Perhaps you were watching television over break as you sat down to a nice holiday dinner, whether a holiday special or, dearer to my heart, the Eagles crushing the Cowboys. During the commercial breaks, perhaps you grew weary of one particular commercial selling Chevy pick-up trucks. The commercial, featuring a montage of patriotic imagery set to the rocking balladry of John Mellencamp, flashed Americana such as a picturesque frontier landscape, cowboys, firefighters, and even Dale Earnhardt. In the background the aged rocker uttered the words “this is our country,” perhaps repeating the phrase as many times as he said “small town” in his song “Small Town.” As the commercial aired for what seemed like the thousandth time, I was suddenly struck with question more important than whether the new Chevy truck was worth buying: what is America today? If “this is our country,” what are three-hundred million people claiming as theirs? Is the United States something one can hold in one’s hand and sift through one’s fingers? I had no definitive answer, but the following is what I came up with.

First of all, America is not the glazed notions of hard-working cowboys and farmers emblazoned through that Chevy commercial. Sure, some Americans could see such figures and notice a resemblance to a father or a neighbor, but for most of us the sagebrush and the amber waves of grain are limited to songs and cinematic productions. The United States of the 21st Century is not in love with itself and certainly not enamored with the people elected to serve them. When nationalist pride and flag-waving once seemed status quo amidst energetic youths, today most young people are skeptical and cynical of their country.  Much of this attitude stems from the political pseudo-pundits that give their audience a half-hour of comedic glimpses of American politics that ultimately contain an underlying, even dangerous sentiment. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are funny and entertaining, but the hosts often institute a sense of cynicism towards our leaders that is unfair and grossly taken out of context. Not since the treachery of Watergate has a nation been so disgusted with its leaders. At the beginning of 2007, in my opinion, America has become, whether we like it or not, a home of skeptics and malcontents that stubbornly maintain a pessimistic stance towards our country. Often such individuals pose as youthful intellectuals, but instead “think without thinking” – that is, perceive the views of said pseudo-news programs as tantamount to a nechelon of heightened thoughtfulness. This cynicism most frequently leans to the left of the political spectrum; with it a new generation of arrogant, elitist liberals are enjoined to the leftist playbook without a concept of the substance behind it. Not all liberals are bad, of course, but many of my peers, as they wave the flags of socialism, hyper-criticism of the government, and cynicism, have indoctrinated themselves with an ethos precariously close to hatred of this country. Suddenly all politicians are corrupt, imbecilic creatures. The president and his administration are fascist war-mongerers that want to propel this nation to some Orwellian milieu. The United States, as a whole, is a hegemonic, imperialist empire wreaking havoc around the word with its capitalist markets and ideals that justify the criticisms of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Why is it that many young people – and adults for that matter – see “our country” as a giant punching bag to be hit with a nearly sadistic passion and zeal? Why do many Americans see only this nation’s flaws? Why do the citizens of most powerful nation on Earth, a benchmark of global democracy, utter such vitriol against itself? 

In this new American sentiment, hypocrisy runs rampant. Many in this demographic see “conservatives” as their primary foe and are quick to point out the provincialities and backwardness of their policies without realizing that their own viewpoints are not based on individual discernment but rather what demagogues relay to them. Many, like myself, are against the American war in Iraq, but are quick to declare their allegiances to the United Nations. The remarkability of this trend lies not in a predictable turn towards globalist politics but rather in that these people condone the organization which one can cite as a primary cause as to why Saddam Hussein remained in power and prospered. During his reign he tormented any foes and the Kurdish people of Northern Iraq. As the corrupt so-called Iraqi “Oil for Food” Program came into the international spotlight, it was uncovered that Saddam made billions of dollars from oil contracts and deals with countries that voted against the American and British-led efforts in Iraq within the Security Council.  Is it not in our cynicism that we begin to hate the very entity that brought us up? Are we so ignorant that we fail to see that the United States is not nearly as blundering as many see it to be? How come many call out the United States as not doing enough to alleviate the world’s various humanitarian crises when in fact America gives more aid than any other nation-state in the world? Believe me, I am far from calling anyone with the slightest complaint against the United States  un-American or unpatriotic. What I am greatly concerned with, though, is that often the media, with its hyper-leftist prerogative and its prevaricating journalists, is turning a nation full of impressionable young adults into a generation that blindly acquiesces to the distortion that vilifies the other side of the political spectrum. In portraying the Bush administration in a perpetually negative light, much of the American people is becoming ignorant and indignant, choosing an attitude of self-righteous pomposity that conceals inner provincialities. That is to say, many young Americans simply choose to adhere to a liberal ideology because it is portrayed in the media as the intelligent thing to do. The trend of imbecilic intelligence is both oxymoronic and dangerous.  

Another trend in modern America over the past few years is the incessant questioning of every concept marked as “traditionally American.” Political pundits rage over a perceived “war against Christmas.” Baseball is no longer baseball; it is infused with fears over steroid doping, multi-million-dollar contracts, ticket sales, and possible trades. Everything is dissected, scrutinized, taken apart and put back together without any respect that such a concept or occurrence ever really meant anything.  Even basic morality or ethics lose meaning as moral relativism infuses public sentiments. These trends hint at one of today’s major issues: the idea that the individual is far more important than the group, and that the well-being and morale of one person should be pursued with a selfishness and self-involvement that loosens the ties of community or neighborhoods. In this culture of the “me generation,”  people on a city block do not know one another. With cell phones and other technology that works to connect the planet like never before, it is ironic to think that never before have we as a nation been as separated from each other as we are today. We are not “United” States but rather singular entities looking to garner a piece of the American pie at all costs. Perhaps we are in this situation we are today because popular thought teaches us to question and scrutinize every relationship and be wary of every person and, most importantly, to seek the gratification of oneself. In 2007, it’s as if the free-wheeling Sixties have merged with the self-indulgent Eighties to spawn the Psychedelic yuppies of present-day “iGeneration.”  Our nation is fast-paced, technology-driven, and without a moral backbone. In our rush to make our country more advanced and at the cutting edge of the digital world, we’ve lost in translation the moral compass that has served civilization for thousands of years.  Morality does not have to be about religion and I do not wish to sound sanctimonious, but it seems to me that as a nation we have lost our way. In today’s America nothing is sacred, nothing too sensitive or exploitative that cannot be put on national television and gain a few million viewers.

In the classic William Golding novel Lord of the Flies, two of the marooned children on the island, Simon and Piggy, are killed by Jack and his totalitarian regime of choir boys and mindless followers who break away from the voice of reason and democracy, Ralph, for their own self-gratification. The allegory gives each of the children some role or abstract representation; Piggy represents science and Simon takes on religion and spirituality. With both figures killed, the placidity and order of the divided island spiral into a new stratum of chaos and disarray. In today’s America a similar occurrence is unfolding as blindly following intellectual pursuits becomes synonymous with the intellectualism itself; even the belief of a higher power held by a wide majority of this nation is being transformed by the sound-byte gods who decry the provincialities of God. In doing so these very people lose both their individuality and ability to think independently, the two qualities held most sacrosanct. Once again, this loss of identity is a dangerous trend that will inevitably become what it seeks to defy. So as John Mellencamp tells us with fervor that this is “our country,” I think it is important to truly listen, even if it is painful, to those four words. This is our country; in losing our communities and united stance we are losing our individuality.