September 10 - 12, 2010
Suffering the New Normal
The End of the American Century?
By DAVID ROSEN
The American Century emerged out of the ashes of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and reached its nadir in the wake of the al-Qaeda attacks of September 11, 2001. Looking back, the attacks of 9/11 seems to signal an end to a “century” of America’s ever-increasing domestic renewal and ever-expanding global hegemony. As we approach the ninth anniversary of 9/11, the unasked question that haunts the national political debate is whether the so-called “American Century” is over?
The current “great recession” is not the Great Depression, but may signal a far deeper social crisis than occurred during the 1930s. The formation of the American Century created the economic opportunity for the U.S. to absorb more and more Americans into the “middle class,” integrate the labor movement (until it was systematically destroyed) and accommodate the aspirations of racial minorities and women. The American Century made America America.
Now, as we come to the ninth anniversary of 9/11, a growing unspoken awareness is spreading throughout the country. It silently asked whether the post-WWII “miracle” has sputtered out and, most disturbing, will likely never recur again. The Tea Party phenomenon is a symptom of the growing perception that the era of middle-class economic opportunity has come to an end; it voices a desperate sense that the white-skin privilege that helped sustain the middle-class for more than a half-century is no longer a guarantor of opportunity.
As the popular sense of opportunity shrivels, a call for a “new normal” has begun to spread through conservative talking-heads on Wall Street, academia and the media. They are calling upon Americans to tighten their belts: accept wage cuts, a declining standard of living and higher levels of unemployment. Sadly, the Obama administration has offered only feeble efforts to band-aid over the symptoms of crisis and has failed to address the structural issues that bespeak the end of the American Century.
Today, the U.S. economy is in free fall.
Republicans and conservatives are calling upon Americans to tighten their belts and accept wage cuts, higher levels of unemployment and a declining standard of living. They have labeled this the “new normal.” It is a “normal” we should resist. Read the full article at:
http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen09102010.html
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