Self-indulgence had been one of America's most heinous societal flaws ever since the Pilgrims first landed and started stealing land from the native American Indians. Even the founding fathers who drafted the U.S. Constitution and established the United States of America on a premise that "all men were created equal" didn't really subscribe to that lofty theory: it was common knowledge that Thomas Jefferson kept slaves, Benjamin Franklin was a womanizer. George Washington's offer to serve as the first U.S. President for virtually nothing except expenses was in, reality, a sweet deal for the father of our country. The larcenous largesse of his expense accounts were legendary; no doubt such large-scale sticky-fingeredness was the model for all the political thievery to follow. As America matured, the matter only extrapolated until it became acceptable to cheat on one's religion, one's expense account or on one's spouse. After two hundred years of seducing themselves into believing they were all 'honorable' men, America had deteriorated into a cesspool of self-centeredness.
It didn't matter that European settlers had stolen the Indians' way of life, taken their land, and massacred their people.
There was no shame when the frontiersmen raped and pillaged, slaughtered billions of buffalo for the sheer sport of it, and destroyed millions of acres of beautiful forest just because they wanted to 'clear' a piece of the land for their own homestead.
To participate in the trading, buying, and selling of slaves as nothing more than personal property was considered an honorable 'right' for men of means or status.
Exploiting Chinese and Mexicans for back-breaking work to build transcontinental railroads and highways seemed perfectly legitimate for the Rockefeller and Carnegie clans who became an American upper class as a result of browbeating those 'second class' citizens into laborious submission.
Gold rush entrepreneurs with big bankrolls stole claims from poor independent miners, established whore houses and bars where the dregs of 1849 society could be kept 'at bay' - and away - from the wealthy procurers who lived in fashionable San Francisco mansions.
The industrial revolution brought millions to America's shores in search of fortune. Only a very few ever found such fortune, as most became 'common' laborers who were paid little for 12-hour days in torturous sweat shops.
The gaiety of the "Roaring 20's" was enjoyed by a miniscule membership of those "very, very rich" while most 'common' people became victims of the Great Depression and a giant "Dust Bowl" that turned many Americans' dreams to ashes and crushed the hopes and spirits of millions.
Klu Klux Klan chapters festered in many parts of the country as struggling white supremacists felt threatened by potential 'black power' that might just prove how some "uppity niggers" were better at supporting their children, more loyal to their wives, and better dedicated to an American ethic of hard work, decency, and compassionate humanity.
It took a second 'World War' to bring America together. But the aftermath of that tremendous victory was a superfluous return to materialistic nepotism. Pent-up demand for new homes, new cars, and new appliances created a "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality that only escalated into a treacherous consumerism bound to eventually overtake more respectable American values and mores.
As the 20th century led us into more decadence, the "free love" generation rebelled against everything that had become part of the 'establishment'. Homosexuality, unwed motherhood, drug abuse, orgies, "living together", nakedness, communes and long, straggley hair became symbols of alternative lifestyles. War protestors, draft dodgers, pimps, drug dealers, and women's rights groups flourished by making headlines on the national evening news broadcasts. 'Signs, signs, everywhere signs...' was a hit tune objecting to the rights of property owners to keep others out. A hideous cult leader persuaded his drug-crazed followers to kill the wife of a wealthy movie producer, then - during his trial - convinced two of them to make assassination attempts on one U.S. President. Ronald Reagan promulgated his 'trickle down' theory which only meant that a millionaire's money 'trickled down' to the poor plumber who installed gold-plated faucets in the millionaire's mansion's bathrooms. 'All for One...ME" was a popular Reagan doctrine.
By the beginning of the 21st century, America's preoccupation with 'self' had mushroomed into a national crapulence of almost epic proportions. Wall Street billionaires would step from their stretch limos and walk over beggars crumpled over on the sidewalk, ignoring them as they would ignore a lowly stone. The pomposity of a U.S. President would send young soldiers into harm's way because his family had a personal vendetta against another nation's ruler...and because the Vice-President wanted all that OIL swimming underneath Iraq's sands...and because the giant U.S. military-industrial complex needed a new 'war' to boost its sagging profits. Corporate executives sensed no shame in squandering their companies' money on yachts, jets, and lavish homes while they earned 600 - 800 times what most of their employees earned, on average. Media giants such as Rush Limbaugh earned millions spewing political hatred over the airwaves, just as the Hitler propogandists had prior to the beginning of World War II. Howard Stern earned hundreds of millions of dollars degrading women and blurting out offensive obscenities to America's giggling delight. A trivia question in every tavern's MegaTouch machine asked, "How many times did Eddie Murphy use the f-word in [one of his poular movies]?". Even men and women of modest means carried on extra-marital affairs, gave birth to children out of wedlock, lived together without the commitment of marriage, indulged in 'recreational' drug and alcohol use, and luxuriated in their own pool of personal wealth and abhorrent indignity.
No one cared that the $90 meal they consumed at a new bistro last night could have fed a week's worth of nutritious meals to a poor family of four. It was of little concern that one's new $65,000 SUV wasted precious gasoline as its 'vehicle emissions' helped pollute America's fresh air. Reducing waste by reusing a Styrofoam cup multiple times, or recycling a cardboard box that one's new computer was shipped in, seemed an inconvenience to most Americans. It was simply easier to toss everything in the trash and pay to have someone haul it away and bury it in a landfill. 'Dirty' jokes had been replaced by offensive, sick humor that up until a few years ago would have never gotten past broadcast censors. Young teen-age girls were inundated by TV ads that encouraged them to be 'sexy' or 'gorgeous' as if sexual objects was all they were good for in contemporary society. Ads never promoted being a good mother, a mentor, a role model, or a person whose fidelity was a matter of personal honor and dignity. Sex "sold" anything. Sensationalism generated viewers, readers or listeners, which attracted advertisers, publishers and movie promoters. 'War' created financial windfalls for those who initiated them...so what if a few thousand innocent U.S. soldiers had to die?
It had been the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. mission to eradicate much of such corruption from the country. Now, on this Saturday after Thanksgiving Day, there seemed to be a new sense of decency, community and humanity stirring throughout the U.S.A.
As Ryan, Oetting and Baker pondered all this, they recognized their own indulgences had, perhaps, strayed from the confines of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. movement. But, then, who could really say how much booze is "too much" booze?