The Bad is Powerful and Strong, the Good is Weak and Flabby

I sometimes wonder about the huge change in America, back in the Fifties. Coming out of WWII, there were plenty of small businesses, and my father was the proud owner one of them - a photography studio, in Ft. Madison, Iowa. His business was his whole world - but twenty years later, it was gone, never to return.

This was also true of the family farm, another small business, that for many independent people, was the best way of life for them. It was gone, and would will never return.

This huge change was accompanied by, and probably caused by - a huge change in the attitude of the American people. A change in the kind of world they wanted. A world dominated by Big Business - and a society obsessed with Power.

The key word here was - Power. Americans had to be more powerful. And they wanted a society that made them that way.

This was strange, because coming out of WWII, America was the most powerful nation in the world - by far. But Americans felt threatened anyway. They could not identify what threatened them - and this made them even more insecure.

They were threatened alright, but these threats came in the form of their entertainment - the Movies, and then Television. They were seduced by them - without their realizing it. Especially Television, that kept them entertained (for free!) but also showed them how to live - like the people on the screen. That lived in a world that was better than the real one. Instinctively, they knew it was more powerful.

And they were right - it was the most powerful force in the world. One that could command the hearts and minds of the masses.

This brings up another subject - the Masses, first identified by Ortega y Gasset in the Thirties. This new kind of people, thought and acted as one person - a huge, powerful (but not very smart) Person.

That had no idea what was going on - and didn't want to know.