The more things change...

As I circled my children's school, hunting for potential predators ("taking a walk" my wife calls it), I saw a broken and discarded broom handle lying in the grass where, the previous day, there had been a whole and discarded broom handle. I thought to myself, "That really says it all, doesn't it?" Not only did no one (myself included) have the courtesy to pick up the discarded broom handle and throw it away, but the only thing anyone could motivate themselves to do when confronted with the presence of an old broom handle was to break it in half and leave it there for someone else to clean up. It's an object lesson on the state of America.

Then I began to question myself.

"Is that really what you believe?" I said. "Or are you just whining like everyone who's ever thought things were better in the old days?"

"Yes, I believe it!" I answered indignantly. "This country's going to hell in a handbasket!"

"Don't expect me to be placated by platitudes!" I responded with equal indignation. "What proof do you have that things were ever really better than they are right now?"

"I've seen old photos and I've read old newspapers," I said in my own defense. "And what about all the old movies and newsreels? I once watched a collection of vintage newsreels, and they were nothing like they are nowadays!"

"Think about it," I told myself. "What does that really prove?"

So I thought about it, and I realized that it proves nothing. All it proves is that the people keeping records back then wanted to emphasize the positive. It doesn't mean people were really different in any fundamental way. It just means that the people in charge were interested in promoting different things. What if things haven't changed at all? What if all that's changed is our focus?

If the goal of leaders has always been to control the masses (a safe bet, I think most people can agree), then what would have placated those masses back in the thirties and forties? Perhaps the idea that everything was going to work out; that government was on your side; that big businesses were driving the nation forward to a better tomorrow; that everything was going to be all right.

Now, bring into play the social upheaval of the sixties; the public exposure of the government's abuse of the public trust; the realization that maybe everything wouldn't be all right. Once people have been disillusioned to the point of cynicism, how do you control them?

Fear.

Fear of loss. Fear of poverty. Fear of abuse. Fear of crime. Fear of death. Fear of each other. Ultimately, when people are afraid they feel powerless. Who benefits from a powerless populace? The powerful.

So maybe, at a fundamental level, nothing has changed. Maybe back in 1942, someone seeing something cheap and easy to come by on the side of the road (perhaps, in the era before Wal Mart, broom handles weren't as easy to come by) would have either walked right by without raising an eyebrow, or would have broken it in half and left it there for someone else to clean up. Maybe all that's really changed is that now someone will record him doing it on their cell phone and it'll show up on YouTube with the headline, "What Is America Coming To?!?"