…”; and you can’t fail to notice the post-Apocalyptic realization that is the subtext of that chant. You know that everything the US conceived itself as, the image it curated and broadcast around the world — say in the 1950s and early 60s — that world is gone. It exists only in the cultural memory, while the world you are living in is a hellish landscape of moral chaos, violence, tyrannical surveillance and authoritarian hubris arbitrarily restricting your every move, your every word, your every thought; while you exist in financial instability and employment drudgery, under crushing debt and taxes and bills. With no purpose, no dignity, no meaning, no respect, only a few hours here and there to unplug from reality and inject yourself with the anaesthetic of entertainment, day in, day out, until you die. The bright, sunny world of happy America is just like a story being told by a survivor of Armageddo…
