This weekend, America and Americans commemorate Memorial Day in memory of its wartime dead.
A nation which was once led magnificently by the Greatest Generation, half a century ago through the horrors of World War II, which boldly inspired and empowered the world to think and envisioned about a free society unfettered by bigotry and intolerance and participatory democracy, and motivated with the "can do" spirit, the innovative and daring which fired up an economy which is unparalleled, is today besieged and in distress..... crumbling from within by a social-economic-cultural meltdown. Pax Americana is now Meltdown Americana.
No doubt about it..... the decline of America is real and intensifying; and that crumbling from within is exacerbated by misgovernance, bad politics, shotsighted leadership, a civic meltdown amidst a dumbed-down citizenry which have lost focus on the fundamental requirement that a free society and a free press must also be responsible intelligent, not parochial, narrow-minded, ignorant and reckless.
"White-Bread democracy", as I call it, has become an exercise in hyper-self-indulgence, ego-tripping, taking without giving, self-conceit, lack of discipline, and worse, no consciousness about taking care of the "whole" collective. What kind of democracy is thise when it is about rights, but not about responsibility and intelligence?
For China and its people, at 1.3 billion people, this model of "White-Bread" democracy would only create total chaos and pandemonia. A small island of 23 million inhabitants who tried experimenting with it has ended up in a "little monster" for Ah Bian and his misrule and misgovernance of Taiwan.
80% of Americans polled responded that America is going in the wrong direction. But sadly and perversely, they don't have a clue about what to do to change course and reform from within.... instead of bashing brown and yellow immigrants and yes, lately, China, the new bogeyman.
And worse, many Americans simply don't care, or too dumb, too drugged to even think about what to do. The dumbing down of American society is downright frightening for the world. And it is supposed to the the last standing Great Superpower of this world.
From my perch at Spatium Trientis, I am seeing perversion, banality, incivility which have seeped into California's social-cultural-economic fabric.
Fareed Zakaria is right. California is no longer leading the way, but a "basket case" of political misrule, bad social prioritizing, misgovernance, selfish boorishness and vulgarism. The state which once boasted itself as being the world's fifth largest economy, Hollywood, and that daredevil innovative bravado have become a gridlocked state mired in "food fights," civil inanities, and boorishness of the likes of a dysfunctional mush unable to see the big picture of globalization.
Our latest projection indicates that California is strapped with a fiscal budget shortfall ranging between US$ 14 billion to US$ 20 billion. And the state governmental "bean counters" still don't have a clue about the exact figures. The state can't pay its bills for basic fundamental services; can't maintain and repair its decrepit roads and highways.
At this writing, on this Memorial weekend, gasoline has hit over the US$ 4 a gallon mark. Home foreclosures have skyrocketed. Jobs are evaporating. Johnny and Jane can't afford to drive their humongous gas-guzzling SUVs anymore, much less make their car payments. Financial stresses have caused a social tidal wave in public predatory behavior, anti-social aggression, road rage, and sociopathic perversions. Drugs, alcohol abuse, and acting out hooliganism are on the rise.
At the airports, American Airline is now charging US$ 15 to check in a piece of luggage if you travel. Airfares have hit the roof, and American air carriers are financially in distress, and can't pay their overpaid pilots.
Just on education alone, our "Mr. Hollywood", Governator Arnaud Schwazenegger plans to cut funding to the state's public schools, from universities now to the elementary schools, by the tune of at least US$ 4 billion and counting. Education is being starved; educrats and the labor unions which wield a stranglehold on the "gravy train" of public finance continue to extort, fleece, and pressure for more public "dole-outs" with nothing to show for it, other than a bloated, lazy, and mendicant state bureaucracy staffed by "feather-bedders," slackers, and downright public cheats.
Yesterday, a city across the bay from San Francisco, i.e. Vallejo, declared municipal bankruptcy, because it can't pay the salaries of its bloated police and firemen. A city with 120,000 inhabitants has 2/3 of its city annual budget devoted solely to pay policemen and firemen, feeding off the trough, with overtime pay coming out of their gazookas. Click on the story about this unprecedented municipal bankruptcy:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/24/BAAF10S5VS.DTL
This is one more signal of California imploding from within. And our public officials, in their usual official corruption and misfeasance, are too busy engaged in the "pay to play" politics of special interests that California is notoriously known for. You pay if you want access. That's the name of the game. And the labor union bosses are focused on enhancing their turf, in pension fund contributions, oblivious to the fundamental fact that globalization has passed California by......... without it.
And our stupid dumb "Green" privileged white kids, suffused with naivete about environmentalism, talks about global warming, following the Pied Piper, Al Gore, in hyping up the "Inconvenient Truth" about the earth in their "egghead" quest while their own state of California melts down from incivility, food fights, and downright boorishness and a drug and alcohol scourge of immense proportion. Bonkheads and druggies now rule the day, with Greenies among some of these mau mau activists.
In the meantime, Black street urchins in California's inner cities, L.A., Oakland, and San Francisco feel so aggrieved and ignored that they have launched "jihad" with their random violence and "drive-bys." The signal is: "If America has no place for us; then God Damn America !" Shades of prophesy from the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. And White folks are in denial.
Fareed Zakaria has correctly stated that California's "basket case" is typified by the fact that its once much vaunted college and university system, the renowed University of California Berkeley and University of California Los Angeles, among other public educational institutions, are now so badly mismanaged, underfunded, and abused by a cadre of "deadweight" adminsitrators and "brain-dead" academics that it is on the road to mediocrity.
In the meantime, the educrat "bean counters" know how to fix this mess.... simply raise tution, with abandon.... and sock it to the poor starving students and their increasingly financially stressed parents.
This is the future of California..... "white bread democracy" gone awry with imbecility, perversion, and downright boorishness and unbriddled greed. And more greed. And more greed.
No one cares anymore about the overall public good. Just maximizing personal benefits, lining one's own pockets, and damn the rest.
That "Gold Mountain" which used to inspire songs like California Dreamin has now become a nightmare.
At least, across in Asia-Pacific, in Taiwan, we are seeing a different stewardship. After eight years of political inanity, food fights, tribalism, corruption, and yes, "white bread democracy," Ah Bian is gone.... gonzo. And the 23 million inhabitants of Taiwan can breath a sigh of relief. Good riddance, Ah Bian. Click on what a Taiwan writer wrote about 8 years of misrule by this evil man pretending to be Taiwan's leader. Is California not that far behind with our rascals, scoundrels, and charlattans running the state down the toilet ?
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/the%20china%20post/david%20ting/2008/05/20/157224/Goodbye-and.htm
