September
27, 2006
Get Your
Fix of ‘It’s Not Your Fault’
I am not
the first to suggest that Americans have an incredibly guilty
conscience, initially stemming from episodes such as the Trail of Tears
and slavery, and carried on by the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
the Vietnam War and the current situation in Iraq. Some events were more
tragic and more stupid than others, but the result remains the same.
Many Americans seem to struggle with a rather strange variation of
shame, as though we inherited the guilt of generations past. I have also
wondered if this inherited guilt has combined itself with embarrassment
for having much more stuff than everyone else in the world. We are very
lucky people.
In a tiny
corner of this liberated country, some well-documented research
uncovered a few things. The average American sleeps about
four-and-one-half hours a night and watches television for the other
19-and-one-half. The average American also drinks about 69 ounces of
coffee before 9am, and about four triple grande lattes from Starbucks
every afternoon. In addition, the average American BMI is 67.
As a
result, we are, all of us, thoroughly educated, exhausted, wide awake
and well fed. It was probably not formulated in a chemical laboratory,
but our formula is working quite well. Starbucks is here to stay, thank
heaven, and TV is actually pretty good these days.
You’re
probably thinking. “Why hasn’t anyone told me about these
statistics?” And, “If this diligent student of statistics blabs on much
longer, I might have to order my third latte earlier than usual.”
Psychoanalyzing a population is a nebulous practice at best, but if the
readers are as hopped up on caffeine as I assume, perhaps I’ll just
continue.
When
considering statistics such as these, one might consider the following
question. Are Americans just gluttonous, or are we masochistic?
Constitutionally, we are among the most liberated countries in the
world. But when considering our extensive list of vices, we do not
appear quite as free as one document might suggest.
I think
that the list of legal drugs, though shortening by the hour everywhere
but the Golden State, has managed to enslave an entire population made
vulnerable by a guilty conscience. Traditionally, the definition of
“drug” was restricted to something including some sort of chemical
substance. But it may be expanded to include anything that could spawn
an addiction.
Yes, many
Americans are addicted to cigarettes and alcohol, and a certain
percentage is addicted to more immediately harmful drugs such as
cocaine. But the drugs we ought to be most concerned about are the ones
to which almost all of us are addicted – drugs such as television,
obesity and enough caffeine to compensate for insufficient rest. These
are the drugs we all use to numb ourselves from the real pain. I mean
the pain of watching the world suffer, the pain of walking by homeless
people in the streets and even the pain of failed marriages and
families, the pain of watching our children fall in love with the same
drugs we met around the same age.
So how do
we respond to such a crisis? First, we might acknowledge that most of us
are using certain non-chemical drugs the same way people use the
chemical ones. But more importantly, we ought to address our guilt. Each
one of us has plenty to feel bad about. But this should not include
things we never did. We need to take a small dose of a drug Robin
Williams gave to Matt Damon in “Good Will Hunting”, called “It’s not
your fault.” We might consider taking responsibility for certain
mistakes we all make, but we are not responsible for Andrew Jackson’s
treatment of American Indians. It’s not your fault. We are also not
responsible for the atrocious sins against African Americans that went
on for centuries. It’s not your fault. We are not responsible for the
tens of thousands of Japanese whose lives were lost in 1945. It’s not
your fault. We did not decide to send tens of thousands to die in
Vietnam. It’s not your fault. And very few Americans are responsible for
Abu Ghraib. It’s not your fault. Yes, there are people starving all over
the world and in our very own backyards, and there is much we can do.
But even still, their conditions are not your fault.
Nothing
will make crimes against humanity OK and nothing can alleviate the pain
of observing someone who is suffering, but if we are so concerned with
placing blame, we might at least hand it, exclusively, to the deserving
parties.
We are a
nation of people stifled by misplaced guilt, crippled by the drugs we
tend to forget about. The best medicine may be a few small doses of lots
of drugs, and one large dose of reality.
© 2006 North Star Writers
Group. May not be republished without permission.
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