Thursday, February 19, 2009

Politics, Puberty and the Public

It does not take much imagination to look around at the moment and notice that the single biggest problem is not the economy as much as it is the immaturity of a society of superannuated adolescents.

Start with our politics, which exhibit nothing more than the dynamics of high school. Everyone wants to be cool, be a part of the in crowd. There is no room for reasoned debate. Civil discourse has devolved into one part name-calling, one part mockery, and two parts strong arming. And cynical manipulation of truth has become the medium of communication in government, stratagems which go unreported by a co-opted press.

On the public side, we whine and expect someone else to take care of us, pay for our health insurance, rescue us from our errors. There is no thought given to the rights of others who have acted responsibly or even to future generations. We have a pecuniary cold at the moment, so we are perfectly willing to inflict pneumonia on future generations. Gone seems to be the notion of taking responsibility for oneself.

Perhaps it is because for too long, this country has not faced the kind of adversity that makes you grow up. One has to wonder what those earlier generations would think of us today. I can only guess.

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