Aristotle once said that in framing an ideal, you may assume what one wants, but should avoid impossibilities. In other words, one should avoid creating utopias when attempting to create a better country. Utopias are mere pipe dreams given the nature of man.
There is a rising tide in America today -- a wave of discord buttressed in moral relativism. That wave which is founded on the principle that man is the measure of all things. That there are no absolutes, that all morality is relative, and that all institutions upon which our country is butressed on are irrelevant.
George Washington once said, "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. . . Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on our minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles." Thus the greatest president that this Country has ever had recognized the importance of a national morality to the continued success of the American experiment in republican government.
This wave which sadly has the backing of the media establishment is undermining the moral fabric, or whatever is left of it, in the United States. Likewise, it is causing a backlash by those on the opposite extreme who would gladly welcome a theocracatic state. Both extremes are not viable options. Unlike the extremes, here is a place for faith and reason. They are not mutually exclusive. This is something that the British author C.S. Lewis concluded after much debate with his friend and contemporary J.R.R. Tolkein when he accepted faith and wrote eloquently about in his book, Mere Christianity.
If only respect can replace the disdain towards those who believe in faith, then perhaps we may get to that more perfect union. While we will never live in that utopian society, and I'm glad for that. The end result would be a Brave New World that would make Huxley's model pale in comparison if moral relativism is continued to be allowed to grow like a cancer around the soul of America. The cancer is being spread by the mass media in this Country. Unless it is reigned in, by the people, it will be our downfall. The cancer can only be killed if the people stop supporting it financially. If they cannot profit from destroying America, then they will no longer have the motivation to continue their crusade for an anything goes society of immorality and lack of respect for human life.
2 comments:
Perfect image to go with your statements, Michael. Love the effect you created and the golden lighting.
A sea of change is inevitable. We are in a balloon that will eventually leak or explode in any number of ways.
People have lost faith in the traditional institutions which for the most part have become self serving, and slaves to special interests.
The traditional family unit, which is the base of all morality, education and responsibility is in intensive care.
Complacency and disconnection reigns supreme.
It could all be a grand plan of the enemy within, that knows we cannot be defeated militarily. And as Osama's soldiers used our own airplanes, trained at our own schools, and lived in our own cities to accomplish 911. They are undermining us using our very capitalistic society, and the very freedoms we enjoy to eat away at us in plain sight like a cancer. They infiltrate every facet of our society: media, government, schools, universities. Sounds far fetched? Maybe.
The very security and freedom we enjoy gives us ample time to worry about subjects like gay marriage, and study the effects of cow flatulence and G spots, and plastic surgery. 911 was a shock to the system but it seems so far in the past we forgot already. It was not big enough. Unfortunately we may need another shock to put a lot of things in perspective and worry about what really is important in life.
This shock could come from a natural disaster. We just had a near miss with an 2 mile wide asteroid last Monday. Look what happened with hurricane Katrina. Our society is really very fragile.
Pretty depressing huh! But it's not all bad. If you look for positive news you can find them. And now more than ever there are more sources of information and disiformation than you can shake a stick at. I think the traditional leftist media right now is having very limited success spreading their agenda because of this very fact.
We somehow will survive. Whether or not our founding fathers would recognize our society in another 100 years is a good question.
Anyhow I found this sort of "life-cycle of democracies that pretty much summarizes it all. We are now at the 230 year mark, lets hope we can keep this experiment going for another 200 at least. You know what worries me is that like the first settlers that left England, and founded this nation as they escaped from taxes, and religious persecution. I just don't know where we could go once our democracy fails to accomodate us. Not too many places left available on Earth to start over.
Here's the interesting quote:
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1) From bondage to spiritual faith;
2) From spiritual faith to great courage;
3) From courage to liberty; 4) From liberty to abundance;
5) From abundance to complacency;
6) From complacency to apathy;
7) From apathy to dependence; 8) From dependence back to bondage ...”
Damn that is a lot of rambling on...
Post a Comment