The 2000s reinforced a trend of America losing itself — in the tragedy, in the technology and in the crisis.
The military campaign in Iraq and Afghanistan to take down the terrorist group responsible for 9/11 brought chaos and bloodshed to the Middle East and led us to surrender many of our values.
We lost the expectation of privacy, a basic faith in our neighbors and the American Dream.
The lack of privacy remains one of the failures of America in the 2000s, allowing the government to hold a excess of information about the public.
The Patriot Act was intended to counter terrorism, but it also created mass surveillance that allowed an unprecedented level of access to records and communication. This is worse when combined with the serialization of everyday life by social media. Corporations like Meta and Flock also constantly collected private information, combining to create an environment of overwhelming government, corporate and mob intrusiveness.
At any given moment your bank records can be viewed, your license plate tracked and your image recorded by a fellow citizen with Meta glasses, all without your knowledge.
While not initially invasive, the launch of social media platforms created an environment to hyper-analyze influential figures for an audience as the paparazzi have always done. Unlike before, this trickled down to finding any absurd clip or private affair and broadcasting it to virality. This created additional harm, just on a moral basis with social punishment rather than being prosecuted in a court of law.
This paired well with a growing distrust toward our neighbors. America was a land where anyone could be American, though Islamophobia is a long-woven thread. This was evident during initial reports of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 suspecting Islamic Extremists. People have a tendency to blame outsiders during any downflanderized image of itself with financed King Ranch F-350s and turn in prosperity.
Unrelated to the tragedy, Americans rallied behind the Iraq War on claims of weapons of mass destruction and supporting religious extremists.
The non-Western-aligned Islamic world became synonymous with terrorism once more, ignoring all the post-World War II meddling we had done to brew resentment.
Entering the Great Recession, Americans turned their anger to each other rather than their leaders. Muslims, Latin Americans, and so many others are blamed for the nation’s trouble. Many no longer see America as a land where anyone can be American.
Our culture, the American Dream, the idea of Americana changed with the Great Recession, social media and 9/11.
Americana is now a shallow a corporate job, instead of a small soulful Chevy or Eurovan and a journey. The American Dream has been unveiled as a facade as houses, education and independence become more unattainable. We no longer embrace the melting pot in our identity.
But then again, we never did to a large degree. The 2000s made it worse, but it wasn’t perfect before.
My generation looks at the 2000s with rose tinted glasses despite barely living through it. However, this is where the illusion of American values was stripped away, further paving the pathway to our current situation. If we see the foundations and parallels to the past, we can work against reinforcing this trend.
