finger pointing at redundant environmental and social awareness
non-profits that have been proliferating like rabbits mating unchecked in our
own back yards are, as well, ignored. I am not the only voice that has been
screaming about these issues, albeit my screaming was indeed done from the
wilderness, quite literally.
And so here we are….today…this day or the next makes no
matter because they all look alike and have no unique characteristics to
grandstand any other day. Our health care is the butt of jokes worldwide and just
how poorly cared for the ‘richest Nation in the world’ is has reached the
epitome of designation of a third-world country. We are the most entertained
humans on the planet and yet, our country is most surely the least informed
about its own leadership and systems that govern all within its ivory towers….which
are decaying into dust before our very eyes due to the lack of maintenance
performed on a heavily used infrastructure. But, Americans blink back a few
tears as they watch their television sets, eating their voluminous dinners, and
feeling a nanosecond worth of empathy for those killed in the most recent,
preventable bridge collapse.
We, the People, supposedly and blindly governed by people
that “We the People” voted into political office to do as we want them to do,
are clueless as to what the electorate is truly doing on a daily basis.
Billions of hard earned taxpayer dollars are sent to other countries under the
auspices of promoting democracy and aiding in the civilization processes of
those deemed lees-than we Americans though few Americans can recount the names
of even those countries having received our foreign aid. Meanwhile at home, in
our own country, we have people dying of preventable diseases, living on the
streets with no homes because even the richest of the middle class can no
longer afford their own residence, and seeing enormous cities crumble into dust
thanks to importing all our goods from other countries rather than building and
selling our own goods. We can afford to care for every other country on the
planet, it seems, but not our own home turf.
As the dawn breaks and the sun rises once more, there has
been little change from yesterday, last week or last year. We are still in
complete denial of the uncivilized nature of this created Utopian civilization
we call reality and begin the daily grind once again so that the pockets of the
rich are filled and the spending frenzy of those in control of the purse
strings runs amok. We read the headlines of more wars, financial ruination, environmental
contamination and we sigh…drink our Starbucks coffee and move on with our day
as if nothing in the outside world has anything to do with our selfish, inner
world. We somehow find comfort in blaming the sick and dying for not contributing
more to the financial stability of this giant, super-sized-happy-meal of a
country and fail to see that it is our own environmental irresponsibility that
is killing off our own work force. We quickly blame our young people for their
laziness and lack of motivation for our sad ranking amongst other highly
educated nations. Far easier to do that finger-pointing than to hold
accountable a sick system that educates at the cost of an entire lifetimes’
worth of debt and wonder why we are not competing in the global economy.
So drink up America! Eat, drink and be merry! Survive and
thrive in this junkyard we call home and when it all comes crashing down around
our feet, which it will and has already been doing? There will be no mass rush
on the purchase of social conscience and awareness at the Black Friday sales.
No, far from that will happen when reality comes face to face with the real reality. We have been so thoroughly
indoctrinated to find someone else to blame and somewhere else to place the
fault that we will avoid any personal guilt whatsoever. Until this civilization
can support us no more, the tit has dried up and produces no more fat-laden
milk for us to guzzle down will we have the slightest pangs of awareness hit us
between the eyes.
Just another sunrise in AnyTown, USA.
