Credit is to a myspace poster… but really thoughtful may be a little aggressive. Link of the poster
http://www.myspace.com/cadaoc
where are we?
I can’t claim to be a scholar nor am I politically savvy. All I know is what I see, what I hear, and what I feel. I know that I fear far more than I believe I should, I know I’m human, and I know I will never truly find all the truths that should be searched. What all do you know?
From the beginning of time, as we know it, humans have struggled against many obstacles: the environment, the weather, non-human species, fears & the unknown, and each other. There have been countless cycles of progress and setbacks with each new idea and discovery. Humans have always fought just as hard for change as they have to keep things the same.
We are an intelligent species, though some would argue differently. We have the ability to learn, the ability to dream, to create, destroy, grow and even evolve. I think it’s time we use our abilities in a new way.
I can’t say when, for sure, we lost ourselves. I think it happened long before we want to realize. As a breed of being that has grown to embrace pride and coddle the ego, we spend most of our time demanding what we feel we are entitled rather than making sure our society evolves equally with our creations, freedoms, and laws. I’ll give you an example. (look up date) Back in the US government allowed for the progressive advancement in gender equality. Although the laws were there to guarantee these rights, it was a uphill battle to change the ‘popular’ views of where women needed to be or allowed to go. Now this biased nature did not limit itself to women, it also extended to the men in certain circumstances. Even today we still have our ‘areas’ that are labeled gender specific and have an unleveled playing field for those involved. However, in this fight for evolution - the equality of the genders - I believe we failed to compensate for a major aspect! While we had Universities and Trade Schools now openly accepting female applicants and women making their way up the corporate ladders or even creating their own companies… the men were continuing their careers creating the dual income families. Interject a huge technological advance inside this family dynamic and we have now successfully created the ‘modern family’ fully equipped with ‘modern conveniences’ for ‘modern living,’ in turn creating more need to work more hours and find a higher paying job to pay for all these new toys and gadgets that make our life so much simpler. Before too long we have career ambitious fathers and career driven mothers competing against each other in the working world, causing strain on domestic relations because who wants to cook dinner after a 8-12 hour day of work? much less, who wants to clean it up? This, I believe is where things splinter off. Stress at work coupled with stress at home, marriages begin to fail - we now have a rise in single parent families. Another avenue is working more hours or finding a higher paying job to afford a nanny and/or a maid. All the while, children becoming “latch-key” kids and plopping themselves in front of the electric babysitter - the Television. Interject atari, nintendo, etc… and children will stay out of your hair for hours on end. This only leaves the issue of actually parenting the children. Society’s cure: the education system but without the use of corporal punishment (ie: paddling/spanking) and effectively eliminating a key support structure. Children become distant and ‘act out’ looking for much needed parental attention. Child pregnancy rates rise, especially since religious affiliations refuse to allow sexual information classes to help young teens understand the ramifications of having premarital sex. Older siblings, cousins and/or friends have children and display to the younger generations how much ‘attention’ is given when a new child is brought into the home, never understanding that when they bring a life into this world they are expected to take care of it! However, that too has changed as we now have wondered into the world of a ‘throw-a-way’ lifestyle, which unfortunately includes children. Values have stopped being passed down. Morals are now being taught by the heroes of reality TV shows. All of this has led us to a civilization that desires above anything else to be loved, paid attention to, and scared to open up to others because they have not been taught to be proud to be an individual. Children who are scared to be an outsider and always trying to fit into some perverse idea of what the media has pounded into the head of every child from the first day the TV was turned on and they were sat down in front of it. These children eventually becoming adults that have not been given the tools to have productive relationships. Tools that help them understand the importance of communication and expressing feelings in a healthy way. Tools that help them become good parents when they have their own offspring.
We’ve created a cycle of apathy, intolerance, hypocrisy and segregation… how do we fix it? How do we merge the values of family with the demands of living? We’ve gone too long neglecting our roles as parents, as role models, as teachers to those we bring into this world. Yes advancement is good, it’s needed - but when we don’t advance our entire state of living/being concurrently, we risk depleting and destroying valuable aspects of who and what we are.