I have a two year-old who has the same stubborn will of my parents and in-laws. He wants to do what he wants to do when he wants to do it, even if it will result in his own harm.
Have you ever noticed that your parents as they get older can't be told anything? That they are just set in doing things a certain way and even though they complain a lot about things that aren't working, they do little to often fix them?
My two year-old is a lot like them. You tell him not to do something and he immediately does the exact opposite, often gazing at you with his innocent blue eyes as if to say, "How about if I do it this way? Or this way? Will this get me into trouble?"
I can only liken this behavior to that of many who live in this country right now.
For years, Americans suspected and were warned of the health hazards that came with smoking. Years later, many deaths and lawsuits after, a "Surgeons General Warning" came with each pack of cigarettes, announcing its link to cancer, emphysema, heart disease and other leading causes of death. While tobacco producers took a hit, it's usage has remained and cigarettes are still the leading cause of preventable death in the United States as of 2015.
From the CDC:
Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, accounting for more than 480,000 deaths every year, or 1 of every 5 deaths.1
In 2015, about 15 of every 100 U.S. adults aged 18 years or older (15.1%) currently* smoked cigarettes. This means an estimated 36.5 million adults in the United States currently smoke cigarettes.2 More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.2
Current smoking has declined from nearly 21 of every 100 adults (20.9%) in 2005 to about 15 of every 100 adults (15.1%) in 2015.2
Not so crazy is that the percentage of those fifteen adults that smoke declines massively when education levels go beyond college but surprisingly, if your education stopped at a GED, those comprised the highest number of smokers. We all know what it means when we smoke, and yet millions do it anyway.
Americans have been told of the dangers associated with heroin and many of the opioid drugs used as painkillers. Yet the opioid overdoses are off the charts since 2014.
Perhaps the largest problem in this country is our love affair with violence. And it is a love affair.
From an article in the Hollywood Reporter on violence and sex in movies -- In 2010, about 89.7 percent of movies contained violence, and 81.5 percent featured sex, and the numbers were roughly static through the years, according to the study. Smoking, though, has fallen from roughly 68 percent in 1985 to 21.4 percent in 2010.
(A sidenote: we could draw a conclusion from this data suggesting that smoking is seen as more dangerous to show than violence.)
And from this article in HR in 2013, gun violence had more than tripled in PG-13 movies since 1985. Not completely surprising, the corresponding number of gun households has remained close to the same percentage wise as years ago, estimated around 35%, though skewed higher toward whites with wealthier incomes.....However, the population has grown, meaning the numbers of people actually owning has increased. Good gun data is hard to get though this was an interesting read from The Guardian.
Yet the number of mass shootings, gun homicides and gun suicides has done little to deter Americans from their love of guns. Background checks are at an all-time high.
In a recent study of deceased football players, of the 111 studied, ninety-nine percent (99%) showed a form of CTE in their brains. The article can be found here from the Washington Post. Yet the NFL, is by far, the most popular sport in this country.
Now we are being told that the science is clear, our earth climate is changing, and not for our benefit. The dying off of species is happening at record rates, with no certain conclusions about what this will mean for humanity. One thing is certain, which is that we are all connected. From the global economy to international communication via the Internet to our fragile ecosystem, the world is smaller than ever. The data is available for anyone to read and examine and determine their 'opinion.' But to draw an opinion that somehow says we don't need to act, is the same thing as my two-year-old pushing the boundaries of what is OK.
We were warned what a Trump Presidency would mean for climate change and the United States' involvement in leading the world toward a cleaner and safer environment. It took the Obama administration years to get China to finally sign on to The Paris Accords, a step seen by the scientific community as not only necessary, but not even enough to deter our average temperature from rising two degrees by the end of the century. That small, two degree increase is predicted to cause massive problems, from rising oceans along the coast, to melting much of the permafrost at the poles, which may contain harmful organisms long since gone since the days of the dinosaur. No one knows for sure.
But one thing is certain about this nation-- fact-based analytical thinking is in jeopardy, and all of the above suggest this country will no longer be the beacon of leadership it once was. Americans simply don't like being told what to do, or that they're wrong, even when it may be for their own best interest or protection.
I'm sure you've heard people questioning what is wrong with society today that these ills befall us, but all you need to do is cast a cursory glance at data above and the choices we're making on a daily basis to understand that what is good for us is rarely how we'll choose our course of action.
I know parents that took four-year-olds to see WONDER WOMAN. I was in JURASSIC PARK years ago sitting next to a six-year-old. While both great movies, these were heavily violent and scary films for a child's mind to try to absorb, and yet these parents seemed to forget that. Or they simply ignored it with an "it's-no-big-deal" approach. It's the same approach parents use when they defend their own child cheating on a test because the moral issue isn't as important as acknowledging that in life there are cheaters. It's the same approach gun owners use when they've seen our children slaughtered in mass school shootings without a single thing being done to try to fight the problem except to make our schools fenced in prison yards. It's not the guns, though the gun's only use is to kill.
To me, Donald Trump is the culmination of all of the bad things America likes to experience at their own peril. A bourgeoisie-born socialite and businessman, who has rarely erred on the side of appreciation for those that have kept him there, Trump's inability to control his own demeanor, along with his random contradictions and lies, supported by our free press' data and sources, make him the single most dangerous threat to our Democracy ever. His attack on facts and data, aka his attack on the press, labeling any organization that dares contradict him before he does it himself as FAKE, meant little when he held no title. But as President, it has caused the American people to distrust its own media, the largest of which still contain the kind of editorial staff to prevent illogical and non-sourced material to make its pages. This seed of doubt, which he has sought to and likely has succeeded in planting in many of our citizens, is at odds with the very Constitution those citizens elected him to protect.
On a day where Trump's tough talk to North Korea no doubt appealed to that same kind of gun-toting manly white dads who thought it all right for their kindergartners to see giant dinosaurs eat people on screen, his ratcheting up of rhetoric against a possible nuclear power, all the while having taken actions to shake the trust of our Allies, means the next month or year might indeed have the most serious repercussions.
The kind of repercussions that will be a big deal.
It's really time Americans as a whole start realizing that our self-involved, me-first, Instagram culture will mean nothing on a dying planet. It will mean less in a post-nuclear age, should it ever come to this. It's time for Americans to realize that being told what is good for you by people smarter than you isn't a reason to feel insecure or to feel slighted. It is a reason to be thankful, because someone with further insight and vision than you have is out there protecting you.
We need leaders that not only are smarter than we are, but more importantly, care for our well-being. Perhaps the day where we elevate the best among us to lead will return soon. Let's just hope that happens before the launch codes are entered.
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