I was talking to a fellow blogger today via email about life, politics, and our significant others' bodily functions (don't ask. It tied together, I swear.)
She mentioned personal accountability and responsibility. She pointed out that if everyone was responsible for themselves and their own well-being, we'd be in a much better place.
Then I started to brainstorm as I read what she wrote.
And I tried desperately to answer why we DON'T take care of ourselves.
Do we blame welfare? FDR? The evolving assumption that the government is here to babysit us? To make sure that rubber chips are put down on the playground floor in place of the gravel that could shred off outer layers of skin should we fall off the monkey bars? (And trust me, I will fall.)
Many teachers in Georgia have stopped using red pens because it "hurts people's feelings." Red connotates "wrong-doing," and many believe it is demoralizing and induces anger and negative feelings.
Well, no shit. You got an answer wrong. Instead, we'll reward you with purple.
"D+, but good try!"
Is that like saying, "You're pretty, for a fat person?"
Kids aren't playing so much team sports in P.E. now in school because kids "get left out."
Many people say it's more about "focusing on the individual," but I say, if you're getting rid of dodgeball, it ain't 'cause you're concerned a kid isn't toning his quads. It's 'cause the nerdy kid is tired of getting hit in the glasses.
This is gonna sound harsh, so hold on to your seats, pansies:
GET A GRIP. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
I thought you liberals AGREED with evolution? Natural Selection? Here it is, in its simplest form. The weakest link is destroyed.
Kids get more "certificate of participation" awards, even if they don't place in races or competitions.
No one uses their F-ING TURN SIGNALS on the road. Why? Because they are in a hurry, and you must not be. Their lives are more important. It's not necessarily that you must read their minds, but they don't give a damn. They're invicible. They're in their bubble. And should you lean on your horn to wake the asshole up who is eating his McMuffin, talking on his Bluetooth, listening to Third Eye Blind, and doing the "douchebag lean" to the passenger side, (oh, you know who you are) YOU will be the one to get the finger.
No one stops for people when they see an accident - no more good samaritans, and you can thank lots of things for that. You can thank frivilous law suits ("Sure he gave me CPR and that saved me, but now I have a cold sore!"), you can thank our obsessiveness with time and multi-tasking, too ("Wow, that sucks. If I didn't have to make that pit stop at Wal-Mart, pick up a prescription at Walgreens, grab lunch at Burger King, and then hit the gym... I would totally stop.")
"Keeping up with the Jones' " has now evolved into a sick, twisted game of racking up the credit card just so little Jimmy can have Playstation 1, 2, AND 3, and the family can still go skiing in Aspen twice a year.
I see all of these spokes sticking out of that one phrase: What is this world coming to?
I feel really old saying that, by the way. It sounds like something my grandparents would say, after I walk in with an additional piercing in my ear.
Selfishness.
That's what it boils down to.
How can I get something for nothing?
No one wants to work anymore. How can we be as lazy as possible?
First, there were remotes to TVs. Want to sit on your ass and watch moving pictures, but don't want to stand up and walk across the room to do it? Here's a remote.
Then, there were Bluetooth headsets. Want to talk on the phone, but don't want to HOLD the phone to do it? Here's a thing you can put on your ear and make the public think you're talking to yourself.
Next, it will be government handouts. Want to have money, but don't want to work for it? Can't say I blame you. Here, take this check. Your neighbor worked his ass off. What an idiot!
Sure, all those things are extremes. And I love my remote. But you see what I'm getting at here.
It's scary to think about bringing up kids in today's world. I'd want nothing more than to protect them. But before they're born, I would want to tell them: "Look, I just want to let you know: This place is a hell hole. You think you can handle it? You'd better have either tough skin or the luck of the Irish. Godspeed either way. I'm exhausted."
No one speaks up for what's right anymore. We elect politicians because they're a specific race. "Look at me!! I'm NOT racist!" It's all a CYA, lookin' out for #1 without stepping in #2-kind of world. And, if you have time, screw over the guy next to you. Why? Because HE has an iPhone and *I* want it.
"The only way for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing."
I'm scared that we're just about there.
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2 comments:
That must have been one insightful blogger you were talking too ;)
as i read this I had two thoughts - one not so new, so stop me if your heard it. You hit it at the every end of the post. Where personal responsibility starts is in the home - its with the parents. I grew up in a home where I saw my father work six jobs to make ends meet. I saw that out "stuff" came from somewhere, and that somewhere was usually the sweat of an 18 hour day. But if you have children that are raised in homes where that is not taught - where all they know is that a check comes in the mail - then how do they ever learn? What they learn is that someone elese will take care of it, someone else will pay. The generational crisis in public aid is just that - a crisis that we just took a huge step backwards on when the stimulus increased the monthly payments to welfare recipients. I mean - what are the incentives for people to make something of themselves? And when you are raised, from Day one, in the environment, you know nothing else.
As for the kids that are raised in teh homes where they get everything and need nothing, for the kids that play on teams that "don't keep score" - it's because, just like the public aid system, this country is run by people that don't think it's good for people to fail. There are parents who would personally be too hurt to see their kid hurt, so they fight tooth and nail so that their kid will never have to feel rejection or loss. And it's bullshit. It's when you are down that you climb up, its when you are down and you see something you want that you strive for it. It doesn't get internalized if it is just handed to you - and by "it" I mean jsut about anything.
And if you don't let people fail, or you allow them to wallow in situations without encouraging self-improvement, then nothing changes.
If you have heroin addict that runs home to mom and dad everytime he needs a couch to sleep on or moeny to get drugs, do you expect him ever to get better? And why would a parent do that? same reason all the time - becuase they don't want their child/drug addict to hurt.
but enabling is hurting. that's the catch. You take away that couch, you take away that money, and that drug addict will finally have some choices to make - either get clean and respectable, or die.
which brings me full circle back to your point about natural selection.
having said all that, i absolutely advocate giving people a chance to improve - especially kids trying to forge a new way, parents trying to get a do-over. I am all for programs that show kids there's more out there, and they have potential to do anything, despite their environment. Why? Becuase they give kids the chance to say that life as it is is NOT good enough for me, and I want better. I will fund those programs as the day is long. I can get on board with that.
sorry i got a little all-over with that. such is my mind these days.
Totally insightful blogger I was talking to. Perhaps you've met the person? :)
You're right. I like the way you put it: It is a generational crisis. This way of life, this "free for all," of sorts, is something that a 3-year old growing up in a family of welfare recepients will always know.
I love the Intervention references, LOL!
You're right - it is enabling, and it's EXACTLY what the government is doing. And it's EXACTLY what some families are doing, too, just to prevent little Jimmy and Susie from ever having to experience *GASP* loss.
(what's gonna happen when they don't make it to round 2 for interviews when they first go job-hunting?!)
I agree with the programs that help a person (i.e., "teach a man to fish... he eats for a lifetime."). I support those types of groups anyday of the week.
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