SENSE

I can't speak in regard to the whole world, but it appears to me that my country has lost its common sense, and that it's not coming back anytime soon.

 This first raised its nasty head in 2016, when the most dangerous character I've ever seen in my seven decades of life was elected to the presidency. Not only was he able to con enough voters for an electoral college win, he then developed a cult-like following. No ugly thing said or done by him was deemed over the line. His political party morphed quickly into HIS political party, and the devotees are not snapping out of it.

I saw a man on TV last night who steadfastly claimed that it was really Trump who was flying around on Air Force One, and that he had never really ceased being president. What happened to this poor man?

Then the world was hit by the pandemic. Sadly, many Americans could not accept the reality that this virus was rampaging across the country, bringing mass agony and death, and ruining our economy as well. This couldn't really be happening to us! Not us! When vaccines finally became available, many of those same people chose not to get it, claiming that their freedom was on the line. Their freedom to help spread a pandemic? So much for "all for one and one for all".

So, the vaccine deniers, led by the vaccinated ex-president, have been dying by the thousands. What sense does it make to lead your followers, your voters, to their deaths?

What sense does it make to become enraged when asked to wear a mask that protects others from the spread of this deadly virus? Have those people ever gone into a restaurant that has a sign stating "no shirt, no shoes, no service"? Of course they have.

I'm not expecting that everyone should agree with my opinions and observations about everything. For a myriad of reasons people have different takes on how the world should work. But this time it's different. Common sense and critical thinking are completely absent. Hatefulness and anger have taken the top spots in our public discourse. 

Other than hiding behind the veil of social media, I no longer feel safe in casually offering my opinions on important social or political issues. If I do speak up, I might get screamed at, slugged, vandalized, or gunned down. What happened to agreeing to disagree? This situation has become existential.

Is this the failure of the education system? Is it due to growing income inequality? Is it lack of affordable housing? Is it vocal minority groups making the status quo nervous? Is it the multitudes of arriving immigrants who don't look like us? Is it the white male privilege shrinking away? What exactly has caused this apparent tipping point to occur in the American psyche?

Is the root of it because in school we were all fed the same false story that the evolution of our nation was a good and noble enterprise? That Americans were always the right ones and the best ones? That happily ever after was actually an attainable goal? That we all could be attractive and successful? Or most importantly, that things can stay the same, and shit doesn't happen? Have we all been suckered into one giant American fantasy? Are we too ignorant to see that?

Just where the hell did realism and common sense go?