Explaining America's Fury

IF THERE IS ANYTHING ABOUT WHICH MOST AMERICANS can agree, and it is highly questionable that there is, it is that the nation is deeply divided along ideological, economic, and political lines, that the deep divisions extend to every aspect of Ameridan culture, and are therefore often referred to as "the culture war", and finally, but perhaps most dramatically, that there is a great deal of anxiety and anger pervading contemporary American society. This is not the latest news. All this has been with us for a long time, maybe even since the nation's founding. A new book by New Yorker journalist Evan Osnos titled "Wildland: the Making of American Fury" tries to untangle and explicate this fairly obvious phenomen, with an impressive degree of success, considering its complexity and subjective nature. Osnos gets specific, and uses material from his own life, including episodes from his days in Chicago and two other American cities, to cite what he considers to be good examples offering possible explanations. He talks about a doctor in Connecticutt who decides to give up his medical practice and pursue a career in financial services. The doctor's skills are in demand in the hedge fund industry, because medical professionals and their knowledge are considered valuable in choosing which from among many medically related stocks to include in hedge funds. The health care industiry is so huge in the United States that all hedge funds include medical stocks. His new career soon begins to make him wealthy, but he becomes addicted to his success, and becomes willing to first bend and then break the law to enhance his earnings. He ends up indicted, tried, convicted, and incarcerated for a five year term. His story is far from unique within the financial services world of big time money. In prion, he meets and befriends for the first time in his life black and brown people from disadvantaged backgrouonds. As he learns about them, his education begins. He learns about their backgrounds, and how they came to where they are, and he learns a valuable lesson; that in America opportunity is not equally distributed, and that many people are far more likely, even destined to a life of crime and prison than others. His political viewpoint changes considerably. Upon his release he becomes involved with the Black Lives Matter movement, and many other activities intended to bridge the divide between the haves and have nots in America, which he now sees as created by the social and power structures of American society as much if not more than by individual life choices. The ever increasing gap between the very wealthy and the every poor in America are largely the result of deliberately enacted public policy, not any incrasing gap between smart and stupid people, or hard working and lazy people. The growing wealth gap destroys any sense of shared common interests in America, and the destruction of shared interests exacerbates the wealth gap. Osnos concludes that national reconciliation around common interestss and objectives is possible, but will require first an acknowledgement of the problem by the majority of Americans, and a concerted common desire to heal the wounds by dealing with their causes at the root level. Like all worthwhile goals, this one will be quite difficult, but do-able.