The Human Predicament

I had American Heritage today, and tonight I ended up reading quite a bit in preparation for my first AH lab tomorrow afternoon. We talked about "The Human Predicament" and how it conflicted with the American ideals that have been present since our nation's founding. I never really sat down and thought about why American government is still better than many others throughout the world... even though everybody knocks it and says the Constitution is some decaying piece of parchment some old fogies wrote hundreds of years ago and that the government is getting too much power and they don't care about the people anymore, etc. etc. We are basically happy and provided for, which is so much more than many other countries are getting, even today. I mean, I knew, of course, that there were lots of uprisings and anarchies and civil wars and stuff in the world, but I guess I always just thought of those things as old-fashioned and ancient happenings instead of the killers of millions of today's modern people.

Which made me think about what perhaps might be the American "Human Predicament". It doesn't seem to me that we are stuck in the cycle of tyranny, anarchy, and civil war that this idea was characterized by in our book... so I thought. I think our dilemma is coming to terms with what we expect and what we really get. The American Dream is a fabulous thought; but so is the Great American Novel and the Perfect Mormon Family. With access to so much media influences each and every day, I think we are being inundated with goodness. Not that I'm a pessimist; I guess I'm just scared about being too much of an optimist, so much so to become an idealist or something. I'm all for goodness; I just wish it was all true and happened to the normal people, too.