The Contemplation of Paradise

Watching the political discourse in the country for the past three years, it has been apparent that the next civil evolution for democratic developed nation-states, such as the United States, was and is at a critical precipice. The United States, for instance, has been in many civil turmoil, which hit critical mass in the 1960s. In 2008, the financial crisis ripped away the American vision, the band-aide that kept the merry race of consumerism was torn away and revealed that the "beautiful symphony" of home ownership and financial security was a farce.

In 2009 and 2010, civil blow back: the Tea Party, the obfuscation of politics, the polarization of the electorate, and the crisis of uncertainty led to the American Dream falling into disrepute. The dream of home ownership spiraled into uncontrollable descent. The psychology mores of fellowship and camaraderie sunken into the depths of despair. The collective majority and citizenry has lost confidence in what paradise, the American Dream, meant to them--home ownership.

In 2011, the farce that was the American Dream has continued to fall. Housing sales for the year are static and housing starts are to continue to decline. The foreseeable future in returning to the Golden of Age of consumerism was far off and crumbling. The belief of having what one wants, when one wants it, and that everyone can have the dream of home ownership fell into tumultuous water. Anger and fear ruled the hearts of the people. The economy of inevitability could no longer be dressed up.

Now, in 2011, the year has seen another civil uprising. This year, like 2009 and 2010, people are speaking. Instead of the usual anger and frustration reverberating in the starkness of fear, the riled makeup of the people has been founded in the continue failure of the United States government to protect the disenfranchised citizenry; the very young, aspiring college students, women, elderly, and minorities. Meanwhile. businesses and the financial institutions demoralize citizenry's hope in their quest and idolatrous relationship for money.

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a response to this demoralization and idolatry. Business and government have fostered angst. The expectations and long forgotten paradise of the City on the Hill have resulted in betrayals. The expectations of paradise and the expectations that our leaders will be there for us and that the system of markets and freedom would and will guide us to the happily ever after of our consumable dreams have been dissembled.

The contemplation of paradise had to be redressed. The Occupy movement is another symptom of the downfall of the American happiness to be swallowed inequity. Shattered dreams crumble into devastation. Yet, in all this devastation, demoralization,and the angst of helplessness, and the betrayal of expectations. I do see a seed of hope with the prattling of the talking heads and the chattering of the Cheshire Cat smiling politicians, and even with the extremes of the left and right body politic, I find myself in a place of ineffable and inexplicable hope. The energy of the people speak to me. The ground swell of the Occupy (and even the Tea Party) signals to me that Americans are ready to take back their dreams--and reclaim them. The contemplation of paradise in these tumultuous times are rising within the cleansing flames of the emotional phoenix of the people demanding that the "promise" be restored.