If America Falls – Part 5
If the unthinkable someday happens and America falls, future historians will debate the many causes. Here is what I believe will be some of them. If America falls, it will be because…
we believe we can relentlessly assault our culture with continuous change, without creating unanticipated societal problems, simply because we are Americans.
we place great value in pop culture trivia, and ignore the more significant news of the world around us.
we value entertainment over hard work.
expectations of instantaneous results has replaced time and effort. Yet, anything good in life takes time and effort to achieve.
we reward those who entertain us more than those who teach us.
we want to eat and enjoy as much food as we can, but tend to ignore the deleterious physical problems associated with being overweight.
the Roman concept of “Bread and Circuses” – or public appeasement through superficiality – is alive and well in 21st Century America.
education is now considered a means to procure a better job and more money, rather than a reward unto itself.
it now takes a university study for our leaders to accept beliefs that humans have held since Adam and Eve.
we admire education and intellect over wisdom and experience. However, if there is a connection between intellect and wisdom, I have yet to witness it.
unlike every other society before us, we revere youth and energy over age and wisdom.
we believe that our happiness is determined more by our personal possessions than the quality and depth of our personal relationships.
too many of us seek happiness with a heart of ingratitude. But it is impossible to be happy without a grateful heart.
we increasingly place our own personal happiness over our obligations, commitments, and integrity.
we blame others, and even society, for our unhappiness, rather than searching for happiness within ourselves.
we teach our children that the most important thing in life is their personal happiness, and not goodness, decency, respect, and integrity. And then we are amazed that our culture has become so self-centered.
we expect achievement without hard work, respect without accomplishment, and authority without responsibility.
we increasingly accept immediate results of mediocrity rather than delaying gratification in pursuit of personal excellence.
we used to understand that pain and suffering were a natural part of the human experience, but today we wished to be monetarily compensated for them.
we increasingly have more compassion for the perpetrators of crimes than their victims.
personal irresponsibility is now considered a disability or disease, and is increasingly awarded benefits.
society wants us to accept, and even celebrate, people’s dysfunctionality, rather than strive to improve it.
we expect sex without consequences, relationships without commitment, and love without conditions. Then we wonder why so few of us are secure in our relationships.
we confuse victims with heroes.
we elevate celebrities into prophets.
decency and respect are considered “old-fashioned” and increasingly denigrated by society.
success with honor now invokes resentment and derision, rather than admiration from society.
we believe morality is relative, and people should be able to act as they please. Then we are surprised when people act selfishly and irresponsibly.
we replaced traditional values with no values, and were shocked when our culture began to collapse.
we became a TV reality show family who inherited wealth without working for it. We do not understand what it took to create that wealth, squander the wealth that we have, and focus our lives on trivial matters, without ever acknowledging how fortunate we were to inherit it. And like every other great civilization that fell, we will not understand this until it is too late and our decline is irreversible.