WILL AMERICA STILL BE….AMERICA
(….when it’s sixty three….)

I’m not sure if this allusion and play on the lyrics of that old Beatles song is the right tone for our situation today; but, perhaps some folks will catch my drift and relate to it anyway (besides, you have to work with what you’ve got on hand….unless you want to sound like a whiny bitch….and it’s all I’ve got at the moment).

The questions that come to mind about it, however, are ….where have we been….and where might we be headed….from here?

Looking back, as it was a hundred years ago, our world is again in transition from an older order of things, moving toward another kind of order whose forms and terms are not yet well defined. And it’s in the nature of such – transitions – to generate anxieties because of the many ambiguities in how things might turn out. So, times of transition like this bring out a lot of Chicken Littles, all convinced the skies are not only about to fall, but the world is also about to end, etc., etc.. Others, perhaps more sanguine by nature, or simply better empowered with an early Louis XV attitude about the “future”, either ignore it all, or,  seize the moment as an opportunity to make a buck….or two….or three….or more. These are the  brave-hearts ready and willing to launch and risk themselves on the incoming waves of change, and ride them to whatever end they come to.

All of which leadS one to another question….if any of the founders of our republic were to drop in on us today, would they recognize this distant descendant of what they had created back then; or, would they wonder if the time continuum had somehow misdirected and landed them in a very alien place instead? And while its language and forms vaguely resemble what they had created so long ago, it is, somehow, not quite what they had called – America –  Frankly, how could they recognize it after some two hundred years into the future? At the time were they even thinking that far ahead for the many generations to come into that future?

Perhaps not, but, I’m inclined to think they were based on two important things. First, they had come up with an –idea- for “America”, and second, they then designed a framework they thought would best be able to carry that idea far into an unknown future, with a document they called – the Constitution – A flexible ( but not limp) design that could adjust and adapt to whatever changes it might encounter over time.

So, yes, I do believe they were that focused on taking a very long view when they were busy creating America. The fact that our republic is still here, more or less in one piece, and still chugging along after 200 years or so of wear and tear, is a tribute to their foresight and wisdom in how to bequeath the power of that idea to us. Granted, some might argue that they did not succeed, pointing out that the pattern of our country’s existence has closely followed that of ancient Rome….that is….first a republic….then ending as an empire. But for me this is a flawed analogy because America has not been an empire of territory, but rather, an empire of an idea – E PLURIBUS UNUM – which may be the key for explaining its long standing pre-eminence among nation states.

Thus the answer to the question – where have we been – seems to be that, as a nation, we’re barely out of our wild-ass, rambunctious, know-it-all youth, full of piss and vinegar, with more guts that brains, with a lot of binge-partying and other excesses behind us, but now coming to the realization that it’s time to grow up, less we become too soon old and too late….smart.

As to the question of – where might we be headed – now coming into adulthood as a nation, it really boils down to whether our career politicos of today are capable of the same kind of long view about our potential future, two hundred years further on from now, as did our founders, of two hundred years ago. Unfortunately, based on their performances, with the current crop of these, both running for high office, and in Congress, it’s an open question. Pessimists will say, no, because in their view they’ve already put America well on the track for becoming a latter-day oligarchic banana republic, neatly dressed up in the camouflage of the faded remnants of an old glory garment of egalitarianism and civil liberty….keeping the form, but not the substance, of America. Optimists will say….maybe….because there is still the hope that the power of the fundamental idea behind its creation, and the flexibility of its structure, will manage to maintain that substance, no matter what, and perhaps, into an even more distant future than just another two hundred years.

Even so, no matter what ones’ perspectives might be about it all, and whether America will still be America….when it’s sixty three… it will still have been one of a kind, hated by some, loved by a few, and unsuccessfully imitated by many.

Well, if time travel becomes a reality by then, it might be fun to just pop in and see who… will have been right.

CENTURION