America's problems go very deep, we're a society fundamentally obsessed with wealth, status, and power

[Outcast9428]

And this obsession leaks into every area of life, making life here difficult for anybody who doesn't have a go getter, type A personality. I've thought about all the criticisms that @Winston has had of America and I feel like it all comes down to this. America is absolutely obsessed with power and remaining the most powerful nation on Earth. Let's address each of the criticisms we've all thought about.

1. Americans talk about how America is the best country on Earth. You point out all the crime, suicide, drug abuse, and the breakdown of the family in America... But Americans continue saying we're the best country on Earth.

Because Americans are not focused on whether the actual quality of life in America is the best in the world. Americans are not proud of our quality of life, they are proud of our power. We can militarily destroy anybody while barely lifting a finger. Every country in the world is absorbing American culture at a frightening rate. Lots of countries are essentially becoming America's proxy.

2. Americans talk about America being the freest country on Earth. You then mention how we are one of the only countries that makes prostitution illegal, how we're extremely uptight about political correctness and not violating the liberal orthodoxy. No country in the world is as obsessed with age gating as America is either. Whether its telling teenagers they can't drink a beer, watch an R rated movie, be out of the house after 11:00 or midnight, or even date and have relationships. America is obsessed with treating teenagers like children yet we're the freest country on Earth?

This contradiction exists because again, Americans are not talking about how free you are to find and pursue things that would actually make your life more happy. Americans are saying that no other country on Earth gives you as much freedom to pursue wealth and power, as an individual, as America does. This is admittedly true. America gives individuals so much freedom to pursue wealth and power that the CEOs of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Nike, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and many other companies have become more powerful and arguably more wealthy then the government itself now. A small number of private individuals literally control the US government now. They can lobby politicians to pass whatever laws they want and impose whatever ideology they want on the citizenry.

I don't deny that American society gives you a lot of freedom to pursue wealth and power, but quite frankly, I don't care much for that freedom. The freedom I want is to not be stuck in an office for 45-50 hours out of the week, to not have chemicals that will f**k with my hormones forced on me, to not be forced to be "educated" until I'm 22 years old just to have a decent job, to be able to laugh and make insensitive jokes without getting fired, to not have to build a fake character on social media in order to find acceptance. Those apparently are not freedoms that American society cares about though. The only freedom American society really cares about is letting everybody pursue power, which leads me to my third point.

3. Why is feminism so bad in the US? Why is dating so difficult?

Because US society is obsessed with power, it believes that nothing is more evil and immoral then denying certain people the opportunity to pursue their own individual wealth and power. Teaching women not to compete with men and instead be vessels of love who take care of their husband and children is an egregious violation of America's single-minded obsession with making sure every individual can compete for power. Anybody who criticizes this system is hated on, because you are basically saying that women shouldn't pursue power because its not really that important and that we'd be happier if we focused on our relationships with one another instead of being as competitive as possible. America is obsessed with competition and thinks competition is the highest moral good. American society hates people who aren't competitive with others, and therefore, feminism hates women who don't want to compete with men and just want to be happy.

American raised women love bad boy types because they are the most competitive. They dislike nice guys because nice guys just want a loyal, loving partner. They aren't looking for someone to bolster their social status. Most American women are looking for a male partner who can raise their social status and make them more competitive among their peers and co-workers. They aren't looking for a man to love and take care of them anymore. Therefore, it makes the most sense to go for bad boy types because bad boys are the ones obsessed with social status and competition whereas nice guys just want to be happy.

Unfortunately the majority of American conservatives agree with this toxic mentality. This is why Americans are much more drawn to the far right on racial issues then they are to far right traditionalism and social conservatism. American conservatives are even more obsessed then the progressives are with maintaining America's power and competitive spirit because those are the values that built the 1980s Reaganist America and that's really what most American conservatives want to return to. Not the spiritually and morally rich society of the 1950s. Most modern American conservatives don't want to teach their daughters not to compete, to just fall in love, marry and be happy, or to be a stay at home wife. They want their daughters competing on equal footing with the boys and god forbid their daughter show more of an interest in love during high school then on becoming a powerful career woman who can take care of herself and "needs no man."

4. Why is making friends so difficult in the US?

Because almost nobody who has fully absorbed American values cares about their friendships and relationships for the sake of happiness anymore. Its all about "what can you give me. Do you make me look cool when I hang around you? Do you provide me opportunities I wouldn't otherwise have had?" Its no longer about finding people you just like talking to, who can engage with you in an interesting conversation. Its all about just what can you give them. So making real friends in the US who are not foreigners or people with a foreign background is virtually impossible.

5. Why is work like a religion in the US? Why do you have to go into every interview promising to be a super ambitious, go getter who wants to rise to the top?

Because ultimately this is what American society is all about. Its all about rising to the top and anybody who has different values is shunned from this society. Are you a simple minded guy who just wants to make enough money to live happily with your life and family? Nope, that's not good enough for American corporations and society. You have to love competition, you must want to rise to the top, you need to have ambition! Making just enough money to be comfortable and happy? How lame! Don't you want a ferrari? Don't you want the biggest TV in your neighborhood? Don't you want your subordinates at work to look up to you? America doesn't want to love thy neighbor, it wants to be richer then thy neighbor. This country runs on jealousy. They put celebrities and their lifestyles in your face hoping you will want to be just like them. Hollywood celebrities are now being replaced with social media and youtube celebrities.

I've read two books about Ancient Rome. One was "Infamy: Crimes of Ancient Rome" and the other was "Popular Culture of Ancient Rome." And the thing that struck me immediately was how similar Ancient Roman society was to modern day America. The obsession with status, power, wealth, and competition is exactly the same. America now is basically just a less violent, more ethically minded version of Ancient Roman society. But the primary reason why we're becoming a more and more immoral nation every year is because power, wealth, and status are still our gods and until we cast out these false gods of ours, we will never be a happy society.

[Tsar]

I have similar thoughts but my explanation goes somewhat further. There's a lot I could say about this topic.