Thoughts about the Shining City On The Hill

As another Independence Day rolls around, I pause to reflect on how this blog has so often depicted the existential struggle and ways to appreciate our lives and realize epiphanies, enlightenment. It was once true that, however down I felt, within a few sentences of writing, I would find myself championing reasons to feel better, and gain control over my sense of ennui ("ehhh...") or anxiety.

There were also a lot of short stories in the California years.
photo courtesy Ed Sanders, Florida.

There's some re-evaluation of our founders and ancestors in general underway. There's a great deal of resistance to the status quo many know, being challenged. And, of course, there's a public health crisis that has gotten subsumed in identity politics, to the point where the clear choice seen by most- whether to err on the side of caution, or no- is met with considerable discomfort. There are many psychological factors at work there: the unimaginable magnitude of numbers, revulsion at the thought of ourselves as carriers- many ways this situation plays cruel games with our minds.

I cannot quantify which is worse: the uneasiness we presently feel in gathering (save for online), or the selfishness we see in careless others. For some, the lack of concern for personal liberty- and the freedom to congregate- is most troubling, while for a growing number, it is the destructiveness of said resistance- to the economic recovery, and most personally, to the safety of others, in grasping the nature of an invisible predator. The principles on which we build our safety, the respect and honor we accord those who see to it- these often evoke the origins of our country, even among those proportionately more hazy on the intent, actions, or even the chronological years of those days. But it's nationally-common knowledge we celebrate the birth of this nation on July 4th, 1776. So, another year of the United States of America is now joined.

On the issue of race relations, I am not so sure that, despite more outspoken racism, maybe we aren't getting in a better place, gradually, by having the discussion about where the American notions of comfort and safety actually reside, and upon whose convenience and inconvenience they rest.

Well, tonight I am responding, at least, in part, to this article: https://news.yahoo.com/yahoo-news-you-gov-july-4th-poll-62-percent-of-americans-no-longer-see-america-as-shining-city-on-a-hill-202931706.html

At least, somewhere, and maybe increasingly, around here, the majority see this pandemic is going to be with us at least all year.

I think it's possible more news about the underbelly of America's existence - from its treatment of the Natives and the existence of slavery, onward- is reaching more people than before. The truth requires a great deal of reconciliation. The sense of social mobility- one of our more defining and unique aspects- has been on a long decline.

The cold feelings about our leadership- especially nationally- might be separated somewhat from how we feel about individuals we know. Increasingly, we are finding out the myriad of ways we disagree. Interestingly, people who feel positively about the President also feel pretty negatively about the country as a whole, cultually.

Oh! And finally, so very many of these respondents were more innocent overall when Reagan gave that speech. They felt much safer and more trusting than now.

Now, what would be interesting is, if we can forge the strength of will to assess the actual damage, and then address how we might improve the quality of life here in America. I can confidently remind you, we may've felt it was meant to be better than this. But so many people would rather risk ending up in a pen for weeks or even months- risk being separated from their precious families- than remain in their homes in Central and South America. Many of the reasons for optimism, for ourselves, have not borne out. But this is still nowhere nearly the most dangerous society on the planet. The crime rate's been on a long decline- don't let a few videos of looters, or even rampaging officers, change your mind on that. Right now, the saddest thing about America is the way our environmental protections have been dismantled, our wealth has drifted to the 'top' of fewer and few people, and we're increasingly, in most states, a hotbed for viral contagion.

And college tuition, to our fine universities, has sky-rocketed, and our loans have been sold off. Yes, that's more than one sad thing.
Speaking so generally about it, it's hard to absorb how depressing the individual results are.

And I can't say for sure we'll collectively see through the b.s. and demand an accounting of those using the law and business practices in a successfully parasitic fashion, or to what degree. But if more people realize the hand is on the stove, they'll stop burning themselves.

I would actually love to compile a long list of items that make the case for what is wonderful here in America. Individual stories and sacrifices, tremendous natural resources, opportunities that have indeed been opened to us- and the right to pursue your own happiness- can be refreshing, and are a necessary part of the picture. The attainment of much more personal goals typically absorbs the individual's efforts and appeitites. Yet, I can see, from a small every day level between neighbors and even strangers- to extensive organized efforts to deal with large societal ills like addiction and homelessness- there are many qualities that may not be exceptional to America only, but are fine qualities in humanity, nonetheless.

What I find interesting, too, is how individual intentions, however personally positive, are not always universally agreeable. My effort to recycle- presently paused during the pandemic- might be a joke to someone else (who is wrong, by the way). A heartfelt desire to lead people to Christ- to save them, not just with money and favors, but really foster a life-changing path to coincide with eternal salvation- might be seen as unwanted cultural engineering by a proponent of humanistic secular rights. So, it's intriguingly, if exhaustingly, problematic for those who are attempting to live 'outside the cave' from Plato's allegory- there's no one agreeable picture about what we'll find, if we are not just sitting in the dark. The solutions that resonate with people, attempting to be conscientious, may be in conflict with the principles, or existence, of another.

Nor are my efforts to pass along uplifting thoughts and examples intended as a naive bandage skimpily stretched over the serious wounds. We may individually be having some of the best of times. Depending on the length and arc of your life, you might well believe these are the worst.

The knowledge of these complexities, in my case, leads me to meditate on what measures practically benefit humanity and the health of the planet as a whole. People more educated and rigorously knowledgeable than I, have been emotionally flattened by depression, at both the magnitude and the lack of focused public will on the collective efforts necessary to resolve, say, the issue of what to do with all our trash, or what jobs should people have to support their lives versus the negative or positive impact of that job on both the environment and humanity (think: magazine sales subscriptions- which are surely more rare than in the days of more widespread landlines).

So, two things.

Dr. Dyer- who taught me to occasionally, if lost, look on the world through the intentions of Creativity, Kindness, Love, Beauty, Expansion, Abundance, and Receptivity- also suggested we think of ourselves as 'not special.' I think this drfits back to someting I saw referenced today, the pride of making an effort verus the aggressive pride of narcissism. It's great to hear positive things about ourselves, and Ronald Reagan was famous for communicating messages with words symbolizing lasting abstract values. At least, I remember him as such. But how much actuality- what basis was there- for feeling America was exceptional? Was it pride in achievements- progressive rights for women, social mobility, scientific innovation, and the freedom, if you could afford the gasoline, to hop in your car and take your life anywhere across the continental U.S. to try your life? Was it a haughty assumption that, because we had stood for democracy and human rights and freedom of religion, we were the sacrosanct arbiters of how other nations should live?

People struggle enough to be happy without having to examine the underpinnings of our way of life for how it exploits, damages, and depletes lives and reserves of other countries, as well as our own. But is the struggle for that happiness disrupted, if unwittingly, unconsciously, by the truth that underlies it- that those who benefit are divorced from the reality of the high price paid by those exploited?

Gratitude- especially for what is demonstrably true- does increase the value of one's life. Gratitude has been expressed many times over, even by those who humorously have declared they came to this country with seven dollars or so and scraped their way to a better life. A smug sense of unearned self-congratulation is also served by the same idea. When one would speak with multitudes, the words carry many facets to the prism into which the masses look. If even I am often self-aware that a given phrase I leave will be shaped by the context brought to it by a variety of individuals, then surely that speech, and the Christian-toned phrase "Shining City on A Hill" (as in holidng one's candle aloft rather than hiding it, so it may provide light), was written with the variety of the masses in mind. It is a phrase meant to capture the collective sense of pride that brings together a nation, despite its internal disagreements, for that shared sense 'we're in this together' encourages the emotions necessary for our finest efforts of self-sacrifice and generosity, as well as serving cynically as pablum proffered by those who want their accumulation of riches to continue without surcease.

But what if we can see areas in which other nations have taken up the torch- for postive freedom, freedom to act upon one's will, as well as negative freedom, the liberation from tyranny celebrated and marked by Independence Day? What if we can see, not naivety in our ancestors' love of this country, but a continuous and sane, if occasionally supra-rational, emotional response to the principles we value? How can we build this country into a genuine Shining City, in fulfillment of the promises envisioned in generations past? We seem less passionate than decades ago about the ideal that everyone is free to pursue their own happiness. What forces stand in threat to the most broad pursuit of happiness, then? It is an issue requiring the change born in the actions of the individual level, but also, some sensible collective gathering of will, which is quite another challenge altogether, as we crtique the system in which any chosen delegates on a local, state or national level, operate. When will we return to an agreement on many concerns of demonstrable value to the collective, and individual, good? If we- one of the nations now excluded from travel to the EU, for example- are not resonate within our populace as The Shining City On The Hill- which measures can, at least, save the United States of America from being the object of pity and derision?

I do not know if you would say the problem is that the light has dimmed or blown out, or if the hill has given way to soil creep- or if you might be among those who insist we remain The Shining City On the Hill. I assure you, the perspective from which you see this country- in a nation more, or less fortunate, as a person seen as this ethnicity or that color-bears weight in your feelings about that.


But the point- if it deserved to be made- was one of encouraging aspirations. If I take it like this, rather than a self-congratulatory and delusional pat on the back, I do believe we can make the entire country one more friendly to aspiration. To fostering American Dreams that need not destroy so much. To more American Dreams achieved by more Americans. Less centralized wealth and business opportunity, less prejudiced career opportunities, and always, more honesty, more concern about honesty- which is so often subsumed by one's emotional standpoint. I realize the truths to which every individual subscries will not all be born out in evidence of equal weight. But Hope makes such a remarkable difference in halting the slide towards mediocrity, danger, and waning respect for one's self and others. Every hill is made of nigh-countless little bits of dirt. Every light is darkness to the blind.

Raise Beauty. Uplift Hope. Move in the direction that makes you anxious and do not shy away from your fears. Make your silences a temple of Peace rather than a pit of spears. Every change you see, for good or ill, is the result of organization, too. But the shining city on the hill- like the mental construct of a nation, or the perception of a world-is a place inside you, friend. We're not bound to agree on every aspect. But we do each our part in averting disaster, tyranny and ignornance. Do not discount the city you have built within.

Lift up its light.