The Insanity of a Nation: Philosophy of American Culture

A nation of insanity seems to define our capitalistic way of life. People starve and we tell farmers not to grow anymore because the price will fall and the food will lose "value". The value of food isn't on a price tag. People today are prescribed anti-depressants at higher rates than ever before. These things are clearly not the characteristics of a sane society. Our progression is quite the opposite; it is more of a deterioration of humanity. The idea of progress is completely skewed. If a congressman votes to decrease military spending, he is seen as a bad guy, unpatriotic and un-American. Our complete idea of progress is grounded in a military technology. We boast our power by sailing our fleets around the world. Our nation identifies our enemies for us. They are evil (for the moment) and must be defeated. This is the way of it, until they become our allies once more.

We, as humans, can shape the land to fit our needs. This characteristic is a key in separating us from animals. We have a superior mind that recognizes our need for freedom, creativity and expression of self. Without these key elements, we will go mad. The absence of those elements is why such a large number of people suffer from mental defects, such as depression, schizophrenia and other illnesses of the mind. We falsely seek these requirements for sanity through the "virtue" of conformity. We try to compensate for our mental lacking by insisting that our security can come through success. We ultimately become unaware of our defective mind and conclude that we are alright.

We must gain a unity between ourselves and nature as well as other humans. There is a constant need for emergence and growth. We, as a society, have become stagnant in our perusal of our minds and creativity. In an animalistic state we are afraid to emerge into freedom, we willingly place ourselves back into the bondage of security. This regression is problematic for the success of humankind.

As humans, we are aware of our separateness from each other, and we strive to overcome it. Fromm calls this our need for relatedness. This is viewed as love in the broadest form. Love, according to Fromm, "is union with somebody, or something, outside oneself, under the condition of retaining the separateness and integrity of one's self". It allows us to transcend our separateness without a denial of our uniqueness. The need for this is such a powerful thing we often seek it in destructive ways. Some choose to submit themselves to another person, a group or their conception of God. Others try to eliminate isolation by dominating others. These ways are far from satisfying and their separateness is not overcome. Others try to deny that there is a need for relatedness. Narcissistic behavior is just as much pathology as schizophrenia. The narcissist's world becomes what they want it to be and they lose touch with reality.

We have a necessity to be creators. We have created many ways to create; we give birth, plant seeds, make pottery and jewelry, paint pictures, create music and write books. Creativity is an expression of love. The problem is that most don't find a way to create and they attempt to transcend by becoming destroyers. Destroyers "feel" powerful. Destroying puts them above the ones they destroy. We can love just as easily as destroy. Destruction fails to bring us the sense of transcendence we need to be sane.

We must feel at home in the universe. The simplest way is to remain tied to our mother. To grow up means we have to leave the warmth of our mother. To stay is a form of "psychological incest". Our search for rootedness often breeds horrible side effects. The schizophrenic tries to retreat into a comfortable pseudo-reality. The neurotic is afraid to leave the comfort of home and becomes a hermit. Then there is the fanatic who sees his patriotism, his race, his God as the only things that are "real" and "true". Everything against what he believes is evil and must be destroyed.

Finally, we must understand the world and our place within it. Our society attempts to provide us with this understanding. Structures such as our myths, legends, philosophies and sciences provide us with grounding. The final need is actually two separate aspects. We need a frame of orientation, almost any will do. A negative one is better than none at all. People are generally quite a gullible bunch. We want to believe in something desperately. If there is not an explanation we will fabricate one through rationalization. We must have a reasonable, good frame of orientation. Our parents and family provide us with explanation of how the world works. If they don't hold up then what good do they do? They breed an insane society. Our frame of orientation must be rational. We need understanding; however, it must be a warm, human understanding.

Capitalism is accepted in America as the best way to operate. Communism, socialism and anything else other than good ole American Capitalism is just plain wrong. At least that's what the ones controlling our lives want us to think. Capitalism operates on the illusion of freedom. It is rather, a method of mass exploitation, coercion and theft of actual freedom. The workers value is lost. All of Fromm's listed human needs are bastardized in order for capitalism to work. We, therefore, are in no way a sane society. We must have creativity. Mass production takes away our human creativeness. Products are made in a "cookie-cutter" fashion. Products lose all aesthetic value and instead are valued solely on their place in the market. Destroyers also are a vital part to keeping the capitalism rolling. Toby Keith articulated this best when he sang, "We'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way". Our national craving for destruction is what has made us one the most powerful military power in the history of the world. We as a society have abandoned creativity for cheap music, movies and products.

Our nation's false sense of rootedness has given rise to racism and bigotry that is scarily widely accepted (by people with the same beliefs of course). We advertise a "Land of Freedom" then get upset when people from other countries try to have our freedom with us. Religious nuts call gays evil and racists find every way possible to oppress those who have a different tone of skin. Our government has been full of these sick people since its inception. The Alabama State Constitution is a document that was created out of pure racism and bigotry. Now more than ever bigots of America have found a reason to unite to abolish "towel heads" from the planet. The efforts to combat terrorism are viewed as efforts to snuff out Islam. This is surely not a characteristic a sane society exhibits.

We have falsely tried to obtain relatedness at the highest level. Our country has divided what is called the United States into Red and Blue. Representatives are known as a Republican from Alabama or a Liberal from California. There are the Conservative Right and "charity" groups like PETA. A whole group of people dedicated to ethical treatment of animals, while they fund acts of terrorism for groups like ELF. These groups that line the far spectrums of sanity, represent many different kinds of people. People who are all unknowingly the same in their differences, they are all utterly insane.

We have lost the method to gaining a sense of identity. We have to fit in. We strive to get the best job, drive the best car and make a bunch of money to be who we want to be (falsely). Capitalism takes our sense of identity and molds into something that is sick and feeble. We contribute more than we are compensated for. Workers have lost all values and have become non-human. Contracts we go into are oppressive and horribly degrading. Poor people are put into positions where they can become rich... if they beat all odds and get extremely lucky.

The businessman may possibly be the biggest form of narcissist. He cares about nothing but the dollar and strives to always make more in order to give himself something to be proud of, something to make him human. Slavery has not been abolished. It has been painted a different color and given to us in the form of monotonous labor that degrades us and takes away all aspects of our humanity, freedom being the most important. We are asked questions that skew our idea of freedom. "Don't you want to make a good living?" says our mother. "You can't make any money doing that", says our android father, as he packs his lunch and heads off to stamp a logo into tires for 12 hours. There would be nothing wrong with his "work" if it were compensated with a living wage that actually placed value on him as a human and not a machine.

Our love and freedom is constricted to our homes. Creativity has been constricted to museums and radio stations, rather than being showcased on the street corners. Our false sense of rootedness has made Patriotism an excuse to hate others. Our government has provided us with rationalization by giving us the answers to questions that are "above our minds". We have lost our sense of identity and individuality by conforming to what is "right". The common goal to be reached by humanity is to accurately obtain relatedness, creativity, rootedness, identity and frame of orientation. If we wish to abolish manufactured insanity we, as a nation and ultimately planet, must recognize our errors and strive to be actually "human".