Today, I am sharing my blog with Erin Geary, a fellow Substack columnist, who has penned an insightful look at the United States, and why we have become so self-centered and unpatriotic.
If You Give the U.S. a Cookie: Is it surprising we have become so self-centered?
By Erin Geary
If you’ve ever read Laura Numeroff’s If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, you will understand that, right now, the United States is the mouse. Please, bear with me and my love of children’s books. It is an occupational hazard. Let me explain.
In the book, a little mouse wants a cookie. But once he gets it, he needs a glass of milk. Then to drink the milk, he’ll need a straw. Later he’ll need a napkin. The book continues with more causes and effects that, eventually lead right back to the beginning, with the mouse wanting another cookie. It’s a circle story that finishes where it began, much like how we are living today.
While our country is either rejoicing or crying in its beers over President Trump’s indictment, this particular divisiveness is part of larger issues facing the United States.
A poll conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago found that over the past 25 years, Americans’ patriotism, religiosity, community outreach, and desire for children have dramatically dropped. Instead, Americans passion for money was the only polling point that rose.
Since 1998, we have become more self-centered and have created a society lacking any moral compass. Quite honestly, we didn’t need to read a poll to understand this. The rise of reality TV stars, the explosion of social media influencers, and the use of addictive vices (e.g. gambling, drugs, and porn) have led us astray.
Meanwhile, the more technologically advanced the world is becoming, the worse our society will be. Why? Because we will not be responsible for anything. Robots, AI, drones, and self-driving vehicles will overtake our abilities to make decisions, leaving us all thoughtless blobs merely taking up space.
Keeping this in mind, there are some questions that I have regarding this poll and its findings. The first deals with Americans’ love of money. When our younger generations graduate college, they expect to be making at least $100k at their entry-level jobs—regardless of what their majors were. This sense of entitlement flies in the face of the Bernie Sanders bumper stickers on the back of their EVs. Bernie is a communist. Any politician or pundit that discusses “a fair share” is a communist.
So doesn’t our country’s shift leftward seem odd if polls indicate that money is very important to average Americans? Those believing in taxing billionaires, spreading the wealth, free healthcare, and free college tuition can’t simultaneously believe in being wealthy. I wish the pollsters would have given comment spaces for pollees (my word) to reconcile their communist ideals with their capitalist intentions.
How do you have your cookie and eat it too? Those saying money is their top goal anticipate getting a well-paying job, excitedly getting taxed to the hilt for feel-good social projects, but still expect to be living in a penthouse and driving Porsches? This makes no sense whatsoever and speaks to the fact that we need basic economics taught in elementary school.
Which, then, steers us toward a lack of community involvement. Once again, the expectation by those talking about fair shares want our tax dollars to help the homeless, those with addictions, those living in the projects, and those with food insecurity while also hoping for the creation of things like environmentally- friendly bike lanes. Ideally, the government is supposed to provide all these demands and force private companies to pay livable wages, yet, citizens themselves are disconnected from donating time and money to those in need. They tweet about injustices but are just too busy on Instagram to be bothered. Cowards!
This, in turn, leads back to a lack of religion. Religious charities and volunteerism used to be key to helping those in need within their communities. But if we are no longer religious, that means we have no tithing. Without donations, religious charities dry up and more government intervention is required. Additionally, lacking a belief in a higher power means that Americans only believe in themselves, causing further isolation from their community and a lack of purpose. It also creates a citizenry untethered to God. Thus, we find ourselves seeking new religions—climate change, OnlyFans, BLM, CRT, Antifa, etc. And without a duty to one another, there will be no duty to country.
When all you are fed by mainstream and social media is a stream of endless problems (real and fabricated) without solutions, patriotism will hit the skids. After all, how can you love a country that has been labeled as blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and horror of horrors, pro-gun and pro-life by everyone from CNN to Jimmy Fallon?
To me, patriotism’s decline has an identifiable culprit: President Obama. I may not have been a fan of Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton’s presidencies, but at least they believed in America and Americans. George W. Bush honored our military and in a post-9/11 America, we rallied around the flag. But then, Mr. Hope and Change came, and he damaged our American psyche more than any president in history. Obama was all change with no hope.
In his eight years, Obama conducted one apology tour after another while trying to knock us off the superpower pedestal. He cozied up to our enemies and defunded our military. He abhorred Christianity. Obama focused on race-baiting even though white Americans’ votes elected him president twice.
When an administration colludes with the media, as Obama’s did, to berate and demean its citizens, those citizens are apt to believe it and overcompensate through self-loathing.
That’s why Trump’s presidency was a surprise to the Democrats who thought Hillary was a shoo-in. It is also why Democrats, RINOs, and Never Trumpers did everything legally and illegally to remove him from office. His pro-America agenda was unifying, and it’s difficult turning our nation toward communism— without force— if we are united and patriotic. Trump was and is a threat whether he becomes President of the United States again or not.
Today, Biden’s presidency is simply a continuation of Obama’s agenda to destabilize and divide our nation into secluded groups. Divide and conquer is the game being played, yet again, with the purpose to tear down our constitutional republic and start rebuilding. It is not by accident that Americans have lost trust in government institutions and those meant to serve and protect. Instead, these seeds have been planted, are sprouting, and are flourishing in our educational system and our media outlets. The fact that it took less than 25 years to come to fruition is amazing.
Add to this our national obsession with abortion, and the idea of traditional nuclear families has been demolished. Media and politicians are doing their utmost to push the notion that bringing children into such a terrible world is frightening. Remember, a growing population means the faster our planet will die. Additionally, for those with kids, the government will increasingly intervene in order to pay for their upkeep and education. Eventually, you won’t be trusted to raise your own children correctly, even if you choose to have them.
And, really, if money is the penultimate goal to the average American, why even have kids? We can just keep the borders open to get workers. There will be a permanent underclass leaning ever more on government programs. The cycle continues.
This, in turn, brings us right back to where we started: We are self-centered and lack a moral compass. If we weren’t, we’d be stopping this train dead in its tracks. We are all at fault for allowing ourselves to be used as political pawns by those seeking power and monies, and we got here because of a loss of the nuclear family, community spirit, and belief in God. Our self-interests and love of the almighty dollar, at the sacrifice of all else, have taken us off course.
You may think If You Give a Mouse a Cookie is just a delightful circle tale for kids. But when read through the lens of today’s America, it is a reminder of how important it is to study causes and effects. We didn’t just wake up one day with ideals antithetical to America’s founding. We have been shamed, mandated, and indoctrinated through calculated means. Politicians and media have joined forces to tout big government over the individual and make sure to give free cookies falsely labeled as constitutional rights to get us hooked.
And if you give the U.S. a cookie…
[I, Erin Geary, am a Renaissance woman regarding the career paths I have taken—from flight attendant to English teacher and things in between. I am a writer and consultant who has been dismissed from editorial pages of traditional journalism for my Superman beliefs in truth, justice, and the American way. Join me at Common Folk 365 to read twice-weekly content that is decidedly pro-American, value-driven, and logical.]
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