“Pizzaonia emerging” Pizzaonian Art Institute, Abe Straction, curator
June 2015
When institutions fail you.
It always amazes Pizzaonians how Americans become so upset when they discover how their government and institutions fail to live up to the ideal they are supposed to be.
What else is new? We all like to believe the institutions we need in our lives have some stability and integrity that we can count on. Consistency is what it is about. However, history shows us a different picture.
The problem is that institutions are defined and operated by people and when the people and times change so do the organizations they represent. We hope the changes are for the better, but that is not always the case.
It would be nice to believe that tradition and convention keep governments and corporations consistent. Americans certainly believe that about their constitutional Republic. However, while the framework remains in place many of the interpretations and practices change from administration to administration.
We cannot discount that much of what changes is driven by different times with needs previously never recognized. As the years go by we may retain the same language. What does not remain the same is how we interpret that language? In addition, there is a linear evolution in value systems that changes from generation to generation.
Add to this that in any given time; you have many different generations living in the same time and space – each with different value systems with different needs and interpretations. We may all use the identicle words, but they mean many different things to different people.
When you think about it is amazing that we do not all fly into space while trying to keep it together. Unfortunately, many do not keep it together. Which brings us back to the question, why some do and some don’t?
What could be more interesting than trying to understand what is happening in the United States to what is regarded as its most cherished tradition - the mandate of personal freedom as expressed in the pronouncements in the U. S. Constitution?
In United States history, the constitutional rights of its citizens have been from crises to crises partially deferred due to the dangers to the Republic and its continued existence. From the civil war through World War 2, we have seen provisions of the Constitution suspended. As the war on terrorism proceeds, we see new assaults on constitutional freedoms.
What is amazing is how these transgressions, for the most part, have righted themselves once the danger has passed. As important, is as Americans became aware of these transgressions, they took steps to try to keep them from happening again. This is a credit to the belief that the average American has in this amazing document.
However, something unusual is afoot today. The assaults on the Constitution are mired in a very different world where the need for security trump's law when necessary. The individual freedoms of the country have invariably been protected by a common bond of community that has regularly defined the United States, regardless of its diversity as a country of immigrants. They were truly a “melting pot.”
Two things made the “melting pot” work. One is prosperity, and the other is a real threat against the security of the country. Everything works as long as one of these ideas is operative. However, when both are not in play, you watch the unraveling of a culture, including its freedoms.
Brother Franco tells me that the American constitution is like a high-quality rubber band. You can strech it only so many times. Eventually, regardless of its quality, it loses its elasticity. This is truly a scary time for the greatest experiment in human history.
Till next time,
Brother Govanni
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