Introduction

There are very few Americans who seem to feel satisfied with the direction our country is going these days.  I admit that I am one of them.  The trajectory this country seems to be on looks dismal and dangerous.  Those on the right may tell you that the problem is "big government."  Those on the left may tell you that the problem is "big corporations."  Those on the left and those on the right will both agree (for different reasons) that the problem is "the Media." Both will probably present a generalized and disgusted view of most people they consider to be "politicians."

Each of those answers offers us the comfort and convenience of blaming someone or something other than ourselves so they are attractive targets for our anger.  The truth is, however, that never in the long history of the world has there been a population of people more empowered than modern day Americans.

Our government is run by people who have to pander to us in order to get our vote.  Our corporations survive and profit only by giving us what we demand.  The media is motivated primarily by a quest to get as many of our eyes and ears tuned into their programs as possible in order to sell airtime to advertisers.

Those in our government bend over backward to try to find out what we want and then to either give us what we demand of them or to convince us that they are giving us what we demand of them.

Those in our corporations bend over backward to try find out what we want and then to either give us what we demand of them or to convince us that they are giving us what we demand of them.

Those in the media bend over backward to try to find out what we want and then to either give us what we demand of them or to convince us that that they are giving us what we demand of them.

All of these institutions or groups of institiutions depend upon satisfying us demanders in order to survive.  We seem to exercise almost no self discipline.  When we are given what we demand and it causes a problem, we blame those who have done nothing but given us what we demand.

Let's start with a few simple examples.
1) Paparazzi  -- Most of us agree that many of these people are the lowest lifeform imaginable.  They invade people's privacy. They crash any party or event that might include a celebrity.  They often seem willing to sell their souls to get a picture of a celebrity looking ugly or stupid or naked.

We find them disgusting.  Yet they exist because we want pictures of celebrities looking ugly, stupid or naked.  If we didn't buy the magazines that use these pictures or watch TV programs or visit the web sites that use these pictures, there would be no Paparazzi.  Is there a lower life form than Paparazzi?  Yes!  We are.  At least they work hard and take risks in order to get their photos.  There is some honor in hard work and risk taking.  We do neither.  We sit and look at their photos and indulge in the basest of human pleasures-- lust, envy and pride -- without ever lifting a finger to create our own pleasures.  We consume the photos like we consume everything else we want.

2) The loss of American jobs and small businesses.  Everyone decries the loss of local small businesses and the loss of manufacturing jobs over the past couple of decades.  But why did this happen?  How were the Walmarts, Loews and Home Depots able to destroy almost every small business that sold us our hardware, sporting goods, clothing, appliances and groceries?  They gave us what we wanted.  Lower prices so we could by more stuff.  They did that by buying from overseas manufacturers where labor is cheaper.  So we lost both our local small businesses and our large American manufacturers.  Don't blame WalMart, don't blame Home Depot.  They are just businesses engaging successfully in good old fashioned capitalism.  We wanted cheap stuff, and lots of it.  We didn't want to have to go a number of different stores  -- the grocery store, then the hardward store, then the clothing store -- we wanted to have it all in one place, we didn't' want to have to park our car multiple times or, god-forbid,  to actually walk from store to store.  It is our fault.  Now we are largely fat and lazy and lacking employment with meaning.  Why?  Because we got what we wanted.  We always get what we want.  And then we complain that it is someone else's fault -- goverment's, business's or the media's.  It is our own damn fault!

The good news is that, since we the people are the problem, we the people can be the solution.