Many ask and many more wonder what will become of us amid this unfolding nightmare that could be called - Twilight in America? When did it start, how did we get here and most of all - how can be stop this insanity?
As with most things that affect society in a major way, this started with us. With each and every person in a myriad of small ways that began to give shape to a mosaic that has been feared since there have been societies.
First of all it's important to recognize that we're all imperfect: Every person has a slant of some kind, about almost every topic that passes through our lives. Some people go to great lengths to make their points, it's true - but no one of us comes out of this with a halo for perfection. Part of our problems come directly from our slavish devotion to that forever flawed concept of "political correctness" which is a 'standard' that can never be met because it's principles are based only on division.
Beginning in the 1980s the concept of "Greed is Good" became more than a line from a movie. This defined us as a people. Anyone who worked, anyone who paid was always a SUCKER! Only TAKERS were cool - and no one who was a SUCKER could ever matter. Only the insiders mattered, only the connected, the brash, the rude, only the men and women without any conscience at all could be allowed to run things. We've accomplished that - and all those vermin did exactly what we expected them to do. Now they've begun to steal everything that's still standing and have corrupted all of what is left. In keeping with their natures, they've begun to steal pension funds, to skew the legal process for bidding and for contracts, and have totally destroyed any trust anywhere within the business world, both at home and abroad - because our motto remains the same:
But someone forgot to tell the public that this would change our world forever. So the SUCKERS have entered "Evening in America" and what we are seeing between the whorehouses of big business and the alleyways of petty crime are their "Shining City on the Hills of Empire." But all of us know that it's nothing except an open receptacle for the downtrodden, the permanently poor, and the always forgotten. And as it was for the former dreamers who lived here once - the disillusioned losers can only wander trough the wreckage of that former greatness. Still - eventually we'll all make our way to the 24-7 home of what we call the government. And there will be that fortified encampment that bristles with hate and weaponry, with barbed wire and electronic surveillance - but most of all with FEAR of everything and everyone.
What we have to return to are - gut feelings - the truth as each private conscience knows it to be. It's that open and vulnerable place where we invite criticism, but also where suggestions and possibilities can alter each equation. As a nation, we've lost this ability; we have forgotten who we individually are. Whenever we find ourselves in that 4 am windowless room, whether it's at the top of some ladder that we've climbed or in the darkest corner of some inner-city basement: What we tend to find when we confront the pathetic nakedness of ourselves is usually only an empty shell. In that instant one can see clearly that the person who once was there - inside - is no longer present. Instead there is this husk that once contained our dreams and is now only a wasted and useless remnant.
We have become a body only, with no guiding thoughts, no purpose really beyond floating through the next day, just as we've drifted through that procession of all our previous days and nights. Now the twilight has disappeared and we are rapidly approaching the witching hour.
WE are the problem that the nation now faces because we have allowed this cancer to grow within each of us - as well as upon the surfaces of what used to be called ourselves. This is not some kind of invasion from outside - for the members of the Criminal Cabal are creations of our very own. It is they who are our collective greed and envy - simply acted out. Their macho "number-oneness" is nothing more than the vengeful side of our frustrated and defeated dreams of wealth and grandeur.
If anything is to ever change - then we have to find ways to stand up for who we are. If we want to be free - then we must confront authority and demand the needed changes. If we truly want an investigation into the events that launched us on this impossible course of war against the whole world - then perhaps we need to bring the government to a screeching halt. For unless there is an investigation of all aspects of those events that day - there can be no real forward movement in this nation. We need to know who failed and why. And we need to do this now, not later.
These are the kinds of things that need to happen in this pathetic nation of cowards and victims - and until it does - we may as well all just go and get measured for our shackles, because those cancerous creations of ours will certainly put them on each and every one of us who dares to think about the things that matter most.
Those who live on the fringes of life, be that in the back-alleys of contempt or the boardrooms of executive power - they know the truth of what is taking place. Those people can taste, and touch and smell the stench of pure corruption that now abounds in these United States. It's not just at the top but all the way down through all the ranks of the middle class and to many of the absolutely poor as well. We created the challenge, and now we've bought the concept.
So why are we surprised to see that the pirates are changing all the rules of life itself - not just those that we appointed them to rearrange? We gasp when the capitalists steal our pensions, when the corporations defraud investors, or when the government denies the elderly, or perverts the education for the poorest among us. But they're just doing what we put them there to do - which was to bend all the rules in favor of those whom we looked to for success. This 'change-of-status' obviously went to their heads - because nothing is now safe from these banshees of absolute power. So all the rules of all the games have changed - and we're left to wonder how this all will end.
In these last minutes before "Midnight in America" the population are like so many pent-up sheep or cattle or goats that are imprisoned in a corral of our own making. Silently we await the return of the Shepherd, the Rancher, or the Farmer - to feed us from the troughs of privilege that we've so carefully constructed. If the Master doesn't come we have a choice. We can continue to wait for that which was promised - or we can break out of the corral and seek a new arrangement in the way our lives are ordered. Unfortunately it does not appear that there are many in the herds that will choose the latter.
A really great place this "Lobotomized America" but how much longer can such a compromised nation continue to exist?
Kirwan is an independent freelance writer and illustrator, who lives and works in the United States. He can be reached at: kirwanstudios@earthlink.net
