Hooked On a Feeling

We haven’t heard much about America’s war on drugs recently, what with the whole war on terror, search for WMDs, middle eastern debacles and now the economy’s war on America but even though they aren’t talking about it they are still actively waging (and losing) that war.

But do you know which drug I find is doing the most damage to the US? It’s some kind of endorphin, the Patriot Endorphin© if you will and it’s a powerful drug, it’s what drives the whole nation and a good number of Americans suffer from that little high provided by saying “I AM AMERICAN™”. It’s a rallying cry, a battle cry and a good number of our neighbours stand just a little bit straiter, are just a little bit happier when they can think, say and prove that they are indeed, proud Americans.

Sometimes, as we’ve seen and even felt in the last few months, when someone like Obama provides his own version of that drug, it becomes a great beautiful thing that creates hope and brings change to a nation. When Obama speaks—and hopefully what he actually feels and thinks—they and even we want to be better, to do better, to help one another, to work hard to get out of this econopolypse and build a better world, a more equal, sustainable and clean world. To build nations that work together to better all the planet.

That’s what happens when he speaks. That’s what happens when a number of Americans think and do and feel that rush. But it’s the same drug that can be provided by dimwits like Dubbya and his cohorts which leads to the exesses of the past years. It’s also the same drug that every American manages to synthesize for his or her own little high, it’s that same drug that makes them go out of their way to get that fix, that same drug that brings them, sometimes, from feeling oh so proud and well intentioned when Obama speaks to bad trips and messed up decisions when it runs unchecked.

It’s that same drug that makes a customs officer say Money cannot leave the United States or that one is “displacing an American worker” with “Four million American workers lost their jobs last year” as a crutch to explain why she wanted that little fix she felt from being American and protecting her own. It just feels so good to get that tingle in the spine, that rush of Patriot Endorphin©, so, so good. Some just can’t walk away from it.