Of late, news in
general for the United States of America has been quite discouraging:
·
China overtaking US as world’s largest economy
(as per IMF);
·
US special forces mission’s failure in Yemen;
·
Racial tensions arising from string of deaths of African-Americans
at the hand of white policemen;
·
Overall deficit topping $18 Trillion;
·
Saudis playing the high stake poker to also subdue
the American shale oil boom;
·
Rumors of US administration considering
sanctions against one of its closest allies – Israel;
·
Failure to strike a worthwhile deal with Iran to
limit its nuclear ambition, and Iran’s religious leaders thumbing their nose to
US;
·
Continual dismal performance of President Obama
and the administration – at national and international stage.
Suddenly,
the US is looking jaded, faded, tired and lacking the panache of a numero uno. Though
the US economy is doing pretty well – the latest job creation numbers coming
out stronger than expected – there is hardly any sense of being on top.
And, all
of the above is getting further compounded for the worst by a third-rate, mediocre
television media in US. As it is, the American media is split in left and
right – very few in the middle – their coverage is clouded by their ideological
slants. To make matters worse, the
anchors of the various programs are utterly mediocre who fill air time with
virtually meaningless conversations. Most of what transpires on the programs is
garbage-in-garbage-out.
Instead
of the key issues that is confronting to continual slide in American dominance
and unchallenged status of world number one, the TV channels’ programs helmed
by disgustingly mediocre anchors/presenters discuss worthless stuff –
peripheral at best. Only fluff fills the time slots. Any knowledgeable
guests, who may be stating something vital, is cut short and they get back to
fluffy stuff and nonsense.
Some examples of
key issues to talk about:
·
In view of rising anger within the
African-American community, what is keeping this community still so non-violent
(barring some isolated incidents in Ferguson)?
·
How the role of the Reverends is helping to keep
the focus of the protest non-violent and peaceful;
·
What steps should be taken to address the situation
so that the African-American community does not get pushed to a corner where
they are forced to contemplate violence of serious nature – which would may not
be difficult in a country like US where deadly weapons are available so easily;
·
Falling standards in development of new cutting
edge technology;
·
How the economy can be strengthened – newer business
models;
·
Issues facing the societal fabric, family
structure, human relations etc.
Instead of the above intellectually stimulating and
useful discussions, the discussions are personal ideology driven, shallow,
wandering and nonsensical. You have to watch a cable channel whose anchors can
waffle for hours on end on the topic of the day, say, demonstrations by the
African-Americans and their supporters. How nonsensical discussions can fill
the whole day of TV time was exemplified on a cable channel during missing of
Malaysian Airlines flight MH-370 – hours of generally substance-less
discussions took place without zeroing on the kernel.
It
is sad for the Americans that they are now called ‘second rate’ based on the
latest economic data announcement coming from IMF. It is so ironic that US is a country of dozens of
Nobel Laureates in all fields, including economics, yet the country is
languishing. The crops coming up in the political echelons are so mediocre and lack luster – on
both sides of the aisle.
None of the prospective
(and talked about) candidates for 2016 presidential elections are cracker-jacks.
They are all so mediocre (if they are assessed impartially) – and none of them
inspire any confidence whatsoever about their outstanding capabilities. Since John F Kennedy, the succeeding
presidents of the US have all been mediocre to being utterly useless (Carter probably
winning the badge of honor of being the worst of the lot).
It seems some sort of
supernatural intervention can only bring the change which can stem the rot and be
instrumental in carrying out wholesale revamp of the United States – in all
fields. Till such time the great country that US was/is will lurch from one
crisis to another, from one frustrating level of mediocrity to another.
