Curmudgeon

I'm feeling curmudgeonly. And that's totally inappropriate for the holiday season. Maybe spending 13 Decembers in the shopping mall industry did it to me. Seeing the dark side of Christmas up close for so long can't be healthy.

But, I'm not really going to complain about Christmas. I'm going to complain about something much bigger and just get it out of my system. Because being a curmudgeon makes me feel old. Once you reach that point you are just a few years away from sitting on park benches and yelling at birds. So with a little help from Frank Schaeffer, a columnist I like, here goes...

There is a basic human moral code. The human race has a sense of right and wrong. Civilization created rules and laws around that sense of right and wrong. If everybody "followed their bliss" or "just do what feels good", there would be anarchy and society would collapse. It's a matter of the survival of the tribe. We need rules.

- What has led to the massive levels of fraud on Wall Street?
- Why are educational values sliding?
- Why are divorce rates so high across all demographics?
- Why are the majority of African-American children being raised by single parents?
- Why are the white, educated jerks who ran our economy into the mud taking bonuses?
- Why are rural kids killing themselves with methamphetamine addiction?
- Why did it become "okay" to torture prisoners?
- Why have the banks betrayed us?
- Why are there idiots collecting assault weapons?
- Why are we an obese nation who may well have shorter life spans than our parents?
- Why have we run up personal and national debt to the point that our currency is plunging?
- Why are we putting children on prescription drugs for disciplinary or behavioral problems?
- Why can't we keep our credit cards in our wallets and our zippers up?

Look for an answer and you'll see the left pointing right and the right pointing left. The left followed their bliss diminished the importance of morals. Drugs and sex were private matters that didn't hurt anybody and staying married for the sake of raising stable families was an old fashioned notion. On the right, and especially in the evangelical/fundamentalist community, people pick and choose among "God's Laws". The bible says that both pork and homosexuality are abominations...but bacon tastes so good we're going to let that one slide.

The left scream "Censorship" until anything is allowed on TV.
The right declared that the market is supreme and freedom equals consumerism.
On the left, the cry went up, it's my body I'll do what I want!
The right responded this is my stuff I'll do what I want!

When personal and public responsibility and taboos crumble the situation becomes toxic. Everyone is into what works for "me" but not what works for "us." Very few are willing to sacrifice. No one is allowed to judge anyone else's behavior. The result is a culture that drives whatever vehicles suits it and global warming be damned. The result is a culture in which divorce is easy and common despite unequivocal proof that the children of divorce bear lifelong scars.The result is raping the earth in the name of market oriented "freedom." The result is irresponsible men who father children they never see and irresponsible women who walk away from families.

The real problem is that we all lie to ourselves and pretend that our individual choices don't matter. We've pretend that society is exempt from the need for order, structure and moral taboos.Why are we ignoring the vast amounts paid the executive thieves running the hedge fund companies and banks. We are winking at the idiots in the entertainment industry who have sold us on the idea that following your lust is always a fine idea. People can't stop eating, won't save money and run up debts. These are not "private" choices. They are what ruin schools, make health care unaffordable , destroy the economy and create kids who barely can function.

We all pay. And we're all guilty if of nothing else, then just because we are silent. We've put at risk the most powerful country on earth and perhaps destroyed our future.

I hope for leaders that can call us back to our senses, coerce us into better behavior, preach, cajole, convince and -- if need be -- force us to look at what we've done to ourselves.

There. I feel better.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!