Superficiality In America

Everyone scraped their arm once or twice as a kid. These scrapes and small injuries are defined as superficial wounds. It is easy to take care of these surface wounds just by cleaning the wound and putting a bandage over it. However, when these wounds get dirty or go untreated, they become infected. Superficiality can look great, but when taking a deeper look, one sees the infection developing. This is much like current American society. When looking at America on a superficial level, it seems like the “American Dream” is popping up all over the place, but in reality, when taking a deeper look, it is easy to see the “infection” developing and corrupting everything.

A hypothetical situation as an example of how infection occurs: A kid falls

Another way of defining: concerning one’s self with only what is on the surface. Superficiality is how America became infected in the first place. The problem with American society is not that there are problems that occur, there are problems that arise in any situation, it is that in America the people continue to cover everything with a bandage until it becomes so severely infected there is no cure for it. There are rapists in the streets? Well instead of imprisoning the rapists let 's tell the victim it was their fault, they were asking for it. Instead of telling boys they need to respect women, how bout we throw a bandage on it and instead tell the girls they need to cover their body. The National Institute of Justice talks about how the rape reporting is changing over time. They say that it is a hidden crime despite the recent legal reforms. “That rate increased over the decade, but the fact remains that less than half of these offenses are reported to police.” (Has Rape Reporting Increased Over Time?) Superficially, American society continuously covers up issues for years. Society is shaming women for speaking out on the issue; they call women “sluts” for someone else raping them and say they “were asking for it.” This influences women to cover up their wounds with a bandage and just further infects the

Americans are polarizing issues such as human rights, environmental issues, and safety regulations. Americans throw bandages on it until political polarization takes over and politicians stay so true to party lines that even matter as bipartisan as protecting the environment everyone lives in automatically becomes a “we versus them” situation. Donald Trump even said in his inaugural address, “The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.” (Trump’s Inaugural Address) The business and the politicians protect themselves and infect American society by being superficial and not protecting the citizens of