An American Story Nobody Wants To Hear

From my perspective, we’ve got several ‘factions’ going here in the good old US of A.

First we’ve got the folk who don’t mind giving everything away to everybody. They’re generous folk, good-hearted, compassionate, and kinda on the scared side. Now that they’ve started that cart rolling  and been so strong in the giving away of everything to everybody, they don’t dare stop for fear those who have been the beneficiaries of their extensive largess will just take it anyhow; they’ve been told such would be the case and they believe the ones who told them so. We’ll call these folk the Givers.

Next are the ones who are more than a little appalled at the free-wheeling open-handedness of their neighbors. See, it’s not just the generous folk’s own stuff they’ve been giving away for all this time – it’s the stuff of these folk too. So these guys are getting somewhat ticked about that situation. They, however, aren’t afraid that the receivers are going to come and take what little they have left if the giving well should go dry. These are the ones who aren’t going to let that happen, at least not to them. These folk we’ll refer to as the Protectors.

Then there are the Receivers. Lots of them have had a true need for a long time. Lots of them take what they’ve been given and put it to good use – so they leave the ranks of the Receivers and go into the ranks of either the Givers or the Protectors. Nobody has a problem with these folk. On the other hand, there are lots and lots of Receivers who never think they’ve received enough to do anything worthwhile with. Whenever somebody mentions that maybe they ought to be kicking in somehow, they rattle the spears that they do always seem to have been given enough to obtain. The Givers back down right quick and give them whatever they want and the Protectors scowl and check their own spears.

And finally we have the Giver/Takers. These aren’t quite exactly like the Receivers but the line that separates them might be a little hard to distinguish at times. The main difference is that these folk tend to show up out of the blue, spears in some hands, and take stuff that’s given to them, some of them pleased as punch to actually do their bit to earn that stuff, true enough. But the stuff they earn generally gets sent back to where they came from. These too are generous, good-hearted folk who work hard to take care of their own, most of them – except they’re not supposed to be here in the first place so they don’t get nearly as much stuff as their hard work would seem to warrant. So they get a little owly about things, and their numbers keep right on growing until there are too many of them to keep them all busy any more. Many opt out of the Giver/Taker role and just go with being Takers.

And the Givers just keep on giving, not so much out of kindness of heart or generosity any more but because they’re afraid to stop. What would happen to all those poor Receiver folk and all those poor Taker folk if the Givers stopped taking care of them? And what would the Givers do if the Receivers and the Takers got mad? See, the Givers don’t believe in having spears of their own.

So the Protectors, working their tails off to kick in and doing what they do to provide for themselves and their own folk, are watching all this, safe enough because they do have their own spears. But they’re none too pleased that their hard work doesn’t seem to be getting them and their own folk much of anything.

The Receivers keep right on receiving, rattling those spears once in a while and looking sideways at the Takers who are getting a hefty hunk of the available stuff the Givers are so generous with. They might be thinking how much of that stuff ought to be coming to them instead, who knows? The ex-Receivers who are now in the ranks of the Givers and the Protectors seem to be disgusted by the whole thing but aren’t going to go back to being Receivers, not if they can help it.

The Giver/Takers are too numerous to hide any more. A lot of them still want to just do their bit and have things continue as they’ve gone for a long time. But their kinfolk, who want to be Receivers but can’t because they’re not supposed to be here, make that difficult. If they can’t be Receivers, they’ll be Takers. They want what the Receivers have.

And the Givers are getting nervous because they’ve already given themselves and everybody else right into the red. The well is about to run dry.

The Protectors are getting more and more ticked. Some of them get swords to go with their spears. They set out to either protect what little is left in the well, or cap the thing.

The Receivers add more spears to their arsenals.

The Giver/Takers try to keep a low profile; they’ve gotten pretty good at that. The ones among them who have become Takers look sideways at everybody and get themselves more spears.

Well.

What do we expect to have happen here?

One thing I noticed, which may or may not be pertinent here, is that homegrown folk seem to be literally moving out of the places that are real big on giving. They hie themselves to the places that are bigger on protecting. Imagine that. I doubt most folk even realize that’s been going on for years already.

When they leave, they leave behind the Receivers, a lot of them; they leave behind the Takers, a lot of them; and they leave behind the Givers, a lot of them.

Proportionally speaking, the Givers are liable to wind up with all the Receivers and the Takers on their doorsteps – and won’t have anything left to give them, much as they would dearly love to be able to keep on giving. By this time nobody but some of the Protectors has anything any more; the Givers are hoist on their own petard so to speak. And they’ve managed to hoist most of the rest of us with them.

What are the Givers going to do about it?

They get ticked at the Protectors who are the only ones who have anything left, and blame them for the well going dry.

Because the Protectors have spears and the Givers do not, it’s not like the Givers themselves can just grab any more of the Protectors’ stuff to give to the Receivers and the Takers.

The Receivers and the Takers turn on the Givers. The Givers run to the Protectors for … um … protection. Being smarter than the average bear, the Protectors have realized this would happen. They can’t protect everyone so they focus on protecting themselves and their own. They’ve got stuff, sure they do – they’ve saved up a lot of their stuff; they know how to make more stuff; not only that, they’ve got what they need to make that more stuff. But they cannot make enough stuff for everyone, not any more. So they make stuff for themselves and post guards.

The Givers are on the outside now. They’re out there with the Receivers and the Takers and boy is that an eye-opening situation. They’re the only ones out there without spears. Talk about vulnerable.

They promise to give everything that the Protectors are protecting to the Receivers and the Takers – if the Receivers and the Takers will follow their lead in getting it away from the Protectors.

Well.

The Receivers and the Takers might not be the brightest bulbs in the chandelier but even to them the Givers brainstorm of an idea just sounds dumb.

When they take to picking off the Givers, and rattle their spears at the Protectors themselves, the Protectors get ticked enough to step up to the plate.

That scares the dickons out of the Takers because after all they aren’t supposed to even be here in the first place. They head for home as fast as they can go. The Receivers are right behind them but going somewhat slower because they think the Protectors might change their minds and decide to become Givers.

Nope.

Keep going is the word from the Protectors.

Enough is enough already.

The Givers don’t particularly enjoy becoming Receivers; it goes against their grain.

The Protectors, now in the position of having to be the Givers of the equation, aren’t overly fond of their situation, either.

The abrupt arrival of all the Takers and the Receivers south of the border upsets the status quo down there in a big way. The Takers are let in, but most of the Receivers are refused entrance. Totally not used to having to work for a living, said Receivers have a tough go of it. They’re on their own down there because all of the Protectors and Givers have left the vicinity, the Takers are safely home again, and the Giver/Takers are laying low.

But the Giver/Takers now have plenty of jobs again. Having kept a low profile and staying out of the whole thing, the Protectors invite them to stay. In turn, they invite the Receivers who are good workers to join them – but they do not give them anything except a chance to work.

The Givers (who are now the Receivers) are so uncomfortable in their new role that they get themselves busy and become some of the hardest workers of all. Still Givers at heart, they finally realize that in order to give they must first have.

The Protectors are in no way intimidated by much of anything. They give to the Givers (now Receivers) but only just enough to get by on. The rest the Givers/Receivers have to come up with for themselves by working for it.

All things considered, with the Receivers and the Takers out of the equation, it doesn’t take long for the Givers to get back on their feet. They have a new appreciation of how to go about their giving within the laws of reason, and pay closer attention to the Protectors instead of griping about them all the time. They have learned an extremely painful lesson, which is to say NO before everything gets completely out of hand.

That’s my perspective on things.

Hope springs eternal in the human breast and all that, but if there’s a less drastic way out of all this somebody better come up with it in a real fast hurry.

This little outline of a story is the sugar-coated version, one that has a relatively happy ending.

We had a Civil War once upon a time. The line was fairly clear on a geographical level that time. Much of what is now a part of our nation wasn’t part of it yet. There were places people could go to escape warfare if they wanted to (at least that kind of warfare). You were either a Northerner or a Southerner and it wasn’t all that hard to tell which was which.

Now there’s no real way to accurately even ‘label’ anybody. There is no Mason-Dixon Line. The metaphorical ‘spears’ in the above are not muskets, or even six-shooters; they are weapons with a lot more power. People are not ‘rattling spears’; they’re outright killing people.

The ‘Givers’ have earned for themselves the suspicion of the ‘Protectors’; even the ‘Receivers’ can’t trust them any more – they know that well’s gonna run dry. And the ‘Givers’, the ones who do not believe in arming themselves, are not actually un-armed. They just think they personally do not need to defend themselves because they believe the military will do that for them if need be. As a matter of fact, that’s one of the reasons nobody really trusts them.

So the above is not exactly anything except a very over-simplified perspective.

The other thing about it is that a person could well extrapolate.

Unless the United States really does go into an Isolation Phase, and right quick, until her internal affairs are in order, and manages to keep everyone else out of her house-cleaning, the whole thing is even more complicated.

None of us, not one, is so naïve as to not ‘get it’ that not all of our ‘Receivers’ are locals, so to speak. If the United States decides to ‘clean house’ she’d better be darned sure it’s going to work the way it’s supposed to – to make her stronger than she has ever been. Because, while we’re cleaning house, focusing on internal affairs for a change, the rest of the world is going to be clamoring for our attention, you can bet on that.

If our well going dry makes our local ‘Receivers’ and ‘Takers’ go around the bend, what’s it going to do on a bigger scale?

As I said, extrapolate.

Yet there comes a time, I think, when it is imperative to close our doors and lock our windows for a time, have a Family Meeting so to speak, and find our own way out.

Quite frankly, there is nothing – not one single solitary thing – that we would have to look for outside our own doors.

Nothing.

It is our somewhat arbitrary need to give, to share – perhaps to dominate if you look at it from that not-so-altruistic perspective – that seems to make us think we cannot, or shouldn’t, be self-sufficient. If we were as self-sufficient as we could and should be, without looking beyond our own doorstep; if we could, as we probably should pretty soon, curb our somewhat arbitrary need to give, to share, to dominate … what would the consequences be?

I’m no economist but our unemployment might go away.

I’m no scientist but the genius-caliber ones among us might be encouraged to do what they do best. At home.

I’m no technician but we have among us techs who could do what they do best. At home.

I’m no farmer but our ag people could most certainly produce ample provisions to care for us.

I’m no manufacturer but we have plenty of skill in that arena, and plenty of natural resources to use, including a work force.

I’m not in the military but our soldiers would have plenty to keep them busy, guarding what is ours to protect and preserve.

I’m not an administrator but getting things organized and keeping them that way would be a major task.

I’m not an infrastructure builder but I use our highways and other public things; those whose skills are in those areas would be much needed.

I’m no doctor and haven’t needed one in years but if that time should come I would like to be able to go to one of my own choosing. They will always be needed and ought to be allowed to stand or fall on their own merits.

I no longer have children in school but my grandchildren need to be educated; options on that front might become more of a priority if we had more time to consider their needs.

I’m not a secretary or a sales clerk or a farm hand or a burger-flipper or a firefighter or an electrician or a plumber or a roofer or a waitress or a line-worker or a truck driver or any of the rest of the professions that keep our lives running smoothly … but maybe those jobs would be kept filled with competent folk who know what they’re doing.

I’m not an entertainer but we have some mighty talented people who could make us all laugh, or cry, or think …

I’m not a journalist but we have a number of good folk who would be awfully busy keeping us all informed on what’s going on in this nation of ours, focusing on our own folk for once.

And, contrary to what people might think from reading what I just wrote, I am not an Isolationist.

I just think that we need to be putting more of our attention and our resources to work on our own behalf.

If/when there’s a budget surplus, then would be the time to start taking requests from all and sundry.

We cannot afford to feed the world until our own are fed.

We cannot afford to house the world until we have no homeless of our own.

We cannot afford to outsource employment until our own are all gainfully employed.

We cannot afford to donate bridges or roads or anything else for anyone else until our own are finished and maintained.

We cannot afford to buy energy when we have adequate resources to provide our own at less expense.

We cannot afford to be Givers, not right now.

That time will come more quickly and be more substantial if we take the time and make the effort to tend to what needs tending to on the home front.

So no.

I am not an Isolationist.

I would probably be a Giver if I had anything to give.

But a dry well takes time to refill. When there’s nothing but dust in that deep hole, the Receivers are going to be in for a very rude awakening. So will the Takers. So will the Givers.

It would behoove all of the above to think long and hard about what it will take to refill that well. 

It would behoove the rest of the world to let us be while we do what we have to do here. It would be in their best interests, whether they think so or not.

Too many are too pleased to see that well going dry. I cannot for the life of me figure out how they could think that would be a good thing. Well, aside from the jackels who circle, slavering at the thought of picking the bones.

We do not, believe me we do not, want to find ourselves facing even the sugar-water version of that little story up there. Yet that is exactly where we’re heading.

And that’s about enough of that for this day I do believe. I’ve got some paintings to get done for my front porch windows.

That ought to keep me busy and out of trouble for a little while, unless people figure out what I’m saying with those paintings and decide to be offended by them.