The United States of Whining Complainers

Embrace Complexity

In the movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, a baby is born to old age and then reverts to infancy.  More on point, the author of the Dune series opines that societies become “soft” once they become dominant, eventually decaying and passing from glory because they are no longer shaped by hardships that led to greatness. 

I do not mean to suggest that anyone’s particular lot in life is easy.  Life in general is often cruel and unfair.  But step back and view life in the United States as others see it.  We all should be thankful to be Americans.  Often times, when I listen to political rhetoric, I would think we are an oppressed people.  Anger and fear are so persuasive that I hardly recognize this country as the one I grew up in.  I believe this reaction stems from the complexity of our modern world.  Problems are so intertwined and change happens so quickly, that we suffer from burn-out.   

It may be comforting to know that this problem is not new and probably tied to simply being human.  Certainly change and complexity have picked up in the modern era (defined as post enlightenment).  Abraham Lincoln said, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”  I find Lincoln particularly inspiring because at a time of unmatched difficulty and discord, he guided the nation by two stars:  the importance of individual liberty and the importance of the American experiment, the union that guaranteed such liberty to its citizens.