Why are we hated by so many? Well. Let's start with the fact that, despite our unmatched wealth and power, we are, for the most part, clueless. By this I do not mean that we lack intelligence or information. It's just that in our headlong pursuit of whatever, we have almost completely forgotten how to authentically embody our own innate humanity. Not only do we do not know what this really means but, quite possibly, we may no longer care. People around the globe, many of whom have nothing else going for them but their humanity, cannot be blamed for feeling cranky when they see us squandering our own, trading it in for the hyper-acquisitive, relentlessly-territorial role-playing and posing that, increasingly, passes for life in America. To confirm this, don't tune into outpatient-fests like Jerry Springer. Instead, mosey on over to Dr. Phil's place. There, you can see how the 'real' Americans, the dishwasher-safe people who hire and fire us, handle their stuff. Is it just me, or could most of these folks not work their way out from under a wet Kleenex unless they were motivated by unexpensed stock options? There's no doubt that Dr. McGraw, with his FDNY style and ready Texas-isms, is an appealing and intelligent fellow. I mean, he has a Ph.D. and as everyone knows, you don't question the high-end paper. But, from another azimuth, the Doc is becoming the jocular Billy Graham for a moribund, self-congratulatory value system that is in absolutely dire need of a reboot. Perceived from the midst of screaming glare of mainstream American life, such an attitude might sound like the sourest of grapes, but if you have the resolve to step outside the noise for a while and keep your eyes open, and you'll see precisely how helpless, how paralyzed, how totally bought, and sold, we have become. In the midst of the drama, the Doctor reminds us to 'Get Real'. But what does that really mean? Well, it can mean almost anything. That's the beauty of such a platitude. To the Doc it largely means to do what he tells you to do and the pain will stop, at least for a while. As we culturally spiral down to God knows what outcome, Dr. Phil urges us to be nice about it all, to be adults, not to screw over our loved ones, not be afraid to tell our teenagers that they periodically behave like idiots. Good advice, but why doesn't the pain go away? Here's one reason: America was founded on the principle of enlightened self-interest but over time that concept has devolved into plain selfishness, at any cost, and we are driving ourselves insane trying to rationalize the choices we are coerced into making, exhausted from trying to be comfortable in an artificial, emotionally-desiccated psychological landscape. Dr. Phil isn't evil. Actually, he seems like a nice guy and I'm sure he means well. But behind the academic façade, he's just as clueless as everyone else. But his cluelessness is credentialed and heavily-reinforced by the fact that he's making a ton of money by holding his particular pose. He operates on a dubious and equally well-reinforced premise: that when things go wrong, WE are always the culprits; that when things don't work it's US that are not working hard enough. But there's never the slightest mention that what we are working FOR may be problematic. Take a look around and consider waking up. We are all dancing to a tune played by just a relative few, very powerful individuals who stand to lose big-time if we stop our mindless consumption and destruction. Do you think the film, The Matrix, is just fantasy? I assure you it's not. But it is metaphor. The truth, like magma, is always seeking the surface and often gets there in spite of us. The Doctor and his ilk have hijacked the authentic self-awareness from which we have sheepishly abdicated. He's willing to sell it back to us, but only after he has placed his complex condom over it; safe sex, safer thinking. Merely reupholstering our antique, threadbare inner furniture is not going to get the job done. A revolution of consciousness is called for at this juncture. We must phase out our fundamentally juvenile relationship with existence and understand that our 'way of life' is merely one particular view from one particular hilltop. The Dr. Phils of the world want us to follow them submissively back into the very orientation that we need to seriously question if we want to survive as a race. But it's family values, right? Sure, but the family is devo too, obviously among those to whom the Good Doctor ministers. What was once a place where we were basically prepared for life is becoming a stressed-out, insular, mindlessly-competitive, goal-obsessed guild of apprentices to the family name, as potentially fertile a breeding ground for tyranny and worse as it once was for love and support; turning out reactionary, tunnel-visioned kids who slavishly pass the whole mess on to the next generation, or go wack when confronted with the shrinking collection of acceptable futures currently available. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing but a little understanding is even more dangerous. Understanding is to knowledge like plutonium is to uranium, a higher order of fissionability. Look into your own hearts. Don't fear what you may see. Much of it is not really you. It's just what you've dutifully acquired. Much of what we need to know, and understand, is inside us but we must hold our breath and dive more deeply into ourselves than we're accustomed to diving in order to get beneath the accumulated surface scum. Life is more than just a career opportunity. Don't be afraid to provide your own answers to your own questions, to fashion your own sustainable and humane solutions to your own individual problems. You can do it. You have all the tools. It's simply a matter of using them.