Stop Pulling the Wagon

DEAR DIARY

A New Year – Time for Reflection and Anticipation

I often joke that the only New Years Resolution I ever kept was the year I made a resolution not to make any resolutions.

I am older now and my “Looking Back” is no longer at the immediate year past but a panorama of decades past. Some changes in the years past were giant leaps forward, like Landing on the Moon, while other changes, like the development of Social Media, which may have appeared almost as a passing “fad”, have had a profound impact on the fabric of our society.

Not everything that has changed can clearly be labeled as “good” or “bad”. In many cases the full effects will not be known for generations. “The jury is still out.” When the “Great Society” and Welfare State was first introduced in the 1960’s I was excited and happy that we were going to eliminate poverty permanently, however, poverty is in many ways a bigger problem today than when we began the program some 50 years and 20 Trillion Dollars ago, and, the unintended consequences produced great harm to the family structure in millions of households.

The author, Thomas Wolfe, wrote the great novel “You Can’t Go Home Again” and what he had to say can certainly apply to the world we grew up in and is gone forever.

To perhaps most of my generation, we now find that many of the values we were taught, grew up with and have cherished have seemingly been lost forever or are in the process of being destroyed.

Some Examples:

Personal Integrity seems to be on an “Endangered Species” list in too many areas of daily life. I grew up with “Your Word Is Your Bond” and it meant more than any written document. My own father taught me when I was a youth that “You can’t be just a little bit dishonest any more than you can be a little bit pregnant”. Today it seems we live in a world of “weasel words” and “escape clauses”.

Credibility is becoming a rare and precious commodity. Many of our political leaders are habitual liars and are on my “Lie to me once, lie to me twice” list and I no longer believe anything they say. I do not trust most of what I hear and read in the media. They have become little more than a propaganda machine for the “Ruling Class”. The same can be applied to many advertisers of popular products.

Freedom of Speech – a Constitutionally Guaranteed Right. We have devolved into a culture of “victims” where spoken or written words, no matter how innocent in intent and nature, are twisted into “hate speech” or various “phobic” attitudes where none was intended. One lives in fear of being labeled a “hater” from a misunderstood word or phrase. Add to this list the “Indoctrination Centers”, our Schools, Universities and Colleges, that we used to think of as “Citadels of Higher Leaning” and where freedom of thought and speech is often no longer encouraged or allowed.

Respect for the Sanctity of Life – all lives matter. Our modern society seems to value the immediate desire of the individual over the life of another living being, no matter how innocent or defenseless. “Me” becomes the focal point of life rather than right to life itself for the unwanted. In too many cases overlooked is the part “me” can play in the greater good of family, community and the future of all.

Political Correctness. A toxic brew that has poisoned our society and taken away the precious Constitutional Right of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the press. Politicians, Ministers, Business Owners, virtually everyone who must deal with the “public” must monitor every word for fear of alienating some “protected” minority or politically powerful group who can destroy their life, livelihood or career with catastrophic media destruction and/or litigation and financial destruction.

A Personal Moral Code. Usually founded on, or associated with some kind of discipline or religious belief or training. The Ten Commandments are one of the best known examples and one I try to live by. Some things are always right or wrong. Doing good is always “right”. Killing, lying and stealing are always “wrong”.

There is more. I believe we all should think about it and not just sit on the sidelines and let our culture and society degenerate into some kind of “Mad Max” future.

So what does this New Year and New Decade bring? Where are we headed and what am I going to do with it?

Bob Bandy – January 2020

“Mad Max” -1979 – Mel Gibson – Australia – Kennedy Miller Production