Prognosticating Doom

One of the most important results of my professional socialpsychological development (first through years as a student and now as a researcher) is a critical and deservedly cynical view of the media.  While most of their inaccuracies and errant analysis are not intentional I am coming to believe that the one percent they get right is due to sheer accident.  Perhaps I am exaggerating a bit but I have truely come to question nearly every statement verbalized by some individual from the great nameless mass we call "the media".  The lack of credibility portends dangerous consequences for society... but that is a subject for another time.
Let us examine a specific article on MSN.com headlined,  "Why all signs point to chaos" byAnthony Mirhaydari a writer for The Edge.  Before we dive into the specifics let me point out one of my pet peeves:  fear mongering.  I hate it, especially fear mongering wrapped in sophistication.  This hatred is at the root of why I am averse to home alarm systems and particularly auto, life and health insurance.  Do not try to sell me by petitioning one of the most basic and basest of human sensibilities:  fear. 

Needless to say, the headline got my, allbeit annoyed, attention.  It took less than twenty seconds for annoyance to evolve into infuriation.  Here are the first two paragraphs:
You don't have to look far to find evidence that the glue that binds us together is losing its grip. Blame the years of economic turmoil and hardship. The volatility. The booms and busts. The persistent joblessness. The increasingly narrow path to financial independence.
For the vast majority of us -- dare I say, the 99% -- the social contract seems like a raw deal these days.

My self-imposed 2 minute blogging rule is about used up so let me be brief:
 "For the vast majority of us --dare i say, the 99%--..."  "Dare I say"???  Yes, how dare you say it!  I am tired of media, government pundits, social narcissits (groups that say, "to hell with the greater good, we want such and such") and so called intellectual elite claiming that their views are shared by some "vast majority" of Americans.  No, there are not even close to 99% of "us" who think we have been shafted in the matter of our social contract.  Your thinking stinks of the social cancer of entitlement.  Inherant in your statement is a belief that we have been wronged by some external force.  If the social contract is falling apart, the American people have no further to look for the source than their own bathroom mirror.  And while we, individuals, bear the burden if our social ties are threadbare, I have great trust that the American tapestry is not about to fray. On the contrary, I believe that a great majority of the American people still beleive in that contract and feel extremely blessed to live in a country of such magnificent prosperity, freedom and opportunity.  Are there problems, yes.  Is there need for serious reformation?  No!  What we need is rededication to the original principles of that uniquely American "social contract" we call the Constitution, to principles of self-reliance, limited government and to moral virtue. 

So, according to you, "You don't have to look far to find evidence that the glue that binds us together is losing its grip.  Blame..." and you produce a laundry list of causes for the weakening of American social capital.  There are arguments to be made about the waxing and waneing of American social capital, evidence exists to support both a weakening and an invigoration.  Let me grant you a rather large point for the sake of argument:  if the glue that binds us together loses its strength and we slide into chaos as your classic media-sensationalized headline proposes, it will not be for any of the reasons you "blame".  It will be, rather, because American's have discarded their native virtue, their trust in God (which is at the root of their trust in each other), their belief in a civilization fundamentally different than any this world has ever seen.  Yes, I reference the idea that we are exceptional.  But we are being told far to often that we are not.  We are no different than Europe, than Tehran, than Bosnia.  Perhaps we are no different than 1939 Germany.  These countries all have experience with chaos in the face of  economic turmoil, hardship, volatility, booms and busts, persistent joblessness and a narrow path to financial independence.  America has a system, a culture, a set of values and beliefs that makes her exceptional.  But that social contract depends on a critical mass of Americans who still believe in such things.  I do not know if we will slip into chaos and social discontent but if we do, we can only blame it on ourselves for abandoning the morality, the system, the exceptional features of society and a government that made us great over the course of the last two hundred years.  We do not need "real change", we need real rededication.  I believe a vast majority (somewhere around 65 to 75%) of Americans believe exactly this.  The trick is to get them to stop listening to the 1% who claim to be the 99%.