Isn’t it funny how all too often we are willing to put up with a thing until it begins to infringe on our own freedoms, or intrudes so far into our daily lives that it can no longer be denied? Ask any number of random pedestrians on the street, and they will undoubtedly be able to list a long litany of egregious wrongs in the world; yet ask those same individuals to list their own efforts to counter said evils, and you will almost always be met with a stunned and blank silence.
It seems that the hypocritical capacity of mankind to complain about a thing without actually doing anything about it knows no bounds. On the other hand, those individuals who we see crusading for a cause, the ones so often lauded as heroes and role models are invariably people, men, women, even children, who have lived through the fire and bear the scars.
It is time to take a long look in the mirror and examine ourselves and a culture that could accurately be described as the Selfie Generation. For decades poling of school-aged young people revealed the future projection of our nation as a people. When asked what they aspired to be as adults, the vast majority trended toward productive positive careers and accomplishments. Scattered among the ubiquitous astronauts and racecar drivers were a large number of other gainful and constructive futures: firemen, doctors, police officers, the President.
But over the last few years there has been a dramatic and telling shift; when asked now about their future goals and desires, the number one answer given was, “I want to be famous.” Most don’t even care what they are famous FOR, as long as they are seen and recognized.
Our culture has turned the emphasis away from working hard and accomplishing something worthy of self-satisfaction, into one motivated by fans, clicks, likes, views and attention. There was a time when a man worked hard to build and maintain a good and honest reputation. Now however, that desire has been cast off in the rush for Notoriety and Fame. The current generation has been brought up to believe that it’s more important to be well known, than known well of.
I say all this realizing the likelihood of being written off is an old codger, shouting from his front porch at the neighborhood kids to stay off his lawn, complaining about, “This young generation.” But I say NO. If there is, in fact, a glaring character flaw in the youth of our nation, then, I must point the finger squarely at the mothers and fathers of the PREVIOUS one, who allowed their own upward quest for career and comfort, to corrupt the next. And the finger too must be pointed at the leaders of our political system, blithely rushing down a path that ends, sharply, at the edge of a proverbial cliff; It must be pointed at an entertainment industry, which has slowly degraded to the point where selfish greed, violence, and filth—evil in any imaginable flavor, is now a channel flip or mouse click away. Where the taboo and once shameful are now openly paraded across the screen and proclaimed to be acceptable and good.
Blame too goes to the decline of marriage, the home, parental responsibility for actually RAISING and training their offspring, not simply feeding them and sending them to school to be taught by strangers. The list is long. In the end, the ultimate finger filters down to the individual, the man or woman on the street who knows deep down that there is something wrong in the world, yet cares not to do a thing about it. Those who are content to ignore the evil and atrocities until they are forced to do something. The litany goes on, and there is nothing wrong with a litany. They can remind us, focus us, and inspire us, but the real question is then, “What are YOU going to do with it?”
W.C.R.