Life was better back when we used to talk to each other.

 Inflation is more of a threat to our future than the average American understands and, very unfortunately, our president is among those that refuses to understand its importance.  Rising prices are not only making everything more expensive, they are also reducing the value of all savings and of money itself.  If we were wise we would reduce all unnecessary spending and focus our economic policy on bringing inflation down as a very high priority.  We are not, of course wise enough to do this.  Quite the contrary, we are engaged in all manner of stupidities that feed inflation.  The absolute dumbest of all being the several very expensive wars that we are presently, needlessly, ignorantly engaged in, but the causes are many, and I see little hope that we will wake up in time to deal with them before they wreak further hardship on us.

Culture change is the handmaiden of inflation as well as the cause of some of it.  Far too many native born Americans are irresponsibly lazy and increasingly timid.  It is not their fault.  They were born into wealth, they take it for granted, and they understandably want more of it.  They are very nice people who have never had to fight for their wealth, and they don’t want to start now.  They are lazy in body, and in mind, the latter being the more dangerous of the two.  If the rest of the world were in the same situation, the challenge would be somewhat less difficult, but there are countries out there that are full of people who see an opportunity to advance their own interests at our expense.  Some of them are armed with weaponry that can inflict massive damage.  Damage so severe that it calls into question whether it is possible for anyone to win the next world war.  

The most amazing part of the present situation is the magnitude of our ability to ignore what is happening.  Many of us actually believe that if we are nice enough to enemies abroad and criminals at home, we can live in peace and prosperity.  Americans have long had the ability to ignore poverty in other countries, but now we increasingly ignore it here at home and are actually going out of our way to expand it by actively encouraging the rest of the world to come live with us.  We vociferously demand more housing while simultaneously writing building code that requires million dollar homes for any two of the more successful of us.  We invent “small homes” for the people that are living on our city streets.  Shacks for people that don’t really count.  Our foreign policy is motivated by the exact same thinking.  Throw a reasonable amount of money at people living in wherever and get back to the reality that you are creating on your phone.  A reality that censors dangerous diversity of thought, but does not deal with it.  Stay away from real people as best you can.  Eschew brick and mortar for online convenience.  Message those in your inner circle but stay away from any gathering that is not absolutely necessary - not because of health concerns - but rather to avoid having to talk face to face with someone that does not see the entire world exactly the same way that you do.

Life was better back when we used to talk to each other.  Now, we just yell at each other long distance.  The demonstrations in our colleges and universities merely being the most absurd tip of the more pervasive problem that infects all of us, to include you and me.  When the feces hits the whiling blade we will look for people that can deal with the real world, but as long as we can pretend that our fantasy world is real, we will continue to disparage them.  Our motto being "Death to America."