05 March 2007

It Really IS All About *US*...Right?

Every day we seem to find more and more articles, newscasts, advertisements, and public service announcements about UNITY...or DIVERSITY...or INDIVIDUALITY.

It's UNITED WE STAND, but watch that crowd scatter when anyone invokes the *G* word (that would be GOD). We're all about BANDING TOGETHER, but where IS everyone when they're needed (like during Katrina)? Or how about those marketing gurus that tout our own "personal" INDIVIDUALITY...while selling us everything that does anything BUT allow us to be "different"? Most ALL cars look alike, most clothes are hard to tell apart, especially when they're sagging off some "fashion plate's" butt. And, by and large, everyone kind of looks like well, everyone ELSE. And I thought looking like that was reserved solely for Communist China? Let me state this more kindly...Lemmings are NOT individuals...they FOLLOW whoever is at the front of the "line" (and usually he has NO freaking idea where HE'S going either).

We're chided to be TOLERANT, but we can't tolerate those that feel (or act) "differently" than we do (they would be of the "diverse" persuasion). We're led to think that we "can all just get along" while all the time, we find out we're about as amicable as an open flame and hydrogen (in a confined space)! We might like GAYS, but we detest MUSLIMS...or perhaps it's the other way around. Maybe we like ONLY "gay Muslims" (because it's Tuesday)?

We are being made to think that an ILLEGAL ALIEN is just another manner of saying it the "PC" way.... MEXICAN IMMIGRANT. We're no longer BLIND, DEAF or DUMB...we're visually-impaired, acoustically-challenged, and verbally inhibited. Simple, huh? Our vocabulary becomes redefined almost daily...and to what end?

Over the past few decades, our "skin" has gotten way too THIN...we're bothered by trite things that schoolkids of MY era just laughed off as they got on with their lives. The LEAST trifling "slight", and it's off to the nearest team of lawyers, the ACLU, and Christ knows HOW many more groups that actually profit (quite well) from all this crap.

ONE atheist can take the school prayer from a graduation class of over SIX-HUNDRED students!
ONE person with some STUPID unfounded gripe can bring a huge chain of stores to it's knees with a few words uttered out of disgust in a heated moment. Now I'm all for "human rights", but where is this "serving the greater common good" thing at in these cases?

It doesn't take much for these uber-sensitives to make life hell for all of us, thanks to their incessantly bad behavior and tactics born of ever poorer judgement (with their all-too-thin skin replete with a lot of "lemmings" willing to listen). In this day and age, we're pulled in TOO many directions, all too often, and mostly for a lot of the wrong reasons. We need to get back on track with OURSELVES.

First off, we CAN be unified, and we CAN still be individuals, sharing common values... and we CAN be diverse...and yet be of ONE nation and mindset. But somewhere along this "Road to Utopia", we ran off the path, and into the drainage ditch of perdition...and never quite got the hell out. Instead of looking for alternate methods by which to extricate ourselves, we (instead) found it much easier to "give it the gun", and spin the hell out of the tires...all the while, digging ourselves in deeper.

If anything can be learned by this example, it would be that WE have to be grounded in whatever beliefs we hold true, and any beliefs that are ambiguous in nature ought to be questioned until we get the answers we seek. And we shouldn't just shrug our shoulders and walk away if the answers are not forthcoming in the next 30 seconds. We can be much more than we allow ourselves to be...all we have to do is stop letting OTHERS think for us, and start thinking for ourselves. That seems easy enough.

But like anything worth it's value, it takes time to fully employ and utilize what we learn. And by that I mean it takes a certain amount of WORK on our part to make it all happen. If we don't want to work at it, then we might as well turn up the radio as those tires keep spinning us deeper.
Or we could, if all else fails, simply abandon that "vehicle in the ditch", and WALK to where we NEED to get to. It only takes that first step.

Diversity...Unity...Individualism...call them what you will. They exist in each of us AND in the proper amount.

All we have to do is make THESE aspects work FOR us, instead of US working for THEM.

4 comments:

Jana said...

I'm right there with ya on people having "thin" skin.

I'm sick and tired of people thinking THEY can change things to fit THEIR thinking/beliefs/insanity just because certain LITTLE things "offend" or "insult" them.

I'm waiting for someone to come up to my face one day and say that I offended them in one way or another. I will then CALMLY reply "Well, you offended me with your bad breath and lack of intelligence, but you didn't see me getting all up in your face did ya?! It's called politeness. Maybe you should go look it up!"

*ahem*

Also, have you noticed lately that no one says "Thank you" anymore, or even acknowledges that you did something nice for them out of the goodness of your own heart?

David almost always lets people cross the street if he's able to slow down or lets people pull out first from a 4-way intersection. He's just a nice guy that way.

Sadly, it's rare to see anyone give a smile or a wave of appreciation.

Most times the person(s) look straight ahead and act like they DESERVED to go first in the first place! Those kind of people I want to strangle with a bull-whip dipped in glue and covered with a million rusty nails that have their tips slathered in skunk "oil"!

And the glares I get from people when I say "Excuse me" and have to reach between them for something in Wal-Mart because they decided to stop and chat about something or other like they were in a coffee shop and I rudely interrupted them! I feel like going "Well, if you want to TALK go to the front of the store and sit on one of the benches!"

Grr...

Good post as always B. I keep telling you that you need to send these things to O'Reilly or Mike Straka's "Grr! Column".

;)

Bob G. said...

You would think with all the devices at peoples' disposal intended to make life "easier", that manners would (if anything) improve (considering all the time they have now to practice them)...but just the reverse has become all too true...

and you bring up items I never even thought of....

ANd now you've got me thinking...the list is incredibly LONG regarding little nuances people are oblivious to these days.

Good comment!!!

(ME?...O'Reilly?...Straka? In the same sentance? Wow, I'm honestly flattered!)

;)

B.G.

Tim Zank said...

Bob, you and Jana both make some great observations. The lack of common sense and common courtesy is directly related to the lack of PARENTS actually RAISING their kids. People laugh at my theory, but I swear, when the family started falling apart in the 60's and we stopped teaching kids right from wrong the common sense and common decency went right out the frickin' window. Consequently, we have adults now leading our country, enforcing our laws, teaching our kids etc etc etc that have no common sense and no common courtesy or decency. I hope it's not too late to reverse that trend!

Bob G. said...

Tim:

EXACTLY....you have nailed it!

I remember when my high school began IT'S decline...in 1971, right AFTER they abolished something as "innocuous" as the dress code...and I'm sure this was mirrored across the nation.

As a result, grades began to slip....and now we're reaping the "benefits" of all this small $hit that has been allowed to bloom and flourish. I make the analogy to that snowball kicked down a mountain.

I think we can reverse this trend quickly, but a lot of those people won't like it...and we're seeing the murmurings of it already....the answer is to LEGISLATE.

If people can't seem to figure crap out for themselves, then it will fall to the municipalities to enact laws that MAKE these people "tow the mark".

And a course on ETHICS in the lower grades would be a damn good place to begin. It has to become rote for this generation to "get it".

If society wants to let the schools "raise" the kids, then the schools can (and must) establish criteria for better behavior and common courtesys. Lord knows too many of these kids simply are NOT getting it at home!

But we HAVE to temper it accordingly, as we do NOT want to take a path to socialism.

Good commentary, Tim (as usual).

;)