The Year America’s Basic Systems Started To Crumble
The easy and pervasive idea that you could drop your kids off at school and expect they d get an education like you did back in the day was dead. The assumption that you could trust the hospital administrator went out with the idea that you could trust your favorite news anchor. Hell, even pastors and funeral directors stood in the way of the business of life, death, and salvation.
But these were just people, most reasoned; or at least these were just institutions. And anyway, these were unprecedented times and we re all in this together. The pendulum will swing back, Americans confidently predicted. This craziness will pass.
Today, in the first month of 2023, we don t have the luxury of thinking it s all going to get better. Because far from the year America changed course and settled into normalcy, 2022 was the year the basic, behind-the-scenes systems we all count on started to break down.
Christopher Bedford.