Opinions

This business of having an opinion is dangerous.  Because, see, there is this idea out there that has taken over our society, that is a real problem for us.  See, this idea says that my opinion is somehow an attack on someone that disagrees with me.

We have lost our way in discourse.  I blame social media to some extent, none of us were prepared to have everyone read what we think, without the context of a conversation or shared background.  But, more importantly, I blame the parenting we (my generation) has inflicted on children the world over.  While it might be the best time ever to be a child, it is also the time that has been built around the input of our children.

Therefor, any hope we have to have maturity in our society is dying.  Because we tune the world for our littlest ones, we remain stuck in the juvenile world of hurt feelings and what is most important to me.  We have lost the mature perspective of what is the impact to the whole, and some ability to disregard our own desires in that search for the ultimate right answer.

This whole phenomenon of having an opinion insulting someone is right at the 12 year old level.  Now, I have been plenty offended by stuff others say and think.  Sometimes, my reactions are at the 12 year old level.  But, when it blows up, as anything juvenile eventually does, I am able to maneuver my way through the issue.  Without needing my posse or my squad to come to my defense.

As a grown up, a mature and fully realized adult, sometimes I get it wrong.  Sometimes what I think will not be agreed to by anyone.  Sometimes, sometimes I just think what I think, and if you don't like it, we are just going to have to agree to disagree.  Or you can maintain your pissed off state at me, I got crap to do.

That used to be the way discourse worked in our nation.  People of principle and discipline were in positions of authority, that accepted that not everyone will agree with them.  They did not assume that meant they were wrong, because someone got their feelings hurt.  They did not judge the worth and validity of their argument by who agreed with them, but by what they knew in themselves.  When folks they knew and respected did disagree with them, that drove introspection and self analysis, which many times resulted in a change of thinking.  All the rest of the times, people just kept thinking what they thought, but tried to do it without ascribing evil to those that disagreed.

What brought about this post?  Well, one of the people that I blame for the regression of our society has passed.  Phyllis Schafly, one of the least appreciated social engineers in American history, passed this week.  Her brand of politics, condemnation and moral superiority tinged with bigotry and disgust, were a potent mix of heady elements that post World War II America could not manage.

Where would we be today without this woman?  Perhaps somewhere in the same neighborhood that Reagan and O'Neill lived?  You know, that era when men of character and opposing views found enough common ground to work to the benefit of the nation, that place?  Remember it?  Probably not.
It has been drowned out by 15 years of war, and 8 years of corruption and morally broken leadership before that.  There was a time, not so long ago, when we did not agree on the edges, but found the wide common ground and did things.  We took care of the nation's business.  We disagreed vehemently, and with great vitriol, but we still took action.

But, as the Boomers came of age, they began a shift in the American psyche that we are living through now.  See, Baby Boomers were the children of the greatest victors the world had ever known.  They were born to gods that had defeated the combined might of the world, and knew no master or fear of the cost of their freedom.  We look at these people today, old and infirm, and still imbued with a whiff of the cocky bastard that toppled Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini.  These were men and women of great distinction, and no understanding of a world not subject to their rule.

Their children were tolerated and spoiled.  They grew to a generation that retained the idea that they were titans striding the land, but without the understanding of the cost that freedom demanded.  When war came, they broke.  They split deeply and passionately over fighting the war, and ended up with the side that hid and did not man the ramparts, actually prevailing in our social conscience.  This was a different kind of victory and a different affirmation of a shared ideology.

Now, it mattered what the individual thought, more than the cost to the whole.  These people raised their children, my generation, with this theory.  The individual worth was counted much higher than the whole.  That is where participation trophies, everyone getting something, the rise of the welfare state, the grim reaper of entitlements, and a notion that there was a moral obligation to self before country, all came to maturity.  For a while, we resisted this cancerous stance.  George Herbert Walker Bush was last of the great hero of the Greatest Generation.

We held on to an idea that the nation's priorities were often at odds and above the priorities of the individual.  We did great things.  But, when we elected the first of the Boomer Presidents, things began to decay.  Clinton was the bell ringer for the state we find ourself in.  His brand of morally ambiguous leadership just did not sit right.  While there were still enough of the Greatest Generation in Congress and the courts, we kept ourselves solvent and capable.

But, the cancer spread.  Soon, all the arms of government were populated with a layer of leadership that had never served, had no idea that they should ever serve, and no conception of what that service meant.  When these people came into the government, IN POSITIONS OF SERVICE, they had no internal measure of what that meant.  So, it became about their individual feelings, and not about the best for the nation.  Whatever your political persuasion, you can understand that where before we had Titans striding the halls of government, today, there are just stunted dwarves of little talent and little conviction.

Neither Obama, Reid, McConnell, Boehner, Ryan, Pelosi, nor Chief Justice Roberts, are people of gigantic stature and thought.  Obama comes the closest, mostly because his focus is broad enough, not because he possesses the principle required to lead and to govern.  The rest are small minded, on top of poorly talented.  There are no saviors stepping forward either.  Neither Trump or Hillary Clinton possess the internal mechanism of greatness.  They are both petty and petulant children in spirit.  Someone told them they were always supposed to have what they wanted, what they thought important, and they believe it.  Neither has come anywhere near serving, in the manner of service we hallow so greatly.

Politics has become a career that has the potential to make you one of the wealthiest people in the nation, look at the 348 millionaires in the Congress.  Harry Truman lived on his pension from the Presidency.  Imagine today, a person leaving the White House and living on what is considered upper middle class income, it boggles the mind.  Politics has become about the enrichment of personal cliques and business segments.  Corruption is nothing new, it has plagued every government established by man since leaving the Garden.

But, today, corruption is so accepted and tolerated, that we cannot imagine a government without it.  Imagine a government that passed a law requiring a cap to profiteering from medicine on the backs of Americans, instead of just coughing with embarrassment at Mylan increasing the price of EpiPens by 400%.  We can't, it is inconceivable that the government would be the instrument of protection of the people.  Imagine a government that required businesses to pay taxes that support the maintenance of the roads, sewers, water supply and infrastructure of the towns and regions they are draining?  We can't, because we have convinced ourselves that taxes are evil, and of no purpose, for our own advantage.  (And because we have not had a Congress in over 20 years that was not at least as legal as it was criminal.)

Imagine a time and place that provided work for people capable of work, instead of welfare.  Imagine a society that expected something from its citizens, for the privilege of being American, by virtue of nothing but luck on your part.  Imagine a society that valued its teachers enough to pay them adequately for the responsibility that we entrust them with.  Imagine a society that shared in sacrifice for the safety and preservation of this democracy.  Imagine a time when being American was more than an entitlement status, and was actually a personal debt worth service up to and including your life.

This society existed less than 60 years ago.  The remnants of it exist still.  But, we are so spoiled that we cannot conceive of actually being required to participate in something that requires things of us, not just gives to us.  Ever noticed that TV has always approximated the society it reflects?  Look at TV from 1956-1966, every one of us has a show that we loved from that time period that we watch even now on TVLand.  Can you see that happening with Teen Mom or Keeping up with the Kardashians in even 10 years?  The moral level of authority respected in the community is reflected in its public display.  We are no longer Brady Bunch, Andy Griffith, Bonanza; we are ThugLife and Pimpin'.

We accept Clinton/Trump, because we are not willing to go be responsible for what is happening to us.  Most don't even pay attention.  Most won't even vote.  Instead of serving, here or abroad, we won't even vote.  Too hard, too long a line, too much to pay attention to.  Yet, let someone put a picture or opinion out there that we don't like, and we will spend life energy being offended, outraged, righteous.  How dare they not agree with what we think is right.  They are either evil or stupid, and possibly both.  So, let's immediately go to the 3 year old level, "I hope you die."

This is because no one has ever risked, escaped, or suffered death next to us, doing what we do, for over 90% of the population.  Want to know what made the Greatest Generation great?  They watched the kid next to them get shot, saw the guy down the street come home in a coffin, and lied about their age to go serve and protect this nation.  They did whatever it took to get to the end result they needed for the whole.  That is why they are great, because they accepted that their price might be high, but the value was worth it to us all.

We could care less about the all, if the price is more than we care to pay personally.  That is why we cannot even stand to see someone express an opinion different from our own.  None of us, me included, are free of this taint, at this point.  Instead of assuming the opposite side of the argument is at least as correct as our own, because the real truth lies somewhere between, we assume the opposite.  If you don't agree with me, you are disturbed, wrong, evil, bigoted, small minded, and should be abused mentally and physically.

Want to know how you will know I am right?  Because this time next year, the President will be Donald Trump, a narcissistic billionaire that has no idea how dangerous he actually is because of his narcissism; or it will be Hillary Clinton, who has proved throughout 40 years under our inspection, that she will lie, cheat and steal to whatever extent necessary to get what she wants.  Neither of these people care about the whole more than themselves, and I would love for someone to show me any example they can find to prove that is not a true statement.

Our leadership reflects our best median.  Our best median is somewhere between Trump and Clinton.  That ought to just make you sick at your stomach.  If you are reading this, your parents most likely fought the Great War, or served in the 50's.  Does this nation have any resemblance to what they exerted all of their effort to achieve?  Are we doing a service to our children, or is that even too hard a view to take externally?  Do we just desire another generation of crooks that enrich the corporations, protect the wealth that already exists, and leave us even less safe, less solvent and less stable?

If you think we do, any channel will play the stuff you want to hear, it is a good time for you.  However, if you are tired of this, and tired of how immature the world around you is, you need to do something.  It is not even hard.  Just reject these two current clown shows.  Vote for something different.  Get crazy, vote for something different in every single race something different is available.  Just say no.  That does not mean not participating, they are counting on that.  It means standing up and just saying NO!  We don't even have movies to demonstrate that simple principle, but look it up, watch Mr Smith Goes To Washington.  It is not that we have not faced these things before, it is that we have no champions to follow, because we have done this to ourselves.

It should make us all ashamed to call Ryan, Speaker of the House.  Obama President of the United States.  McConnell Majority Leader of the Senate.  That should curdle all of your stomachs.  And the only way to change it, is to change it.

Good luck kids, it is going to get tough out there if we don't.  And, if you don't like either Clinton or Trump, this was not any kind of endorsement of the other.  They are both equally wrong for the same reasons, THEY ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH for my country.  I would be curious how anyone could quantify them as good enough.  In fact, there is a spot below for comment, or on the post that puts this up, go ahead and give it your best shot.  I will assume you are at least as right as me, and I will not consider you evil, twisted or broken.  I will not be offended you do not agree with me.  I don't know that you will convince me, but I will hear you out.  That is how it is supposed to work.

Remember?

GLYASDI