Statecraft Informer

Like “our long national nightmare” of another era, the long Thanksgiving weekend, is over.

I suppose I’m swimming against the tide, here, but I’m thankful the insane tryptophanic orgy of dietary and retail indulgence has come to an end.

Quite often I am reminded of the conspiratorial advice Benjamin Braddock received in “The Graduate,” while pondering his future. “Plastics.” he was told.

According to Mr. Robinson, whose wife Ben would soon be screwing, plastics was the “future,” and the “one word” he should think about.

With each passing year, the whole concept of Thanksgiving, and nearly every other annual celebration in the U.S., feels increasingly plastic; painfully artificial and contrived. It’s as if young Ben, and two generations of MBAs since “Joltin’ Joe has left and gone away.” have been hard at work commercializing the traditions which, at least in my memory, seemed more homespun and real.

Naturally, plastics are just as ubiquitous as Mr. Robinson envisioned, and we buy this artificial reality with, what else? Plastic.

Though it had been insidiously permeating my environment for well over a month, the 2006 “Christmas,” or holiday season, officially kicked off at 12:01 AM last Friday morning. Early results would encourage all Americans to be hopeful and proud, because sales were strong, and that’s what the season is all about.

Not long before Dustin Hoffman went scuba diving in the deep end of the family (gene?) pool, the idol of my creative youth, Charles Shultz, told a simple, touching tale, of the “true meaning” of Christmas. Even then, Charlie Brown had to battle against creeping commercialism, superficial peers, and a beloved, but jaded pet, to uncover the timeless message at the heart of the celebration: peace on earth, good will toward men.

We are as far away from that ideal today as ever I can recall.

If my recollections of times past reflect the longings of a typical aging American, so be it. Do I believe “things were simpler once?” Absolutely. Have human beings on this earth regularly reminisced about “the good old days?” Of this, I have no doubt.

So what’s the big deal, you ask? Well, maybe you’re right. Maybe I, and those like me, are simply experiencing the echoes of ancient, inherent thoughts and sensibilities. But maybe not.

Maybe we are witnessing something completely original in human evolution; something brought on by incredible global population growth, unprecedented technological advancement, and the inevitable disconnect with what seem to be almost outmoded traditions.

Here’s what I fear: Western culture, exemplified by the U.S., and various “Americanized” European legacies, has insinuated itself across the globe, just as the West itself, has begun to forget the human and humane underpinnings of its own development.

Capitalism, based on creativity, ingenuity, productivity and responsibility, is historically the best path toward establishing stable governments and equal opportunities for the governed. Like absolute power, however, it would seem absolute capitalism also corrupts; perhaps just as absolutely.

Oh, we’ve added a significant dose of socialism, in order to blunt the more cruel ramifications of capitalism. With global capitalism growing rapidly, undercutting domestic independence, and wiping out promised health and retirement benefits for millions of Americans, that effort will become more significant, and controversial, in the years to come.

Once upon a time, the U.S. exported more than products. America stood for more than military power, corporate dominance and product branding. Our country represented an ideal, albeit unfulfilled, of societal equality; open, balanced government; neighborliness; fair play; strength of character; tolerance; and other simple, basic values.

As I look around me today, in my small coastal community and the greater Bay Area, I often have a hard time seeing the essence of my country’s cultural identity.

Acquisitiveness has become our reason d’être. “Shop till you drop!” our national battle cry. Everyone around the globe knows McDonald’s and Coke, Burger King and Pepsi, Starbucks and Wal-Mart. To many, they represent America. They are America. To a great many, this new “American” model, or at least a variation thereof, is their path toward modernity in the 21st century. Some have co-opted their own cultural identity in order to participate.

It should come as no real surprise, however, that a sizable percentage of the world’s population, unwilling to bastardize its basic heritage, unable to adapt and maintain power, or resist the overwhelming lure of “the good life” presented by Western commercialism, has resorted to repression and brutality in defense of its cultural identity.

What I fear this season – of the year, and of America’s history – is the perpetuation of war, based, as is so often the case with war, on faulty premises.

If we are each fighting to preserve our “way of life,” it is long past time for us to decide exactly what that means.

Has the Western ideal lost its moral compass? Do we now embody the essence of unbridled, soulless capitalism, and little else? Is that really worth fighting, dying and killing for?

Has the greater Middle East lost its moral compass? Do they now embody the essence of unbridled, misogynistic cultural fundamentalism, and little else? Is that really worth fighting, dying and killing for?

With scant logical reason, I hope against hope the vast majority of human beings on both sides of this struggle will challenge their leaders to return to the generally concordant, benevolent origins of their societies.

If this is to happen, at least in our lifetime, I believe the United States must be the first to accept responsibility for its shifted paradigm. In short order, our country must reinvent its reason for existence.

We need to have a great big national party announcing proudly, “We Won!” “America has the most stuff!” “World’s best shoppers!” Etc., etc., etc.

When that’s out of our systems (Naturally, the celebration will include an enormous, “Once in a lifetime, worldwide factory blowout sale!”), perhaps we can engage in serious dialogue until we decide again what’s really important and why.

Change of this magnitude will not come easy. Change of this magnitude will shake the world. Change of this magnitude may even lead the whole world toward a new, more meaningful path for all its people.

The question is, how long are we willing to continue walking along the treacherous, divergent road we’re on, until we finally stop and admit we’re lost?