Positive changes:
-The younger generation of females (25 and below) seems to be rejecting the feminist hatred of the previous generation. This is encouraging, but we are not out of the woods. They still enjoy and partake in female social privilege, but they are less aggressive about it.
-People seem a bit less materialistic than before. This is surely due to the recessionary economy and it needs to translate into a higher regard for knowledge, experience, and relationships with family/friends. We are not there yet.
-There seems to be more ethnic tolerance than ever before. Tolerance does not equate with affinity mind you, but there is a a greater ease with people who are different in most cases. It is yet to be seen whether this is just a more covert hostility or genuine capitulation to changing demographics.
Negative changes:
-There is larger paranoia about men in the US. I was talking with an attractive bartender and a decent-looking bar patron in Baton Rouge. We were chatting about travel and at one point the bartender remarked that she would love to travel more but she would never travel alone since it is so dangerous out there. The patron agreed with her and remarked that she never leaves the hotel unless her boyfriend is along. I believe this paranoia is self-imposed and derives from the guilt of female privilege in America. In other countries, women 10 times hotter than these two walk the streets alone at night even in areas considered high crime.
-There is a foolish arrogance in American men like never before. Coming off as confidant even in the face of ignorance is very prevalent. Think back to the government officials who balked that a 9/11 scenario could ever happen in the US, or the fools that believe the US is the greatest country in the world for virtually everything, or the dolts that believed our economy will never flounder in crisis because we are in the USA.
-Women here are more fat and unattractive as ever. Hard economic times contributes to a decrease in a population's beauty due to poorer dietary habits and less favorable living conditions. I am aghast at how decent-looking men resort to such unsightly creatures in the US now.
-There are far more immigrants in the landscape than ever before. High-end places that were once WASP and Jewish are now largely Asian, Indian, and White now. On the lower end, there are far more people of third-world origin all around. While this might be a negative in the larger sense, it may be a blessing in disguise as third world nations are the least feminist. This may be the last hope for overcoming feminist orthodoxy in America!
-Crude informality is the norm now. It is rare for young people to have common courtesy and respect for elders in the US. Everything is informal and nothing is sacred nowadays. These flash mobs and wilding youths in Philadelphia will be a recurring and spreading phenomenon as the children of wayward children are coming of age.
-Before we used to rail against the entitlement mentality of females. Now males exhibit this mentality to a lesser degree. This is most obvious in the area of employment. Young people walk around pining for employment, but they refuse to take a job that is "beneath them." If you are unemployed, there is no job that is beneath you, none. For this reason, the unemployment rate remains high at 9%. People are seeking the job that they think they deserve, not the job that they need. This will change when things get worse however.
-There is also a greater overall lack of sophistication of the US population regarding politics and economics. Most Americans do not know what the Federal Reserve does. Most Americans do not know what the President's role in the economy is, yet a President is elected or re-elected almost solely on the state of the economy. A President can certainly not "create jobs" other than hiring more federal employees. A President CAN assist Congress in creating an economic environment for jobs to be created, but he cannot "create jobs" like most Americans expect. If the unemployment rate dips 5% during the next year, it will not have been because of the President's creating jobs.
-Foreigners are beating native-born Americans at their own game. The children of many immigrant groups are developing financial, educational, and social savvy that our children are failing to develop due to their inability to delay gratification. Look at the freshmen classes of our Ivy League institutions. They are increasingly immigrant, and more power to them.
Conclusion: The world is passing by the US before our eyes. Our people are poorly educated or trained, our children child care castoffs, and our adults are resting in the laurels of former American preeminence. Change is inevitable in a society, especially one a fluid as the US. Simply willing your way to remain at the top without the requisite effort is a prescription for failure as a society. We are failing.
