Look around. Read the polls. Listen to the conversations of friends, neighbors and countrymen. From D.C. to Springfield to District 150, divisiveness, strife, finger-pointing and polarization rule.

These are symptoms of a cultural malaise, a sickness. The only cure that seems to unify the American people is the legalization of marijuana in one form or another. A nation whose only ability and limited ambition are to get high together is a sad commentary on where we are as a people.

America has morphed into a spectator democracy, a passive and dependent people. We cheer or boo for either the red or blue team, enjoying the smash mouth game. Mesmerized by red or blue group think, creative solutions for complex problems can never be found. Consequently, the claim is made that our institutions are broken. Yet we are those institutions.

Where is the government of the people, by the people and for the people? Lincoln must weep as he sees us waiting for others to cure our ills. Surely there is a leader, a Fuhrer, perhaps even a “Godot” who will save us from ourselves. For we don’t even have the ability to get a vote on the table to achieve a better and fairer way of selecting our representatives.

The mood of the nation clearly seems to be dispiriting.

Fortunately, not everyone has become listless, passive, dependent and hopeless in America. Many are still engaged and devoted to building their communities across the land. And this has always been part of the American character.

But is there enough of that character left to form the critical mass necessary to get the nation back to working together and making good things happen?

Only you can answer that. But the answer must be in actions, not words.

John F. Gilligan, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and president emeritus of the Human Service Center. He resides in Groveland.