The United States, a Failed State ?

The United States is showing all the symptoms of becoming a failed state. The rot of constitutional governance starts at the very top, a President who claims for himself the right to do anything he wants; Cabinet Officers at the highest level showing complete disregard for their responsibilities to the people of the United States rather than just kowtowing to only the sociopathic President. 

At the local level we see the very thin veneer of civilized behavior disintegrating, where governors and local officials are trying to present a veneer of being in control, while everyone is using the police as scapegoats for societal problems which have been baked into American society since the very founding.

Contrary to the soaring sentiments and words of the Declaration of Independence, the Framers of the Constitution, whom we have been brainwashed into treating as infallible holy-men, made a pact with the devil by legitimizing slavery. Understandable as that may have been, given the realties of the times, this original pact with the devil has never been resolved, not by the Civil War, not by the civil rights movement and legislation of the 60’s and not by anything we as a society have been able to do since then.

The mistake we as a society, and especially our politicians, are making now is that, instead of actually implementing political and social programs to finally try to mitigate this deep seated racism, and social injustice in general, we are now using the police as scapegoats for the myriad of social, economic and health problems. The police are being asked not only to enforce the laws, but have been forced into the untenable position of dealing with mental illness, drug use and petty crime on the streets, because, as a society, we are not willing to deal with these issues at a broader level.

We as a society are in the throws of a false feel-good liberalism, where governors and mayors mouth words of sympathy for victims of possible police violence and misconduct, but have not and do not do anything to effectively control the systemic economic, social and racial inequalities in their communities. Where is the equivalent outrage at the violence in our cities, where children are routinely caught in the cross-fire of warring gangs? Who, if not the police, is going to protect the residents of these neighborhoods from the violence in their midst, perpetrated not by the police, but by their own children, friends and neighbors.

By “feel-good liberalism” I mean the spouting of (possibly sincere) banal words of empathy with racial and social injustice, designed to make the speakers themselves “feel good”, without actually doing the hard work of implementing social and political programs to mitigate these issues.

The fact that our downward spiral towards a failed state is hard to recognize is explained by the “boiling frog” fable. If one takes a step back and looks at the many failed states around us, like Syria, Libya, Venezuela, it is easier to recognize, that their descend into chaotic lawlessness and even civil war show a lot of parallels to what the United States is experiencing now: despotic, lawless, sociopathic rule at the top, untreated social discontent, protests, looting and burning cities, and finally, to complete the cycle, a ruler calling for the use of more force, even threatening the use of the military, to quell and “control” the violence, as our President is doing now.

The best case scenario in the short run is that this outburst of violence too will subside and that we get back to “business as usual”. But business as usual is at best only a delaying tactic. Americans as a society seem to be allergic to true introspective self-criticism; we always have to reassure ourselves that we are the best, the greatest, the richest, without the necessary humility to admit our shortcomings and failings. Without such honest introspection, we will not solve our deep seated social problems and our descent towards a failed state, or at best a second rate nation, will continue. 

As a reality check on how far towards second rate status the Unites States has fallen, one needs only review some sobering statistics. The fact that we continually pride ourselves on having the highest GDP, a virtually meaningless statistic, should not distract from these sobering statistics.

• USA Ranking on Adult Literacy Scale: 9 (1 Sweden and 2 Norway) – OECD
• USA Ranking on Health care Quality Index: 37 (1 France and 2 Italy) – World Health Organization 2003
• USA Ranking of Student Reading Ability: 12 (1 Finland and 2 South Korea) – OECD PISA 2003
• USA Ranking of Student Problem Solving Ability: 26 (1 South Korea and 2 Finland) – OECD PISA 2003
• USA Ranking on Student Mathematics Ability:  24 (1 Hong Kong and 2 Finland) – OECD PISA 2003
• USA Ranking of Student Science Ability: 19 (1 Finland and 2 Japan) – OECD PISA 2003
• USA Ranking on Women’s Rights Scale: 17 (1 Sweden and 2 Norway) – World Economic Forum Report
• USA Position on Timeline of Gay Rights Progress:  6 (1997) (1 Sweden 1987 and 2 Norway 1993) – Vexen
• USA Ranking on Life Expectancy: 29 (1 Japan and 2 Hong Kong) – UN Human Development Report 2005
• USA Ranking on Journalistic Press Freedom Index: 32 (1 Finland, Iceland, Norway and the Netherlands tied) – Reporters without Borders 2005
• USA Ranking on Political Corruption Index: 17 (1 Iceland and 2 Finland) – Transparency International 2005
• USA Ranking on Quality of Life Survey: 13 (1 Ireland and 2 Switzerland) – The Economist Magazine …Wikipedia “Celtic Tiger” if you still have your doubts.
• USA Ranking on Environmental Sustainability Index: 45 (1 Finland and 2 Norway) – Yale University ESI 2005
• USA Ranking on Overall Currency Strength: 3 (US Dollar) (1 UK pound sterling and 2 European Union euro)- FTSE 2006….the dollar is now a liability, so many banks worldwide have planned to switch to euro
• USA Ranking on Infant Mortality Rate: 32 (1 Sweden and 2 Finland) – Save the Children Report 2006
• USA Ranking on Human Development Index (GDP, education, etc.): 10 (1 Norway and 2 Iceland) – UN Human Development Report 2005
• USA Ranking on Happiest Nations: 150 (1 Vanuatu and 2 Bhutan) -New Economics Foundation (NEF).