The Fizzling of the Fourth of July

I have never felt less like celebrating July Fourth. The nation is a mere shadow of its former self, and it has little to do with this current presidential administration, though the White House and Congress aren't helping much. The problem is our collective lifestyle, our beliefs, and our attitudes. Frankly, we do not deserve a big party.

The official name for the holiday is Independence Day, and the fact of the matter is we have never been more dependent in our daily lives. Facebook goes down and you would think it is the apocalypse. Drop your smart phone and your digital life is over. No big deal, but we forget we are flesh and blood, heart and soul. We cannot separate our real lives from the electronic facsimile. Our avatar is who we are now. Pay no attention to the man standing physically before you.

Meanwhile, we have failed to learn skills that should be universal: cooking, basic home repairs, mending and altering clothing, balancing your checkbook, gardening. If the grid fails, if one of the four corporations responsible for food distribution goes bankrupt, we will be panic-stricken. Sheer mayhem will ensue. How is that independence, self-reliance, or even behaving reasonably, when you have abdicated your personal responsibilities and allowed yourself to become dependent on others to fill all of your needs?

At the same time we are willingly relinquishing control of our lives, we are at an all time low in our trust of other people. Businesses are out to scam us, the government is taxing us into oblivion, and criminals of one kind or another are lurking everywhere. The church is full of pedophiles, and we don't think much better of the Boy Scouts, and other historically trustworthy organizations we used to send our kids to. We have become isolated and overly dependent at the same time. Products, from guns to alcohol, and services are offered as the only solutions to our problems, when our problems stem from our paranoid minds and our lifestyle choices. You are agreeing with me because you do not see your own lifestyle choices as destructive.

Convenience is king now, and we will happily ignore all kinds of unethical business practices if it means we can get candy on the cheap, whenever we want it. Our coping skills are addictions, available twenty-four seven at the corner Walmart, or online with one keystroke. We are prisoners of our choices, unable to see healthier alternatives. We would rather Facetime than be face-to-face with each other, truly present in the moment. It is more convenient to press a key, flip a switch, turn a machine on, ask Alexa.

We are all guilty, to differing degrees, but to paint ourselves as superior to others is just another facet of the same diamond of destructive indulgence. We are nothing if not self-righteous, and we go to great lengths to reinforce it. Is my blogging a way of stroking my own ego? I would like to think not, but I should be acutely aware of the potential. We are asleep too much of the time, too preoccupied, oblivious, dismissive, willfully ignorant. Our culture is pulsive: impulsive, compulsive, repulsive.

We talk much about the kind of world we want for future generations, but I suspect that our founding fathers would barely recognize the United States. Do we not owe as much to previous generations as those yet to be born? Some strides have been great, but we have replaced slavery with alternative forms of racism and oppression including mass incarceration of "minorities," voter suppression, and all manner of discriminatory practices in all our human institutions. Our patriarchy still barely tolerates women.

We are not locked into our current patterns of behavior, as individuals nor as a society. We are no longer purely instinctual animals, though we are animals. The thing that sets us apart from other creatures is our ability to change our minds, and with that our actions. The devil we know is the devil that will kill us unless we take that leap of faith into the "what if" of good deeds, and the substitution of experience for the material goods we cling to presently. Don't wait, don't follow, but lead by example.

The fireworks will still go off tonight, the band will play on, and too many of us will wave our flags mindlessly. Fine. Tomorrow, once the party is over, make a point to give your life meaning. Weed the garden of your heart and soul.