I think our nation is laking a national goal

I think our nation is laking a national goal. I am thinking back, and at every point in our country's history we more or less had a goal:

I wasn't around in the 1750-1820, but I would have to imagine that it was exciting times at your local pub getting worked up and trying to figure out how to best throw off the British Empire (and then keep her out).

From 1820-1860, this is where my American history is weakest, all I know is that we continued the empire making Manifest Destiny and all of its genocide against the Native Americans. But that must have been pretty exciting too, pushing into the West, seeing new states getting added all the time, new routes on the big Ticket to Ride game board.

1860-1865 - we took some time out to kill what 600,000 of us to figure out if Slavery was a bad thing or not, and to sort out the concept of a strong federal government.

1865-1915 - another murky period dominated by making enormous piles of wealth by some monopolists and some deep depressions that have been paved over in memory space by the Great Depression. But at least you could still push out West and take some land for free from some Native Americans.

WWI - fight and bleed in Europe

1920s - party for a bit, then booze is made illegal, then the great depression fun. Not much of a goal here in the 1920s, I guess it was all fun and gangsters while garment workers got a taste of the working conditions in Bangladesh a century early.

1930s - new goal - Zombie Apocalypse - survive! This is a good one, always brings people to new focus.

1940s - WW2 - again existential excitement

1950s - Nukes! Commies! - nice existential crisis continues

1960s - Cuban Missile Crisis, Feminist Movement, African Americans get a little more progress from slavery 100 years later. All exciting stuff! And my favorite of all - THE SPACE PROGRAM

1970s - oil shocks, nixon, carter, iran hostages, scary inflation, blech

1980s - Reagan - de-regulate everything! Whoo, party! Star Wars! USSR Collapses - woot! we won! we won!

1990s - Clinton - budget is positive, start to pay down the debt, internet takes off, space program is dying but no one really cares

2000s - 9/11 and the brain damaged wars in Iraq and Afganistan. The empress lost her clothes, and has been revealed as the naked empire she has always been, but no longer bothers to try to hide it.

Our tax rates on corporations are the lowest in 60 years, many of the Fortune 100 have opted out of the tax system, get refunds, or simply decide how much revenue they will expose to the US tax system. Citizens United and now the financial industry has been revealed to have written 75% of the language in the financial-regulation facing bills since 2008. The working poor now pay the greatest share of their income in the form of payroll taxes - ever. We got to see Japan hit the wall of deflation in the 1990s and we laughed at them and said watch what we can do with deflation and deregulation! Mwhahaha.

The Tea Party enters this group angst.

They are angry because as a rule, they are making a lot less money than they did 30 years ago. Medical Insurance and College both cost more than 700% more than a generation ago, and the minimum wage is certainly not $28 per hour.

They should be angry, and so the fear porn peddlers are happy to capitalize on their anger and fear. The latest? Alex Jones saying that Obama created the F5 Oklahoma Tornado. I do not need to repeat all of the stupid ass shit people believe.

But the question is what to do about it? We are wired to believe in the super natural, mysteries, fantasies, monsters, demons, and our tribe vs. your tribe.

I think we desperately need a large group quest for America.

What would some of the tasks that you would put on this group quest?

1) Unemployment at 4%

2) Solar on every roof?

3) Mars Now

4) No more corporate $ in politics?

5) Tax reform?

6) Re-forest North America?

What do you think would be sexy enough to galvanize the hearts and minds of the people?

Originally posted on Facebook on May 25, 2013.