From the book: "Conversations with God, an uncommon dialogue", (available at our Jubilee Library) I quote a short passage, to show my readers that already five years ago, when he published his book in 1997, the author Neale Donald Walsh saw the downfall of the American "dream". I quote from page 88, as "God" speaks and explains:

 "Thoughts do create physical form--and when many people are thinking the same thing, there is a very high likelihood their thoughts will form a reality. (That is why "We'll pray for you" is such a powerful statement. There are enough testimonies to the effectiveness of unified prayer to fill a book.)  It is also true that un-prayerlike thoughts can create "effects." A worldwide consciousness of fear, for instance, or anger, or lack, or insufficiency, can create that experience--across the globe or within a given locale where those collective ideas are strongest.

 The Earth nation you call the United States, for example, has long thought itself to be a nation "under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." It is not a coincidence that this nation rose to become the most prosperous on earth. It is also not surprising that this nation is gradually losing all that it has worked so hard to create--for this nation seems to have lost its vision.

 The terms "under God, indivisible," meant just that--they expressed the Universal Truth of Unity; Oneness: a Matrix very difficult to destroy. But the Matrix has been weakened. Religious freedom has become religious righteousness bordering on religious intolerance. Individual freedom has all but vanished as individual responsibility has disappeared. The notion of individual responsibility has been distorted to mean "every man for himself." This is the new philosophy that imagines itself to be harkening back to the Early American tradition of rugged individualism.

 But the original sense upon which the American vision and the American dream was based, found its deepest meaning and its highest expression in the concept off Brotherly Love.  What made America great was not that every man struggled for his own survival, but that every man accepted individual responsibility for the survival of all.  America was a nation that would not turn its back on the hungry, would never say no to the needy, would open its arms to the weary and the homeless, and would share its abundance with the world.

Yet as America became great, Americans became greedy. Not all, but many. And, as time went on, more and more.

As Americans saw how good it was possible to have it, they sought to have it even better. Yet there was only one way to have more and more and more. Someone else had to have less and less and less. As greed replaced greatness in the American character, there was less room for compassion for the least among the people. The less fortunate were told it was their "own damned fault" if they didn't have more. After all, America was the Land of Opportunity, was it not? No one except the less fortunate found it possible to admit that America's opportunity was limited, institutionally, to those already on the inside track. In general, these have not included many minorities, such as those of certain skin color or gender.

Americans became arrogant internationally as well. As millions starved across the globe, Americans threw away enough food each day to feed entire nations. America was generous with some, yes--but increasingly her foreign policy came to be an extension of her own vested interests. America helped others when it served America to do so. (That is, when it served America's power structure, America's richest elite, or the military machine that protected those elite--and their collective assets.)

America's founding ideal-- Brotherly Love-- had been eroded. Now any talk of being "your brother's keeper" is met with a new brand of Americanism--a sharp mind toward what it takes to hold on to one's own, and a sharp word to any amongst the less fortunate who would dare to ask for their fair share, for their grievances to be redressed.

Each person must take responsibility for herself or himself--that is undeniable true. But America--and your world--can truly work only when every person is willing to stand responsible for all of you as a Whole."

America's lack of seeing and understanding itself has lead to the present situation.

I strongly recomend this and other books by Neale Donald Walsh to those that seek insight and wisdom. N.D.Walsh certainly has reached and is enlightened and his books can help to clearify many questions people have about spirituality and religion.