I Witnessed the Destruction of America

The shocking experience, that told me something was terribly wrong, was the hatred of people that I experienced in the Office - that no  one else seemed to notice.

I graduated, as an Electronic Engineer, from the U of Illinois, in 1959 - and went to work for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Mainly because they offered me a job as a Field Engineer, where I wouldn't have to work in an office. I knew I could never work in one of those.

Now, looking back on this, much later, I realize I was looking at the Destruction of America - in person. And this was the overriding fact, no one wanted to acknowledge.

I suppose most people, in any fading culture, are unaware of this. It happens so gradually, no one notices it. Noticing it makes you a traitor to your country - so no one notices it. And the self-destruction continues.

When did this begin? Sometime in the 19th Century, when Industrialization took over. This was a huge event, we have never understood very well, but the result was a series of wars - the Civil War, WWI, the Depression, and WWII - that were unprecedented in their destructiveness. And to be fair, created the affluence that developed countries (such as America) enjoyed.

And created a new kind of person - that was more like a machine, than a person. These people felt they were super-persons, much superior to the normal persons, that they displaced. The Office appeared, as their natural habitat. Along with the Factory and the Railroads.

I was born in 1936, in Ft.Madison, Iowa, my Father's home town - that had the Santa Fe Railroad on the West End of town, and the Sheaffer Pen Company on the East End. It was a dirty town - but it had good jobs! None of this is left now - it is part of the Rust Belt that dominates much of America.

But let me return to the Sixties, and the Cold War, that wrecked the economies of the USSR and the US. But at the time, it made money for many people - including me. I had my own airplane, that I was proud of.

This is an important point that must be stressed - short term gains can create long term losses! And these both occurred, in the Computer Industry, in the Eighties and Nineties. I was there also.