America needs a spiritual awakening. Imagine two married people, one the breadwinner and the other the housekeeper. They have many fights, where they get very emotional, and the breadwinner does most of the hitting on the housekeeper. After these bouts they have makeup sex. They never resolve the underlying problems. That's just how they relate to each other. It's like they're addicted to this fight-sex cycle. This is what they do to feel like they're in love.
Now in this country we have the working class and the ruling class. It's a little different. But the class struggle also never gets resolved. It just escalates in emotional intensity.
Bernie is trying for Medicare for all. This would really help keep people safe and healthy, more than now. But we wouldn't have the endlessly repeating emotional conflicts with people going bankrupt and committing suicide because they can't pay their medical bills. It's the same with the wars in the Middle East. We keep fighting because it's so exciting. Even negative emotion is better than no emotion.
The spiritual awakening would involve altered states of consciousness and emotional release. The situation now is we have the myth of the American dream and the ritual of upward mobility or failure. We have the opioid addiction, reality shows, cheating in sports and risky sex to give people a boost in mood. People find their identity in going to prison and contracting HIV, not to mention dismissing climate change. I don't know yet what would replace the current system, but I'm looking for the answer.
We get a lot of emotional boost from risk. America was built by people who took big risks, and people risk their lives to come to America today. This is part of the problem with rehabilitation of addicts, criminals, and the homeless. There is no formula for success. Without the possibility of failure, there is no thrill of victory.
I read an account of an adventurous solo sailor who encountered another such sailor in his boat in deep water. The 2nd one had many seagulls flocking around his fore deck. The 1st one asked the 2nd what were all the seagulls doing, and the 2nd replied that his refrigerator had gone out and his eggs had spoiled. But for something to do, he threw all the eggs all over his deck so he could clean them up. This is sort of what's going on in our country. We make health care decisions more difficult so we have the honor of conquering obstacles. Many other aspects of society as well. We have a choice about what is meaningful to us. If we choose consciously we can improve the lives of millions of people.