Our problem in this country? No Respect. For anything. We have lampooned and demeaned every last institution in the country, a slow motion French Revolution where even the highest offices of government and church leaders do not escape the rhetorical torches and pitchforks. We've set it all ablaze and we dance with glee as we watch it burn.
Granted, government and church have earned it with their serial malfeasance. Their leaders don't appear to respect the institutions they were supposed to be guarding, so why should we?
We didn't earn it, so we don't respect it
We are ignorant of our history. We only hear the Howard Zinn versions now, being screamed out by blasphemous preachers from their pulpits of anger and resentment.
President Obama was proselytizing his fellow international cosmopolitans when he reduced American exceptionalism to patriotic self-delusion:
And we believe it, because we don't respect our history, so we've forgotten it.
We respect nothing so we value nothing
The press does not respect the truth. It is more interested in sensational propaganda. William Randolph Hearst and the yellow journalists of yore applaud with admiration from the grave.
We respect nothing but our own overinflated sense of self importance. Getting "dissed" is the only disrespect we get angry about. Back in the day, people had more respect because the culture taught it to them. A person with little or no respect for anything was ostracized to the fringes with other malcontents, but it was a long trip there with plenty of opportunity to repent along the way.
Forgotten Societal Correctives
Punishment and guidance at school, getting fired from jobs, being shut out of polite society, getting punched in the nose for insulting something dear to someone or impugning someone's character. These things taught us lessons and instilled virtues, if nothing else, just knowing when to shut your mouth. A person could learn, or not, by degrees.
Nowadays, there are no stop signs, no guardrails to block a person's free-wheeling descent to hell. Until he dis's the wrong person, and "honor" obliges the offended to shoot the smartass dead.
No, the football coach who used to teach respect has adorned the back window of his pickup with a cartoon character peeing on a Detroit Red Wing logo. How funny! It's in your face 24/7.
Granted, government and church have earned it with their serial malfeasance. Their leaders don't appear to respect the institutions they were supposed to be guarding, so why should we?
We didn't earn it, so we don't respect it
We are ignorant of our history. We only hear the Howard Zinn versions now, being screamed out by blasphemous preachers from their pulpits of anger and resentment.
President Obama was proselytizing his fellow international cosmopolitans when he reduced American exceptionalism to patriotic self-delusion:
"I believe in American exceptionalism," Barack Obama said, "just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.""It's all in your minds, you jingoistic morons! Get over it. Your stinking country is no better than than Greece or West Stinkhole-istan!"
And we believe it, because we don't respect our history, so we've forgotten it.
We respect nothing so we value nothing
The press does not respect the truth. It is more interested in sensational propaganda. William Randolph Hearst and the yellow journalists of yore applaud with admiration from the grave.
We respect nothing but our own overinflated sense of self importance. Getting "dissed" is the only disrespect we get angry about. Back in the day, people had more respect because the culture taught it to them. A person with little or no respect for anything was ostracized to the fringes with other malcontents, but it was a long trip there with plenty of opportunity to repent along the way.
Forgotten Societal Correctives
Punishment and guidance at school, getting fired from jobs, being shut out of polite society, getting punched in the nose for insulting something dear to someone or impugning someone's character. These things taught us lessons and instilled virtues, if nothing else, just knowing when to shut your mouth. A person could learn, or not, by degrees.
Nowadays, there are no stop signs, no guardrails to block a person's free-wheeling descent to hell. Until he dis's the wrong person, and "honor" obliges the offended to shoot the smartass dead.
No, the football coach who used to teach respect has adorned the back window of his pickup with a cartoon character peeing on a Detroit Red Wing logo. How funny! It's in your face 24/7.
We get disrespected, so we shove it back in return, ending up respecting nothing and hating everything.
George Santayana said that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Well, those with no respect of their history and their institutions are doomed to trash their culture.
H/T to Camp of The Saints who blogged on a similar issue by Washington Rebel - Closing the Gate
George Santayana said that those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Well, those with no respect of their history and their institutions are doomed to trash their culture.
H/T to Camp of The Saints who blogged on a similar issue by Washington Rebel - Closing the Gate
9 comments:
Well said, Kurt. We don't have to work for anything anymore, it seems. We know someone who can get us a job. We can get a big-screen TV or an iPad on credit and never pay it off. We can get government hand outs to feed ourselves, and the government tries to push that philosophy into every sector of our lives. I'll take care of you, it says. We close our eyes and nod. It's agonizing to watch this all unfold.
Good post...."Nowadays, there are no stop signs, no guardrails to block a person's free-wheeling descent to hell. Until he dis's the wrong person, and "honor" obliges the offended to shoot the smartass dead"
Yup.
I'm not a bible thumping Catholic not that there's anything wrong with that....but we've reached modern day Sodom and Gomorrah...it's here and now.
It is true that many people do not respect or appreciate what we have had here in the US. The decline began when our society decided that we had become too intelligent to swallow the Biblical
"fairytales" of our ancestors, and we set out to divest ourselves of any restrictions put upon us by traditional Christian mores. Prayer was banned in schools, the Ten Commandments were stripped from public places, and we were taught that man is really no more than a slightly more intelligent ape.
Being set free from Christian principles which had "bound" us since our beginning liberated our minds to question the influence of all aspects of "religion" in our lives. We attacked the idea that the Bible was given to us by God. We decided that God was dead. We were, after all, intelligent and rational people who could be honest and moral on our own without a God to tell us what to do...so we struck out on our own - without God. We were free.
Without a specific guide (Bible) in our lives, we slowly lost respect for ourselves (or rather our position in relation to God) and it manifest itself in destructive behavior...drugs, recreational sex, broken families, shallow unfocused lives with no goals, etc. We reveled in our guiltless, carefree existence. It was just what we thought we had always wanted...unrestricted
life, our way.
We failed to realize that man, when left to himself without a specific guide to lead him, became less inclined to respect his fellow man. We began to demand our "rights." Our focus became centered on ourselves, and away from those around us. We became more and more important in our own eyes, and we began to judge others by our own opinions and preferences - not by a set of guides from a Creator. Real truth didn't matter as much as our "opinion" of what was real truth. Everything became relative to what our individual opinions were. She didn't "believe" that an unborn baby was really a human being, so she saw nothing wrong with abortion. He wasn't really stealing, he was getting that which should have been rightfully his...sure he took it from someone else, but they were rich...they didn't really "need" it. So what if she did not tell the truth? She believed what she said, so it was truth...to her.
We've tossed out the Rule Book...the Guide...the Blueprint...the Truth.
We've thrown out the Truth, and now all that we have is our own opinions. Unfortunately, we can't agree on where to go from here. We are wandering.
Sorry for the length of this comment, but you are right about our country, SF, and I think the above is the reason.
We respect nothing but our own overinflated sense of self importance.
For decades, schools training teachers have been emphasizing that teachers must build students' self-esteem, regardless of actual achievement on the students' part. As a result, students so falsely praised have no self-respect.
Over the 35+ years I've been teaching, I've seen the terrible consequences of falsely building self-esteem. I've held the line against the trend; as a result, I have a difficult time finding employment.
Wow Linda! I should have asked you to post on this. You said it so much better than I did. There is a reason all cultures have insisted on developing and enforcing a moral system: We are flawed vessels.
AOW: I feel for you having to put up with that. My answer to the whole self-esteem movement (and I tell my kids this) is that some people should not have high self esteem. If your grades are crappy and you're a lazy bum who doesn't help around the house, you should have low self esteem. That's nature's way of telling you to get moving, just like a nagging conscience should urge back to the right path.
>consequences of falsely building self-esteem
It's popular to believe that low self-esteem is a cause of depression, but I am convinced that it is specifically the search for self-esteem that is causing much of the chronic depression that we see in the world.
Part of the problem is that the it is impossible to fulfill the desire for self-esteem. The more you try to get it, the more you want it, and ultimately, you are continually frustrated. At its core, depression is a self-centered disorder. The search for self-esteem merely pours gasoline on that fire.
At the beginning of each semester I tell my students that, in the context of the class, I don't care about their feelings. (If they want to come to my office to talk about life, they are always welcome.) I want a solid argument based on verifiable fact. Part of my syllabus reads "The purpose of this course is educational, not therapeutic." Too many people, young and old, seem to have the idea that every person they meet is their therapist and their nursemaid.
I think one of the reasons that my students usually enjoy my classes is that it is refreshing to work toward high standards and satisfying to gain confidence (rather than self-esteem) through fulfilling the requirements. Plus, I often show funny videos.
A colleague (an anthropologist, and a conservative) and I often discuss the issue of respect, and we both have noticed a distinctly negative type of casualness that has crept into American society. On one hand, being able to let down barriers of formality and be personable and warm is a good thing. The problem is that it has gotten past that to a lack of responsibility and a lack of respect.
It's reflected in the sloppy clothes that people wear, poor service at restaurants, hairstyles that look like the person just got out of bed, and an overly familiar manner of address. On campus, I don't see myself as "special" or worthy of some type of reverence because I'm the professor standing at the front of the classroom, but I'm still a bit taken aback when students refer to me as "dude," or call me by my first name. (My own kids know that they will feel my wrath if I ever hear them addressing an adult as "dude.")
Again, it's not because I personally deserve special treatment, but because it is so different from what I was raised to do. I still feel uncomfortable referring to colleagues that are older than me by their first names. It just feels somehow, I don't know, impertinent, I guess.
Bastiatarian:
I wonder if 100 or 200 years ago the same phenomenon, relative to the times, was going on? I doubt it. I'm sure it has been a slow progression, but like everything else, we seem to by in overdrive.
I remember reading a passage about the Constitutional convention. Some one, referring to George Washington said something like, "Well, old man!" and Washington fixed him with such a stare that no one tried such an overfamiliarity again.
You Know what? I Like the Way you Write and I haven't even Gotten to the Psychology Posts yet. There is more that I Could Say in Response to this one, but Perhaps another day.
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