Being Nice

Being nice is an essential American skill. It was best illustrated for us by President Reagan - who did many horrible things, without being bothered about them in the least. Before him, the Bad Guy had to act bad - and the Good Guy had to act good.

He showed, you could be nothing at all - and be perfectly acceptable. As long as under this agreeable facade - you did really bad things. In other words - you had to act good, but be bad.

He was an actor, used to being, in front of the camera - whatever the role demanded. The people behind the cameras however, were only interested in using their audiences, to win power, and money - for themselves.

Americans loved Reagan (and Hollywood), for showing them how this could be done. And they set about doing this, in every aspect of their lives. Including Business and Politics - that became the same thing.

To be fair, many Americans were uncomfortable with this deceit, and tried to straddle the line between being good, and being bad. They could be good to their friends and family - but not to the Government, that Reagan taught them to hate.

This was a huge change. The Government, as Lincoln said - was of the People and for the People. Now it was seen as the Enemy of the People.

How did this happen? That is the forty dollar question - only now it is the forty trillion dollar question. There is no easy answer. All we can say, is that many factors are involved - and are interacting in complex ways. All we can say, with any certainty - is that we don't know.

These are the main two facts, of the world today - (1) it isn't working and (2) we don't know why.

All we have to do, is accept these facts - and Move On.