USA 2017: In The Boomerang Moment

The United States has arrived at an unprecedented moment. This is the ‘boomerang moment.’ We’ve reached the time when the boomerang turns and starts heading back toward us.

As the boomerang starts on the trajectory toward us – all of a sudden – everything is opposites.

Boomerang moments have happened before and happen to us in our individual lives all the time. Like saying, “I’ll never go out with {insert name}” on the toss, the turning point is when you do go out with them, and as the boomerang starts heading back, you see them differently & feel differently because you’re now looking right at the opposite of “never.”

In the United States, one major boomerang moment for the nation was the civil war. At first, we declared ourselves to be a nation of free and equal men, we took actions which were the opposite of that declaration, and when the boomerang swung back at us we went to war with one another over the true meaning of ‘free and equal.’

The only reason our present boomerang moment is different is because there are 350 million people in the country now, for starters; and there’s also Internet giving way to instant, live communication around the planet.

Nothing is hidden. Scandals and excessive force can now being exposed, making it much harder to get away with blatant fascism. Yet with modern technology, scandals and threats can also be manufactured.

Because of modern day technology, the current boomerang moment affects a massive amount of people, and it’s pretty much televised worldwide.

Right now, is a very big moment in the history of the United States. We’re facing a lot of reactions, information, and misinformation. All eyes are on us while we’re trying to sort it out.

During the last century we were able to completely define ourselves as the most powerful nation in the world. During that time, we put a lot of things out there while we were enjoying our comforts and our powerful stance. We became entitled to instant gratification and we became apathetic to our faults & corruptions.

We’ve excused all of our bad behaviors, and we’ve normalized basic immoral behaviors like dishonesty, selfishness, and pride. We became superficial, gluttonous consumers and we tossed it all out there with full force.

The turning point was the 2016 presidential election. During the campaign period leading up to the election, Americans became angry and divided, and extremely aggressive.

Nothing went as expected. The career politician picked to win, and who won by 3 million popular votes, lost, and a celebrity billionaire with no government experience became the President of the United States.

We threw it out there and now, we Americans, the voters, the workforce, the citizens, are staring down a boomerang.

And it’s confusing. Because everything is its opposite.

All of a sudden a famous business tycoon, known in the 80s and 90s around NY to have liberal values, registers as a Republican 4 years before the 2016 election, and wins the presidency as a Republican.

We’re used to elections and inaugurations every 4 years, but during most of our lifetimes we’ve not seen a call for impeachment before the inauguration.

We’ve not seen this much social unrest over an election. We’ve not seen constant news about Russia, and possibly the then head of the FBI, meddling in our election.

We’d never called aggrandizements or misstatements “alternative facts.” And in this sudden shift of boomerang rebound, we keep being warned about ‘fake news’ more than ever before. It’s like a fake news epidemic has suddenly sprouted.

We’re used to being sure of ourselves, but now we don’t trust ourselves or each other regarding what’s real in the media and what’s not. In the past, that’s been mostly easy to figure out. But it’s part of the boomerang of having a celebrity as president. He’s been a part of the media and a part of the business world – and Americans brought him into the highest government office in the land.

We’re also used to presidents and high level government officials practicing diplomacy and hiding the dirty laundry and personal grudges. Now we have a slew of aggressive, disparate and sometimes paranoid thoughts of a national leader going out on Twitter to the entire world. Accusations and threats are no longer hidden. Insults to other national leaders, religions, and cultures are announced to the world. It’s the opposite of what we’ve been used to in the United States.

All of a sudden, nations and leaders who we’ve seen as our enemies are becoming our friends. Our allies are becoming our enemies. Except for North Korea, which is opposites only because we generally try to avoid provoking nuclear war with them at all costs.

In the realm of opposites, Republicans are behaving like Democrats and vice versa. Republicans are traditionally willing to take matters into their own hands, are pro-gun, and really don’t want the government regulating every aspect of business and life. They are now publicly afraid of the 1% Muslim population in America, the refugees and illegal immigrants. Democrats were called ‘snowflakes’ during the campaign season, yet Republicans now want government protection from these perceived threats from a very small portion of the population.

We can see opinion articles written about the sudden unveiling of the violent lefties. Liberal protestors are seen as violent anarchists, when in the past Republicans were accused of being anarchists. Now it’s the Democrats who are the ruff-n-tuff, the raw “I’ll just kick your ass” group, and the Republicans have taken to writing opinion articles to talk about it. Albeit, a Republican candidate body slamming a reporter helps confuse matters even more, because he was still elected for the position the next day.

Democrats, who’ve usually been quiet and organized, have become loud and disjointed. Republicans, who are usually seen as aggressive and organized, have become unsure, tentative and disjointed. Neither side seems happy. Which is the opposite of how it usually goes.

If all of this isn’t confusing enough, we’re now publicly berating comedians who make tasteless jokes. HELLO – we’ve glorified tasteless jokes for the last 50+ years. But this has become opposite land where we have our president saying ‘don’t be politicly correct’ and at the same time we are emotionally crucifying comedians for ‘over-the-top’ tasteless jokes and imagery.

We’re only at the part where the boomerang made its turn around, so we have a bit of time before we have to catch it. We’re preparing to catch it. In the mean time, we’re not sure if Russia is enemy, frenemy, or ally. We don’t know what is truth and what is lies. We’re not sure what we’re accomplishing as a country. And we’re fighting over what to redefine ourselves into.

That’s a sliver of what 2017 has been like worldwide. Social unrest is a global issue. The world is used to the United States taking the lead. As we withdraw to leave other countries to their own defenses, everyone has to re-steady themselves and rethink strategy.

Whether you’re a nationalist or a globalist, we’re all in this together. The boomerang may be coming back around and spinning out of control, but its body is not made of blades and we can catch this thing gracefully, pull it in, exhale, get centered, and decide to put a lot of thought into the next toss.

Hindsight is 2020.