The LEGO Movie and Social Progress

And now for something completely different...

I find it fascinating and ironic that The LEGO Movie's plot involves a group of people, forced into a system in which their individual creativity is repressed or sacrificed for the benefit of a one-man oligarchy, breaking free of that system to found a system in which their individual creativity is channeled for the benefit of everyone.

Especially given that the United States has spent nearly a century treating "Socialism" like it's the worst curse word ever, while simultaneously bemoaning the loss of community involvement and general friendliness toward strangers with whom one shares a neighborhood.

But we can't really act surprised at this point.

What other result could we expect when we make "me getting ahead" our sole cultural foundation?
Especially combined with a infinite-expansion economic philosophy, in which "me getting ahead" is never enough, so it has to be "me always getting further/farther ahead".
Which naturally results in "me always getting further/farther ahead of you," demonstrated perfectly by attempting to drive pretty much anywhere other people are in America.

The more we as a culture have emphasized individual financial achievement, the more we have left things like "common courtesy," "manners," and "taking care of each other" in the past.

As much as I HATE the "good old days" mentality pervading far too much of my elders' psyches, we students of history are capable of tracing a line through American history showing a fall-off in things like communal identity.

Much of it fueled by a rise in unfettered, cutthroat capitalism.

Go figure.

HOLY CRAP 100TH POST!!
Only took........way too long.