WTF? No seriously, WTF?

[risty77]

Someone last week (and I can't remember who it was exactly, but nevermind) expressed to me their sympathy for having the misfortune to arrive in America in preparation for an election year, I think since it makes it more insane than usual....

...now, I didn't really agree, because I quite like being in the midst of all the insanity, because a) what

Comments

[quenya_tattoo]

Welcome to the last 27 years of my life-- or of any other American that has had a thought. Ever.

'when did the idea of socialised medicine gain similar pariah status to, say, industrial pollution of drinking water, so that it can be used as a bogey-term to inspire fear in the hearts of Americans, and why did no one pass on the memo to the rest of the world?'

The Great Depression, or shortly after. When America 1- started most of its social programs in such a hurry that to this day they can't function properly (god forbid we should FIX them, of course...) and 2- Realized that it was willing to sacrifice the well-being of its people to keep the flow of money moving in practice more than in theory (there's a great scene in The Grapes of Wrath where starving people are watching farmers dump subsidized grain into rivers to keep prices from falling any further. No really.)

You know me well enough to know my feelings on this kind of broke-ass bullshit, but there is a reason for this belief/fear just like there's a reason for every capitalist cutthroat issue in this country. It's just that it's idiotic and archaic.

And no, all you Americans, I'm not apologizing for the country. I'm doing my fucking job and trying to find ways to fix it.

[risty77]

Yeah, it's weird though, as far as the first point goes, because pretty much every social program in the entire Western world started right after the Depression, to varying but fairly general levels of hasty crappishness. So I guess it's the second that starts to get at why America didn't stick with it and iron out (some of) the problems...

Maybe it's about freedom! Or rather, America's version of freedom, which is freedom to make as much money as you can (no bastard kings taxing you!)... you end up with a country in thrall to money.

the UK, by contrast, is a country in thrall to class/social position, which hasn't been the same thing as wealth for a long time...

...and NZ.... is a country in thrall to the UK, i guess.

But either way, if you take money off the top of the pyramid of national/governmental values, I guess you leave room for other stuff. Like social stuff, or what I (being the commie bastard product of a nanny state!!) like to think of as 'being a decent human being to other human beings'.

Anyway... yeah. They're there, those reasons, you're definitely right. Probably going back even earlier than the 30s, I suppose, which means it's even more interwoven and viciously cyclic and a bugger to pick apart..

I really need to read the Grapes of Wrath.