Post-196: Pessimism in the USA

I feel more personally optimistic today than I did in the mid-2000s. The overall mood in the post-2008 world, though, is a lot more pessimistic.

It’s all about falling expectations, isn’t it. Ukraine is a case of this, I think. As of this writing (Saturday, Feb. 22nd, 2014), it seems that Ukraine has just undergone a nationalistic “revolution”, with echoes of 1989. Ukraine wasn’t doing so well in the 1980s, but, incredibly, in 2014 it has a substantially lower GDP-per-capita than it did in 1989! (See post-194).

I saw a poll showing that an incredible five-out-of-six White-Americans say that they are dissatisfied “with the way things are going” in the USA. Here is the breakdown by the various listed demographic groupings:

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Demographic Groups that Think the USA is Going in the WRONG Direction:
          Overall: 32-to-10 [say that the USA is going in the wrong direction]
          Men: 40-to-10
          Women: 27-to-10

          Whites: 48-to-10
          Hispanics: 19-to-10

          Republicans: 133-to-10
          Independents: 46-to-10
          Democrats: 12-to-10

Demographic Groups that Think the USA is Going in the RIGHT Direction:
          Blacks: 11-to-10 [say that the USA is going in the right direction]

Here is the relevant excerpt from the poll:

Polling of 2,692 registered voters (+/-1.9% margin of error), From December 3-9, 2013 / Quinnipiac University [Link]

Gallup also asks this question in polls. It has “mood of the country” polling data for 1979-2014 online. Gallup corroborates the Quinnipiac poll, as it also finds the “mood of the country” today to be about 32-to-10 pessimistic.

This reminds me of a nice song, a lively song of nostalgic-lament, from the mid-2000s, by Guy Forsyth (b.1968):

It’s Been a Long Long Time
[Guy Forsyth]

It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.

When I was a kid I used to draw airplanes
with stars and bars shooting down airplanes
adorned with hammers and sickles.
I bought a hundred water guns
so I could save the world, saving my lunch money
and stealing my father’s quarters, dimes, and nickels.
I discovered religion watching
Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leia
and destroying the Death Star by letting go and closing his eyes.
And I devoured comic books,
Three-color mythologies taught me right and wrong,
and if you believe,
you can fly.

It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.

I remember listening to songs about trains
and feeling the rush of wonder at the possibility
that the world was infinite and accessible all at the same time.
And then it was songs about highways
and born to be wild
and little red corvette
and the road went on forever in my mind.
But now it’s clogged bumper to bumper with stinking SUVs
and two-story pickup trucks that can drive over anything
except the two-story pickup truck right in front of it.
Not even the highways look the same,
Starbucks and 711s and Walmarts jam the feeder roads.
We don’t live around this mess, we live under it.

It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
Since I felt fine.

Now all the songs are about gangsters and guns
and the TV speeds by at 100 deaths an hour
and everyone wants to pull off the crime of the century.
Steal two hundred gazillion dollars,
enough to buy myself an island
and build a real honest-to-God train on it
for no one but me.
And get away with it.
Get away with it.
We Americans are freedom-loving people
and nothing says “freedom” like getting away with it.
We went from Billy the Kid
to Richard Nixon, Enron, Exxon, O.J. Simpson…
We used to dream about heroes,
but now it’s just how to beat the system.

So where to we go to dream now?
Up on the roof of the projects,
straining through the city lights
to see if they’ve built golden arches on the Moon yet?
Self-medicated,
Half-sedated,
trying our best to stay distracted,
living life according to the TV set.
Corporations
owning nations,
telling us “don’t change the station–
It’s the only safe way to win the human race.”

I wonder how the world sees us:
Rich beyond compare,
powerful without equal,
a spoiled, drunk, 15-year-old waving a gun in their face.

It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
It’s been a long, long, long, […..] time.
Since I felt fine.

I first heard this song in 2006. It really “spoke” to me at that time. It still does.

On the line “we used to dream about heroes”: At one point in early 2012, when I was working in Bucheon, Korea, I found and played the Davey Crockett song. An American coworker/friend, C.H. from California (now in China), commented to the effect that the song comes from “a totally different nation” than the USA that exists today.

It’s a “road-goes-on-forever-in-my-mind” kind of song:

Davey Crockett — King of the Wild Frontier
Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee,
Greenest state in the land of the free.
Raised in the woods so’s he knew every tree,
Killed him a bear, when he was only three.

Davey, Davey Crockett!
King of the Wild Frontier

Fought single-handed through the Injun war,
Till the Creeks was whipped and the peace was restored.
While he was handling this risky chore,
Made himself a legend, forevermore.

Davey, Davey Crockett!
The man who don’t know fear

He went off to Congress and served a spell
Fixin’ up the government and laws as well.
Took over Washington, so I heard tell,
And patched up the crack in the Liberty Bell.

Davey, Davey Crockett!
Seein’ his duty clear

When he come home, his politickin’ was done,
Why, the Western March had just begun.
So he packed his gear, and his trusty gun
And lit out a-grinnin’ to follow the Sun!

Davey, Davey Crockett,
Leadin’ the Pioneer