Americans Have Never Decided, What They Wanted to Be

I think this is a fair statement, made by one American about his fellow Americans. I am tempted to take it further, and say Americans destroyed America - but that is probably not necessary. They destroyed America - because they could not think of anything else to do.

Deciding what they wanted to be, and then working at becoming that - was not part of their national character. What was part of their national character, was the war against Communism (the Cold War) - at which they were successful, because the Soviet Union, collapsed on its own. Once that happened, Americans didn't know what else to do.

I can say something about the Cold War, because I was part of it - as an Electronic Engineer, specializing in Radar. Radar that was going to protect us from Soviet Bombers - that never existed. The important point here, was not the details, of this particular war - but the fact, that some kind of war was necessary (we thought) - and we could not think of a peaceful solution.

We never realized, that should keep the huge advantage we gained during WWII. In the Fifties, we should have taken stock of where we were - and then worked at keeping it. But instead, we let it all slip away. And once it was gone - we didn't realize it was gone.

I can be specific here - what happened to my hometown of Ft. Madison, Iowa, in the Second half of the last Century. It went from being a boom town, with plenty of jobs - to being part of the Rust Belt, with no jobs at all.

Without anyone noticing.