The Eternal
Adolescence by Doc Cuddy
1. The desire to be liked,
and Which explains how Huck and Jim wound up on that raft floating down the big river. Which explains why the "American Empire," though huge and real and monstrous (like all empires), will never morph into long slog toward cancerous decadence typical of other empires. The funny thing is, the whole world is aware of these basic traits and how they control our behavior. In spite of everything—Hiroshima and Nagasaki and My Lai and Chile and Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and Katrina and hanging chads and thorny shrubs, the world on some level knows and understands and (ready?) likes us. Still. Improbable but true. Where else are they going to get their daily/weekly/monthly hit of FUN! and endless pubescent partying if not from America? Superficial? Yep, but the whole endlessly evolving Yankee show is built on a solid foundation where the rest of the world wants to live and play: a foundation of hope for a tolerable today and a better tomorrow. The seductive lure here is not staid stability but stability with fun. Naturally, some Americans grow up to be daddies and want to control—and spoil--everything. Given the two defining traits enumerated above, American daddies are a splinter—if troublesome—group. Their first big mistake: Vietnam. OK. Withdraw and lick your wounds. Their second big mistake: Iraq etc. (Clearly, the daddies, however good their intentions, have made—and are making—other mistakes, some of the quite large and destructive, whose final effect remains to be seen—anyone for climate change?) Oops. That way, the Way of Daddies, lies madness and the sorry fate of all empires. What’s different about America is: That way also lies 1) being very visibly disliked a lot by a lot of people, and 2) not having much fun at all. Which is why we’ll eventually learn the error of those ways and stop doing it, no matter how much the daddies and their mindlessly obedient spouses and offspring yelp. No, the American path to empire is not through military conquest and occupation. The American way is through Disneyfication, Hollywoodization, and whatever other ways of having fun we can come up with. Sure, the Japanese and the Germans make better cars, but what country gave the world pickups, Jeeps, and Nash Metropolitans? Sure, the Germans and the Italians made better music for a long time, but what country gave the world jazz, rock and roll, and pure-dee country—and then supplied cute iPods to carry it all around in? Sure, the Brits long ago proved themselves masters of the word, but who put moving pictures with the words and then wired the whole world so everybody could see them everywhere all the time? That way lies empire, American-style. An empire just beneath the surface of whose pervasive,
abrasive propganda (some call it "advertising") often lies playful, sly
self-mockery. Adolescence, like all things, comes to an end. One day, American adolescence will end. We’ll run out of toys and the resources and creative energy to make and play with new ones. The world will move on to other things (Mars, etc.). One day Huck and Jim will reach the Mississippi delta and find there’s no more going down the river. The only place left to go will be OUT. Even as they sail out into the big blue, you may be sure that the remaining New Worlders will be busy busy busy working up a campaign to sell American nostalgia. Bigtime. END
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