The Roots of White Anxiety

[Lake View Too]

Yes, compared to the rest of the world, we do look good right now, but "a hard rain is gonna fall" when the gap between the haves and the have nots keeps getting bigger. The crime and poverty in the inner cities. The drug violence erupting on the borders. We just sent 10,000 national guard to the southern border. I know you feel that because we are a nation of laws, we can prevail, but what happens when the laws can be so corrupted by politics (i.e. the supreme court ruling that corporations have all the rights of human beings). The rate at which the rich keep getting richer is flat-out scary.

 

[scooterbug44]

I agree that there are some big issues and need to adjust, but look at what many of the incredibly rich are doing with their money - there is a great deal of philanthropy mixed in as well.

No matter what, if you are an American citizen, we will take care of you in a way that makes you "rich" anywhere else - we will make sure you have food & clothing, a roof over your head, running water & plumbing, electricity, medical care, and legal representation if someone tries to hurt you or discriminate against you.

 

[Yarmap]

In 2050 whites will become a minority in the US. ................lets see I'll be poor, white, & probably dead so it want make any difference where I go to sign up for my benifits.

 

[happy2Bme]

Its more than just color issues that we are short-sighted about. As a very young nation, we fundamentally don't grasp the interactions between different ethnic and national groups and it gives us screwed up foreign policies again and again.

We tell ourselves that Iraq's Kurds, Shia and Sunnis can live happily ever after (and in a democracy no less.) We intervene in the former Yugoslavia without a grasp of the fact that those people have had over a thousand years to perfect their hatred of each other and we aren't going to change that. We don't even really grasp how much the French hate the rest of Europe (and vice-a-versa.) or how most of Asia feels about Japan. The ignorance is astounding.

We have this short-sighted view that because the basis of our government (sort of) works well for us that we must spread it everywhere.

I agree with all that you say, and that's what I meant about our lack of worldly understanding (I just didn't elaborate enough to be clear). To us, we are the world leader, and others should follow. In reality, we should share leadership with some of the other forward-thinking countries, and let those who've made their history one of in/out-fighting take care of themselves. Most don't want our "help"(peoples or governments), don't appreciate our "help", don't see our "help" for what it is but, rather, as our "butting in", and would just as soon anhialate us as look at us (talk about short-sighted!). We can' be the savior of everyone, nor should we be.