Tag: decline

Uncle Sam’s Patient Chart

Medical Observation

Patient Name: Uncle Sam
Age: 249 years
Date of Birth: July 4, 1776
Location: United States of America

Chief Complaint:

Progressive systemic decline characterized by political arrhythmia, social inflammation, moral neuropathy, and chronic division.

Medical History:

Patient presents with metastatic ideological cancer, first detected in 2017 following years of untreated inflammation from greed, corruption, and truth decay. A brief remission was noted, but malignancy has since spread to vital organs including the Judicial System, Congress, and National Conscience.

Patient also suffers from acute historical amnesia, with repeated lapses in memory regarding equal rights, freedom of the press, and separation of church and state. Increasing episodes of selective recall noted, often triggered by political self-interest and social media exposure.

In 2020, the patient contracted COVID-19, complicated by political co-infection. Though vaccinated, his recovery was hampered by widespread disinformation and refusal among many cells to follow treatment protocols. Residual scarring remains in the respiratory and trust systems.

Patient also exhibits chronic income disparity, hypertension of hostility, and arteriosclerosis of empathy, limiting blood flow to compassion and understanding.

Psychiatric History:

Patient demonstrates paranoid delusions, convinced that enemies lurk within rather than abroad. Displays mood instability, alternating between manic displays of nationalism and depressive bouts of self-loathing.

Once socially active, the patient is now increasingly isolated from former allies and global partners. Exhibits projection, blaming others for self-inflicted wounds.

Recent assessments reveal addiction to misinformation and dopamine dependency on outrage-based media. Sleep cycle disrupted due to 24-hour news exposure and endless campaigning.

Family History:

Descended from immigrants, now expresses hostility toward relatives of similar lineage. Strained relationship with younger generations due to generational and cultural disconnect.

Current Medications:

  • Denial (high dosage)
  • Partisan rhetoric (administered hourly)
  • Corporate lobbying (self-prescribed)
  • Occasional dose of hope and activism, though compliance inconsistent

Vital Signs:

  • Pulse: Erratic (divided between left and right chambers)
  • Blood Pressure: Elevated due to constant internal conflict
  • Temperature: Rising globally
  • Vision: Impaired by polarization
  • Hearing: Selective—responds mainly to echo chambers
  • Heart: Enlarged historically, now showing signs of hardening

Prognosis:

Guarded to poor. Survival depends on:

  • Aggressive treatment of ideological malignancy
  • Coronary transplant (restore compassion and moral circulation)
  • Rehabilitation therapy to strengthen backbone and restore balance
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy to reverse chronic denial and historical amnesia
  • Detoxification from greed, fear, and misinformation
  • Long-term infusion of education, empathy, and critical thinking

Summary:

Patient remains in critical but not terminal condition. Though his immune system of democracy is weakened, the antibodies of truth, courage, and civic duty still circulate—albeit faintly. Immediate intervention is required to prevent full organ failure of the Republic.

Image provided by Chat GPT

From Sunlight to Shadows

At 73, this Labor Day weekend makes me wonder: How many summers do I have left?

I don’t miss the heat or humidity of summer. I miss the sunlight—the early sunrises, the lingering evenings. A metaphor, perhaps, for life’s stages.

Leisure reading is fading. Only 16% of Americans read regularly for pleasure—down from 28% in 2003. In the UK, just 41% of parents read daily to toddlers, compared with 64% in 2012.

I wandered into a Barnes & Noble last week, my first visit in over a year. Chairs and cozy nooks were gone—B&N is all business now. I left without a book. Even their sale couldn’t entice me; I balk at paying more than $20 for a hardcover.

On my nightstand:

  • King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution—A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation by Scott Anderson
  • Miracles and Wonder: The Historical Mystery of Jesus by Elaine Pagels

Haruki Murakami once wrote:

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

Mortality hovers. I don’t fear death, but I do fear dying. Sometimes I feel like a man with his head beneath a guillotine, staring at the blade. I’ve been fortunate with health, but around me I see friends whose luck has run out. The blade will fall on me too.

Meanwhile, the U.S. falters. Ineptitude, cowardice, hubris—displayed daily. A recent New York Times photo showed India’s Modi with Putin and Xi, a tableau of shifting power. It captured the failure of American diplomacy and leadership. One man bears much of the blame: Donald Trump. As summer declines, so does America as it retreats further into the darkness.