Once in a while I just have to express some opinions about political issues. I try to avoid them too often because I know there are so many people that just don’t care about anything but their own little world but occasionally I must purge the pressure that builds up inside me of a political nature. By the way, this will not be a Republican vs Democrat debate. You’ve been warned so you can close this before you listen to my opinions.
What has happened to this country of ours? How did we become a nation of takers? For so many years, in my mind, what made our country special was when we saw a task in front of us; we rolled up our sleeves and worked at solving the problem. We didn’t just look at how an issue affected us but how it affected the whole country. The American spirit has slowly transformed into an entitlist mentality. How did this happen? I think that as a whole we have become a large experiment of Pavlov. Many American’s see politicians and they begin to salivate about entitlements even before a single word comes out of those politician’s mouths. In fact, forget about anything remotely important about any problems in this country as long as you keep sending those checks. It is both sad and embarrassing that we have come to this.
You can also look around at how totally dependent we have become on the speed of technology that has made us look at everything with the same expectation of speed. Our highways are now fraught with danger. Not just speeders but people so self-involved that the safety and consideration of others is a thing of the past. People did actually one time think about the other people around them and sometimes even before themselves. Even look at charitable giving. It used to be all about helping the charities. Now it is about making sure everyone is aware of the giving of the particular individual as to show a perception of how great a person is measured. In other words many people now give so that they can proclaim it loudly and feel even more self-important. The people that impress me most are the ones who just give, don’t advertise it, and go about their business. Charity should never be about “keeping up with the Jones”.
Many people have restated the phrase “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it” but it seems to be a more accurate statement with each passing year. We are a culture of cycles. It seems that each facet of our society, be it religious, political or economic, rides a kind of pendulum. It swings one way and religion becomes extremely important…..it swings the other way to where religion is of little importance and this pertains to those other areas I mention. It never seems to be a level and consistent motion but one of constant change. What drives the changes can go back to our very nature of never seemingly being satisfied with anything in our lives. We have definitely lost the stop and smell the roses kind of people we were when I was a child. Few people actually do smell the roses anymore and that is very sad.
Finally, I thought I would once again talk about our Federal government. Our government is corrupt right up to the very top and it is driven by power, greed and money. Our Congress is now almost solely devoted and motivated by the next election. These politicians used to actually care about what goes on in the country. Now their decisions are made by how their constituents will vote. Our moral compass is no longer in play and the rights of the individual are now trumped by how the collective will vote and unfortunately the majority of the collective now vote by sound bites and media misinformation. What’s in it for me is now the driving force.
I guess I am in a melancholy mood this morning. I try to stay positive but in the face of what I see as a world of selfish takers it becomes more and more difficult. There is one thing I can remain positive about and that is I can control how I act and by what motivates me and by doing what I think is right and I can lay my head on the pillow at night knowing that I am doing my very best. If everyone can do this….I guess we will be OK in the end. Your thoughts?
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