3 ms·

Just another illustration that the "America" you learned about is not the America™ we live in. As a parent I find it more and more difficult to try to teach my

Just another illustration that the "America" you learned about is not the America™ we live in. As a parent I find it more and more difficult to try to teach my kids the reality of America without sounding like a conspiracy theory nut job. I do not want my kids growing up with blindly trusting that any institution (schools, corporations, government, etc.) have their best interests in mind. In a way I feel like selling them the "dream" is much less painful but I would feel like I failed as a parent to not warn my kids of the realities of the world.

mythrwy 8y ago
I feel similar, but think it's less the institutions are corrupt and more institutions have been co-opted by corrupt people seeing opportunity for profit without contribution. I don't know how to fix it, it seems a deeply entrenched problem at many levels and each level will vigorously deny they are the problem. Healthcare and education being two of the most egregious examples but similar problems exist in many areas in public and private institutions. It's like a fungus or rot or something. A food source exists, a store of value which is supposed to provide energy to the social whole which gets infected by middle (and upper) management, consultants etc, pathologically twisting the flow of energy away from the original purpose and into their own pockets. I don't think it's "conspiracy" to notice this seems to have grown rampantly in the past few decades in the USA. So it's very easy to get cynical. But we either solve these problems and return to standards of non-kleptocracy and general justice and welfare or we die as a society. This has happened before in human history. It's not easy to roll back corruption and usually it doesn't happen, but the possibility exists.
stevenwoo 8y ago
The two most depressing books I have read recently are A People's History of the United States and Lies My Teacher Told Me and I wish I had read them when I was a child but YMMV.
- tome 8y ago
  Hopefully the fourth paragraph of the Wikipedia article will help you feel less depressed, since "A People's History of the United States has been criticized heavily by historians from across the political spectrum. Critics assert blatant omissions of important historical episodes, uncritical reliance on biased sources, and systematic failures to examine opposing views." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_Un...
  - stevenwoo 8y ago
    There is a late chapter where the author has a full throated call for what sounds like community socialism as practiced by Jesus and in my opinion the book is worse for it but the excerpts from the interviews he did in the latest editions and separate book make up for it, also I appreciated the alternative sides that were fighting on all sorts of political issues that lost even if they are seen as biased because the it's natural for either side in a conflict - it's interesting because I'm old enough to have been taught the Columbus and Pilgrams as beneficient travelers tale even up to high school, and the native American experience/side is pretty inadequately covered by most all media.
- cityzen 8y ago
  thanks, I will put these on my list!

mythrwy 8y ago

I feel similar, but think it's less the institutions are corrupt and more institutions have been co-opted by corrupt people seeing opportunity for profit without contribution. I don't know how to fix it, it seems a deeply entrenched problem at many levels and each level will vigorously deny they are the problem. Healthcare and education being two of the most egregious examples but similar problems exist in many areas in public and private institutions. It's like a fungus or rot or something. A food source exists, a store of value which is supposed to provide energy to the social whole which gets infected by middle (and upper) management, consultants etc, pathologically twisting the flow of energy away from the original purpose and into their own pockets. I don't think it's "conspiracy" to notice this seems to have grown rampantly in the past few decades in the USA. So it's very easy to get cynical. But we either solve these problems and return to standards of non-kleptocracy and general justice and welfare or we die as a society. This has happened before in human history. It's not easy to roll back corruption and usually it doesn't happen, but the possibility exists.

stevenwoo 8y ago

The two most depressing books I have read recently are A People's History of the United States and Lies My Teacher Told Me and I wish I had read them when I was a child but YMMV.

tome 8y ago
Hopefully the fourth paragraph of the Wikipedia article will help you feel less depressed, since "A People's History of the United States has been criticized heavily by historians from across the political spectrum. Critics assert blatant omissions of important historical episodes, uncritical reliance on biased sources, and systematic failures to examine opposing views." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_Un...
- stevenwoo 8y ago
  There is a late chapter where the author has a full throated call for what sounds like community socialism as practiced by Jesus and in my opinion the book is worse for it but the excerpts from the interviews he did in the latest editions and separate book make up for it, also I appreciated the alternative sides that were fighting on all sorts of political issues that lost even if they are seen as biased because the it's natural for either side in a conflict - it's interesting because I'm old enough to have been taught the Columbus and Pilgrams as beneficient travelers tale even up to high school, and the native American experience/side is pretty inadequately covered by most all media.
cityzen 8y ago
thanks, I will put these on my list!