A Dangerous Culture

The United States has a culture of aggression not seen elsewhere in the modern era. Through tenets like anti-intellectualism, constant war, glamorizing violent sports, and hero-worship of all military and police, regardless of any actual “heroics”, our culture has made a drastic and dangerous shift since World War II.

Perpetual War

No generation of Americans experienced a time without at least one active war since World War II. Korea, Vietnam, and truly perpetual military operations and politicking in various parts of the Middle East starting with the creation of Israel and the installation of the last Shah of Iran. My family has had boots on the ground in every war waged by the US since at least WWII, including Desert Storm and the post 9/11 “war on terrorism” in various countries.

Anti-intellectualism

In this country, “elitism” is made out to be a bad thing by one prominent political faction. It’s used as a derogatory. We widen the concept of “everyman” to blanket across as much of our society as possible, but never consider what it actually means to dismiss expertise. Elite doctors and pilots should be preferred, expected, and encouraged in the education and by the pay of those professions. The same should be true of educators, who are the only force we have against this backslide.

The problem really arises most commonly in conservative politics when scientists bring facts against a strongly held belief and prove it false. I can think of no better example than climate change. There is a scientific consensus, almost a unanimity, that says climate change is real, and humans are a primary factor. In spite of that (or just to spite it), most conservative politicians, and many die-hard followers refuse to accept the facts of the matter. They have no scientific rebuttal, they’re instead relying on the circular logic of scientific conspiracy. However, I can never get anyone to follow it though to explain the entire thing to me. They only reassert that one exists.

Violence as entertainment

I’m not above enjoying an ice hockey game or an action-packed movie that may involve shooting a bunch of people. What I’m trying to point out is just how much of that type of content is produced and just how much of an industry it has become.

Sports

American football is at the top of the list in the US with regards to celebrated conflict, aggression, and violence. Ice hockey is a more physical game, but it doesn’t have nearly the same level of exposure and cultural influence. All the “major league” team sports now have systems in place to feed their machines from the youth of America. A system now exists that is so good that often kids and their parents will forgo planning for futures outside of achieving a major-league position in their chosen sport. The leaves zero fallback options if things don’t work out or a career is ended early, which often happens due to injuries. Those injuries are often the result of that culture of ‘play through pain’ or circumventing and denying injury and risk happens à la NFL concussion epidemic.

The money flowing through the sports system in the US is staggering. So much of our national wealth is tied up in this, especially from the 90%^[1]. It’s just another part of a larger method of concentrating wealth towards to tip of pyramid scheme of capitalism.

Movies

Not a season goes by on television that doesn’t involve the release of a new show based on police or military action. No summer is complete without a least a couple of movies packed with guns, explosions, and a bunch of “bad guys” dying. The celebrities cashing in our lust for the violence is a growing pool as more figure out the formula, and as the system scales for greater profit.

Hero worship

Not all members of the military are heroes by default. All members of the police and other first responders are heroes by default. I’m sure they’ll become a distinct class of citizen in the US once the MAGAs make it “great” again. It’s already partly the case. They get extra discounts off vehicles and mundane goods like meals. Many now feel entitled to them, expect them, and indignantly ask for them when not proffered.

Patriotism has been made into a fiat currency because we no longer reward heroics with veneration, we reward people for doing their assigned and chosen job instead. Moreover, this culture has already shifted to the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality, which compounds the problems of hero worship. It results in entire police units standing around outside an active school shooting situation counting on being regarded as heroes as long and they toe the thin blue line. Only one or two of them will be sacrificed as inept to the media if the heroic façade crumbles.

Obviously, this doesn’t apply to genuine heroes or heroic acts, but those are far fewer that we’ve been led to believe; it’s another way our culture is lowering the bar.

Lowering the bar

The end result of becoming a culture of aggression is the fall of the United States. history has shown time and again that I’m right in this. Ceaseless gridlocked partisan politics, military-action-as-a-negotiation-tool, shaming of empathy, shaming of diplomacy and compromise, dumb leadership, zombie subordinate authoritarian systems of policing the populace are all indicators. They have been in one sense or another in many historical examples, the most obvious of which is the fall of Rome. Except MAGA Christian white nationalist are our Germanic tribes, and our Hadrian’s firewall won’t stop the Russian and Iranian hackers from getting in and running amok. Donald Trump is our Nero, only dumber.