When did our world change? The good old days~
Once upon a time there was a country that was founded on some basic principles and by Founding Fathers that tried so hard to lay out ground rules called The Constitution that would keep their country on the right path and a democracy that would survive longer than any previous society.
But somewhere along the way greed and power won out again. It started with a very quiet revolution by the powerful people when they outlawed a simple weed, marijuana, then it quietly passed a measure that put all money in control of a few very powerful men, the Federal Reserve.
But our world truly changed in the 1960’s. When America was involved in war it always seemed like a righteous war. A war for a cause we believed in. WWI and WWII because we were helping to protect Europe from being completely over run and destroyed by a country that wanted to rule the world.
But in 1960 we went to war with a tiny country called Vietnam. Why? What was there?
And no one knew. Know one knows to this day why we felt the need to get into a war where another country (France) had only recently pulled out of because after ten years it knew there was no way to control it.
When did our world change? Where are the good old days?
When America decided to go to war it raised questions. After all, Vietnam wasn’t trying to take over the region. It wasn’t attacking neighboring countries and trying to impose its will on other people. It wasn’t any of our business. It didn’t seem to have an resources we wanted or needed. It was a tiny country in Asia. Why did we go?
And those questions started a movement. At the time it seemed like such a stupid thing, protest the war. Hippies, those losers who smoked the illegal cannabis and never worked were protesting. Damned hippies. And while they spurred a movement that protested the war they also spurred actions against the soldiers of that war. Not against the government who sent us there. Not against the congressional electees who supported it. Not against the corporations who profited from it. But against the soldiers who were ‘drafted’ and forced to go fight a war that we didn’t support or understand.
And that was where America started to change. It went from a country that stood for good and supported our allies to a country starting wars to make profits for big money corporations. The same people who banned cannabis. The same people who took control of America’s money by privatizing it into the Federal Reserve.
And with the War in Vietnam not only did we lose our soldiers we lost our innocence and began to realize that America wasn’t the country we had grown up believing it was.
And now we know that corporations and rich rich rich people run America, make our laws and decide our incomes. Now we understand that greed is a reward and if you are rich enough the law does not pertain to you. And when we see the lowly rich we want what they have and we think we can lie, cheat and steal our way to finding the same lavish lifestyles that they enjoy. And when we get a glimpse of the super-rich we can’t even fathom that kind of life or that much money. Because we have been taught that we should settle. We should simply go to school, get a good education, find ourselves a job and live out our lives.
And now the Hippies don’t seem like such a crazy bunch of losers any more. And we are starting to see that our involvement in other countries does not benefit us, the America people, but only the interests of the very rich.
Sad to say, America has lost it’s compass and it is up to us, the individual Americans, to take our country back by living our lives the way we think they should be lived; believing in our neighbors, doing the right thing (the Golden Rule), living honestly with purpose, becoming the person we would want our children to be proud of.
You see, once again it’s up to you to make your world as great as it can be.
Is this a simplified look at our world? Yes, and maybe that’s exactly how we need to begin again.
I am Steve Sapato, creator of ‘Learn to Win’ course on believing in yourself and learning how to win at life.
