The Distraction of Time…..
Let’s get this out right now, I’m a fairly conservative fellow – just so you know.
In a couple more months I’ll be 64 years old, so I guess that makes me both old and conservative. I can tell you that I have never been more discouraged by the public dialog than I am now. Oh sure there has been frustration from time to time: the “Nixon lied” years, out of control interest rates with Jimmy Carter, Monica Lewinski, and “W”, but never has there been such an outright disintegration of dialog as we are now experiencing. The sad part is very few folks, at least the ones who have anything to say about it, are saying anything about “IT”.
Why the disintegration? Is it because of social media and the explosion of virtual relationships where there really isn’t much invested with the delivery of a disparaging remark by the touch of a “send” button as opposed to a face to face delivery where the possibility of rebuttal exists, or is it the 24 hour news cycle and the continual bombardment by what often turns out to be opinion disguised as “news”, or maybe it’s the fact, yes fact, that now only about one in three folks say they have any religious affiliation demonstrating the subsequent loss of value placed on what was once held dear? What is it?
I submit to you it has something to do with our culture, a culture that’s evolved as a result of our affluence. Affluence that has enabled folks at all levels to exchange someone else’s resources, either parents, family, neighbors, or society in general, for the time to be drawn into second tier causes, causes that fall under the category of respectable but not essential.
I can already hear the outrage at describing someone else’s cause as “second tier”. Allow me to clarify, if I might. Think of the sinking Titanic. An essential cause that night was getting folks safely off the sinking craft and into a life boat, a respectable cause was trying to make sure no one used the “F” word in all the chaos. It’s about priorities and getting folks to agree on what the focus should be without keeping score.
The problem begins when, for what ever reason (I think it’s affluence), eyeballs have been taken off the ball and instead they are focused on the interesting noise in the stands. When this happens the next thing the batter hears is the ball smacking the catchers mitt and “strike three, you’re out of here”.
Come on people, lets get our heads back in the game. We can figure out what the interesting noise in the stands is after our turn at bat!
Is Anybody Out There? 
Great rant Mike. In my mind, the cause of our demise is similar to what brought down the Roman Empire (as a commonly understood powerful society). It is the abdication of personal responsibility. If you take this central principle and apply it to many things you see that we are sowing the seeds of our own destruction. We live in an era where everything is someone else’s fault. This sets up those divides you mention above and fuels the “blame game” and the lack of empowerment embodied in a sense of futility as central government interferes increasingly in our lives. We roll-over as government (TSA, Patriot Act, Federal Reserve) emasculates us to create a population of sheep who are increasingly easier to control while pretending to provide us with security and “prosperity.” What they do is dilute the spirit of the society to the point where initiative is destroyed. Look at the crazy idea today that the “rich” are not being taxed fairly. Why are rich people’s income taxed less? Because they put their money AT RISK and it does not always materialize. If you work for a wage, you are guaranteed that return for your efforts. If your income comes from investment, there are no guarantees. We are punishing the people who make the right choices to put their wealth to work. It isn’t taking a larger slice of a pie which implies that the pie is fixed and needs to be divided (transferred). The pie has the potential to be made larger and larger so that the slice everyone gets has the potential to get larger. If you try to protect your slice of the pie in conflict with the folks that want to make that pie larger, we all suffer.
The electorate (population in general) is ignorant of natural law and animal spirits. They confuse initiative with greed. They envy gains others make when they themselves are unwilling to work and put their own capital at risk. The result is Occupy Wall Street and socialist thinking which everyone knows is unsustainable and immature.
Good luck my friend. Spread the word that we need to reinvigorate the spirit of demand in our economy so that we can get some momentum building. “Compromise” is unrealistic when one side compells (at the barrel of a gun) the other side to participate in transferring their wealth for a purpose they do not agree with. When we remove the reliance on central government as a “provider” and enable our inherent instincts to survive and prosper.
Stay frosty my friend.
BC
Bill Cook
December 3, 2012 at 10:27 pm
Awesome! Its truly awesome paragraph, I have got much clear idea about from this post.
isabel marant shoes
September 24, 2013 at 1:30 pm
Insightful. What role does “sin” or “evil” play?
Gene Peterson
April 3, 2014 at 3:44 pm