Welcome To America…Today’s America

The older I get, the less I know.  Things that I used to take for granted are not so certain anymore.  Many of the lessons I learned in my life are either foreign to many people or, if I dare to exhibit them or mention them publicly, are ridiculed.  I always thought of myself as just a regular guy; normal to the point of boredom.  There are now times when I venture outside of my small circle of friends and family that I feel much like a stranger in a strange land. 

No doubt, the pandemic is much to blame for this situation.  Not only have the shutdown practices disrupted everyone’s lives; but the fact is that we are all (well…most all of us) wearing masks in public that cover about fifty percent of our face.  And it is further isolating when we consider that the part of our face that we cover up might very well be the most expressive part of our face.

I visited my doctor yesterday for my annual checkup and he told me a funny story about masks.  I have been struggling the last few years with an increasingly annoying loss of hearing.  As he and I were discussing the possible remedies for this problem, my doctor mentioned that a large number of his patients had experienced hearing loss and had become quite adept at reading lips.  He said he had noticed how much more often he had to repeat himself in conversations with these patients.  The masks don’t just hide us physically; they hide us emotionally.

Another emerging phenomenon that I have noticed is the herd mentality tendency of our society that has been pushed into overdrive by the demands of political correctness.  There have always been, and there will always be, stupid people.  Some of us may not be quite stupid; we just act that way on occasion.  Anyone from the south is familiar with the famous last words of a redneck… “Watch this!!”  They are the words we dramatically shout just prior to doing something incredibly stupid.  But there are some among us who are truly and authentically stupid.  There was a time in my life when people recognized stupidity for what it was, called it out if it got in their face, and simply avoided it whenever possible.  Typically, those who were simply acting stupid and were not truly stupid would be sufficiently shamed by this declaration so that the stupidity would either cease or they would just go away.

Nowadays, it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between those who are behaving stupidly and those who are truly stupid.  The reason is that people have stopped being embarrassed by their stupid behavior.  They have no shame.  And to make the issue even more prominent, and this behavior even more acceptable; that herd mentality I mentioned earlier emboldens people who are simply behaving stupidly to wear their stupid behavior like a badge of honor.  At times, it gets so absurd that a sane person will ask themselves... “Are they stupid, or is it just me?”  This world that we live in is making it more and more difficult to retain any degree of personal conviction.

We have seen history be irresponsibly re-written and embraced as enlightened truth.  We have seen abhorrent behavior become normal based on specious motivation.  We have seen immoral acts become perfectly acceptable by not only the persons performing them; but by those we have chosen as leaders in our culture, society, and government.  In fact, it has become incumbent upon those who might personally disapprove of such behavior or acts to openly endorse the behavior of which they disapprove lest they be labeled as ignorant, bigoted, biased, intolerable, or racist.  The entire conception of ethics has become quite antiquated and oftentimes literally ridiculed for its “puritanical” approach to working, living, and simply existing in our nation these days.    

I have not done justice to the “old school” tenets for living that were ingrained in my psyche by my parents, my grandparents, and my older mentors.  But my failure to fully abide by the virtues of honesty, accountability, courage, sincerity, honor for fiscal obligation, willingness to sacrifice one’s wants and desires to help another or to gain a worthy goal, ethical behavior in all walks of life, and respect for others…that does not diminish their value whatsoever.  These seemingly antiquated aspects of working and living, much like the Christian ideals of Jesus, are things that we reach for but seldom grasp completely.  The value is realized in that reaching; we become better people, a better culture, and a better society by simply trying.  We don’t seem to try much anymore.

Regrettably, in many instances, this disdain for the traditional expectations associated with ethics and morals has bled over into a gathering resentment of religion.  We should not be surprised that once the foundations of such virtues were sufficiently weakened in a general and cultural sense, it would only be natural to attack the ideals of those whose faith is premised upon such virtues.  Condemnation of those ideals flows naturally to the condemnation of a belief based on those ideals.  The ongoing attacks on religion that are increasing in number and intensity are an insidious threat to the decency of our nation.

The upshot of these growing tendencies in American society and culture is leading us to a coarsening of ourselves.  In today’s America, the substance and depth of a person or a statement is not nearly as important as the flash and width of that person or statement.  Put another way, we are becoming people who are paper thin and a mile wide.   There is little conviction to our words and deeds and that lack of commitment allows us to broaden our support and tolerance for all else to the maximum degree possible.  Without making a righteous or value judgment, I would say that we are certainly not as durable and reliable as we once were.  Put another way, we have become hard to trust.

I’m not sure where this evolution leads us; but it is troubling to think about what we are losing and have so carelessly devalued.  Perhaps the technological roller-coaster we have been riding for the last few decades is simply outrunning our ability to outfit it with some sense of moral value and decency.  Maybe at some point, hopefully sooner rather than later, that adjustment will occur and we can have a healthy balance of fundamentally sound values and principles coupled with the wonders of our modern world.  Hey…we might even get back to the point where when someone behaves stupidly in public, they will be sincerely embarrassed about it. 

Perhaps in a strange, reverse psychological kind of way, what I’m trying to express in this blog was illustrated by the American people in this last election.  This recent election was not about Donald Trump versus Joe Biden; the election was about Donald Trump versus Donald Trump.  To a great extent, Donald Trump was the personification of the tendencies I have mentioned thus far.  His extremes in his personal behavior, his radical rhetoric, his over the top reactions to each and every provocation…his very Trumpness wore away at people until he had no good will left to draw upon. Trump did not lose because people voted for Joe Biden.  Trump lost because people voted against Donald Trump.

Americans do not expect their President to be perfect.  That’s a good thing because it is the impossible dream.  What Americans DO expect is for their President to exhibit in some form or fashion the fact that they realize they are not perfect.  That is how they get away with some of the ridiculous things they do.  Mea culpas are far too frequent in our political realm; but they happen so often because the simple truth is that they are effective.  They work.  The American voter has a remarkably short memory.  Donald Trump could never bring himself to acknowledge in the least way that he was less than perfect.  In fact, he harrumphed time and again about how perfect he thought he was.  It turns out that no matter how exemplary a President’s policy achievements might be, he will ultimately be judged on his character. 

The adverse effect Trump realized due to the pandemic notwithstanding, his main stumbling block to re-election was his inability to convince a small number of disaffected Republicans, offended Independents, and open-minded Democrats (rare creatures, indeed) to vote for him in spite of his Trumpness.  Those who say that the presidential election was stolen by fraud and illegality must come to terms with a simple reality:  Had President Donald Trump been capable of toning it down just a few degrees, the good will he might have earned would quite possibly have overcome the votes gained by Democratic election shenanigans. 

 

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Just as Americans tired of President Trump; perhaps they will eventually tire of the senseless and careless way we have abandoned simple humility, pride, accountability, and decent behavior in our daily lives.  And if those folks who used this abandonment to full advantage in their quest for political gain continue to leverage that behavior in their administration of political power; their fate might prove to be quite similar to that of Donald Trump.  America, its citizens and its leaders alike, must rediscover the ability to feel embarrassment. 

In a perfect world, this rediscovery would be led by a newly self-aware mainstream media; a media that has lost all credibility and respect because of their absolute surrender to the Resist Trump Movement.  But before they can begin the soul-wrenching process of coming to grips with that fever-pitched mania; they can simply seize a convenient opportunity to step up and say… “I was wrong”.  We can accept that a fully honest and sincere explanation of why they were wrong can wait.  

I believe that most people readily understand the reasons why they behaved like an adjunct of the Democratic Party rather than a responsible and honorable Fourth Estate.  That “Come to Jesus” moment can arrive at a later date when they tire of the pitiful and impotent warhorse they have helped to place in charge of our nation.  For now, they simply need to acknowledge that they did something stupid, exhibit some degree of embarrassment, and try to put this behind them with some modicum of humility: https://www.dailywire.com/news/flashback-media-said-a-vaccine-by-end-of-year-was-impossible-even-fact-checked-trump-making-claim .  As the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu said… “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”.  For the mainstream media, it will indeed be a long journey back.

Welcome to America....Today's America.  Let's close it out with a classic from the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business", the "Godfather of Soul", the "The One, the Only"....the one who will never be replaced....James Joseph Brown....let it roll..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5BL4RNFr58 .