I Miss the “Old America” 

OK, I get it. Every generation thinks that the “golden age” that preceded them is a “utopia” of a sort.  Yes, I understand the rosy haze that nostalgia creates in the minds.  I get it.  I fully understand the mindset.

Having said that, there is something so profound, so earth-shaking about the social, political, ethical, philosophical and cultural changes in the U.S. since the 1960s: a decade I remember well. 

For example, in 1969 as a young teenager watching the moon landing with my family, the America I lived in and was brought up in, had NO mass shootings, NO school shootings, NO “drive-by” shootings, NO church shootings.  None.  Yes, violence existed in “the old America.”  But the violence back in 1969 (and even earlier) was somewhat rare, individualized, and primarily a feature of the decaying East coast cities.  It was limited, small-scale, and far away from my homogeneous Midwestern city which wasn’t exactly “Mayberry RFD” but it was close to it.  A murder in NYC or Philly was few and far between back then, and happened 10,000 Light Years from where we lived.  (Fun fact: in 1950, Cleveland, Ohio had over twice the population that it has today, with more and more people fleeing every year, and yet, only a fraction of the crime and violence today.) 

Today however, now that the U.S. Cultural Revolution has been in full swing for 40 plus years, violence, degeneracy, dysfunction, decay and social disintegration is everywhere: there are few areas left to escape to.  And the violence is so commonplace in the U.S. today that it has become like background noise.  A soundtrack of sorts, to a dying Empire in its death throes.  A school shooting?  A mass stabbing?  A church set on fire?  It’s just another “day at the office” in the new America.  Yeah, I really miss the old America.  I wish I could flip a switch and go back to escape our current madness.