A culture successfully terrorized on a dark day in September of 2001; initially, in anger but, over the long run (to this day), in fear, throwing off the high ground of nominal “truth, justice, and the American way” for Jack Bauer ends-justify-the-means.

A culture particularly prone to disengaging into its own individual, typically violent, often vengeful, entertainment bubbles.

A culture particularly prone to embracing sounds bites and now internet memes to simplify complex issues into narratives that are palatable.

A culture particularly prone to being goaded into team dynamics at the expense of actually engaging people on the “other side” to work through nuanced problems.

A culture particularly prone to sensational voyeurism to the point it lets what has become a “socio-political-entertainment complex” get away with dosing us garbage constantly.

18 years straight of war — leaning disproportionately on people far removed from the political decision making.

Inarguably relaxed service entry requirements — multiple times — in this ongoing span to hit the desired recruiting numbers.

Poor support for those coming back from such horrors facing their own demons as well as an incredibly competitive global marketplace and global workforces.

Governments–especially ours–preserving themselves and their revolving door cronies from unrest over horribly insolvent dynamics THEY fostered (80s – now) via transnational corporate socialism that comes at the expense of “the little guy” who gets robbed in ways “he’ll never [explicitly] understand”. Coordinated currency devaluation, statist direct intervention in the markets, and coordinated messaging. We feel the “real world” fallout.

Decades of institutional rot at the highest levels of power. Normalization of dynastic political power. And now blatant amoral criminality at the top pushing us headlong into cultic authoritarianism.

Active attacks from foreign adversaries. Little to no push back. Or even improved defense.

Overt hatred, open racism, demonization of “the other” crawling out from under the rocks.

And an ever increasing rate of folk trying to hit a real life “kill count high score” and get plastered all over the media for doing it. We look around when we go to airports. We look around when we go to concerts. We look around when we go to school. We look around when we go to movies. We look around when we go to bars. We look around when we go to night clubs. We look around when we go to church buildings. We look around when we go to the office.

It is unacceptable. We must do better.