THE AMERICAN VISION

A SHINING IDEAL – A DARK REALITY

Many of us can still see it in our minds – green, abundant, so vast it seemed limitless. America! That pristine continent held in stewardship by native peoples, living from it, but walking so lightly that it seemed undisturbed by their presence. America! Unspoiled. Anything was possible here, or so it seemed to the breathless eyes of refugee Europeans. Unowned. Uncrowned. Belonging to us all. Plenty for each man and his family. That was how it must have seemed. That was the shining ideal. The New World’s promise.

And so it was for many. And so it was for a time. In spite of tremendous hardships most of the fragile colonies survived and prospered. People were free to determine their destiny with their own hands, hard work, and intelligence. This degree of freedom was perhaps unparalleled in the history of the human race. And when the ruling governments in Europe attempted often modest controls in order to secure their “rights” to a portion of this accumulating wealth, it led inevitably to resistance and finally revolution and ultimately to the United States of America. Once tasted, this kind of freedom would never bear encroachment again. Or so it seemed at the time.

Shortly thereafter, these freedoms were codified into the Constitution of the United States of America. It is my view that this much debated document provided for a historically unique balancing of the rights of individuals with the needs of society. The Constitution also specified countless provisions and procedures to attempt to assure that neither the government nor any entity or individual would ever again gain enough power over others to constrict these freedoms. And the United States prospered and over the years grew into the freest and wealthiest nation in the history of the planet. This unparalleled success was, I firmly believe, because of these freedoms, the vision they made possible, and the Constitution’s careful, deliberate, balancing of individual rights (in both personal and economic activities) with the essential needs of community.

Until very recently, that vision of America’s promise seemed lost. For most of us, it had even become unthinkable. It seemed like a wisp of smoke from some remote past. Of course we still mouthed the phrases, particularly on patriotic occasions, but most of us did not experience that kind of freedom and most of us no longer truly believed that becoming anything we dreamed was possible for us or our children. Furthermore, we no longer believed in the endless potential of our country. Even the simplest problems seemed to go without solution. Much of our nation still lies in tatters. Much of our infrastructure is still in decay.

We live with a deep down awareness of great and hidden forces that seem to thwart our every attempt to better ourselves through hard work and ingenuity, forces that subvert all our society’s solutions. Somehow someone else is running the show. We would like to find that someone and declare him an enemy. We see him everywhere, yet when we aggressively attempt to encounter him and end his terrorism, we sense that we are fighting ourselves as well. We have allowed our freedoms to languish, traded our birthrights for a few pieces of silver, acquired a surfeit of stuff, and wallow in the swill of cheap prices. Consumerism has become our purpose. We sense the truth, as the cartoon character, Pogo, once famously said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

What happened to our vision? What went wrong? My blogs will be an attempt to answer that question. Some of the posts will examine the framework that made unbelievable success for a time a reality. Others will show in some detail the rights and responsibilities of government, business, and society that were assured in the Constitution and the careful balancing that attempted to assure that one did not overwhelm the other. Other posts will look at specific aspects of the relationships of business to the government and to the society it is charged to protect. I hope to shed some light on the balance that worked and then the imbalance that led to our current dark reality.

Less than a year ago, over 85% of US citizens believed America was on the wrong track! My blogs are intended to not only show us the wrong turns we made, but to provide a map indicating some ways that can lead us back.