Poor America! This great and rich nation, the savior of the free world in the 20th century, the author of Pax Americana, is having a miserable time in the 21st century.

The outward and immediate signs of this can be seen, and heard, in the violent polarization of debate, the constant talk of a deeply divided nation, the explosive anger of the Black community, the fury of persistent gender inequality, the angry war of words over the Supreme Court new member, and now, to cap to it all, a once sick president and a grimly high COVID-19 death toll and the airwaves full of whispers of conspiracy and shouts of pure hatred. The imminent presidential election has been described as "a democratic disaster." Truly a bad scene.

Yet beneath it all lies a much deeper and more historic process of which these ugly sores and social maladies are all the surface symptoms — including the COVID impact itself.