Dear Friends,
THIS WEEK’S PODCAST, with Charles Goldman and Ed Fallon:
(00:49) Are Americans mean?;
(22:24) Christian nationalism;
(40:17) Super Bowl ads are a playground for the rich;
(54:10) Five fruit trees for beginners, with Kathy Byrnes Fallon.
Y’all know that Charles is terrified of sharks. Silly man. The vicious beast he really needs to fear is President Biden’s dog, Commander. The First Pooch was banished from the White House recently after biting security staff 24 times! Eleven of those attacks required medical attention.
The President’s previous pet, Major, was also thrown out of the White House for biting people. I was relieved to learn that, a year ago, the Bidens got a cat.
But let’s talk about mean people. On this week’s program, Charles and I discuss David Brooks’ column, “How America Became Mean.” It’s an extensive, thoughtful ramble — over 6,500 words — and appeared in The Atlantic last September.
Brooks points out various contributors to America’s plague of meanness. Social media. Personal isolation. Shifting demographics. Economic inequality.
But that’s not the main cause, he insists: “We inhabit a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consideration. Our society has become one in which people feel licensed to give their selfishness free rein.“
He adds, “For roughly 150 years after the founding, Americans were obsessed with moral education.“
Really? Obsessed to the point of justifying slavery? Slaughtering the Native population? Irradiating the land and water of South Pacific island nations with nuclear testing? Subjugating entire small countries to serve the economic interests of US corporations? Creating a domestic workforce of “consumers” beholden to the rich and powerful?
Brooks is incapable of placing the blame for Americans’ “meanness” on the root cause: a nation built on the exploitation of people and nature. For Brooks to admit this would undercut the corporate media supporting his platform and the very structure underpinning society’s disfunction.
The bottom line is, America’s sacred cow — The Economy — is a complete failure. We’re all supposed to bow down, worship, and give praise when that precious icon of holiness — the stock market — goes up. Ignore the reality that “The Economy” has fostered record inequality, off-the-charts environmental degradation, and militarism that threatens to blow up the planet multiple times over.
There’s a way out of the madness, but we have to be ready to take the first steps alone or, ideally, with small groups of like-minded warriors. That’s easier said than done — and I’ll say more about it in the weeks and months ahead — but individually and collectively, we have to begin to live counter-culturally. Start by refusing to accept the label “consumer” — and along with that, push back against Wall Street’s drumbeat to buy, buy, buy.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action.
Ed Fallon
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Ed Fallon