My rambling soap box oration................
For the last month or so, I have been contemplating ......
Mostly I have been thinking about the state of the world, but primarily the condition of societies in general.
I have been stewing about what I perceive as the dissolution of ethics and values and it's effects on the evolution of our present day population.
Yesterdays news of the massacre in Texas, and afterward the murderous rampage in Florida,before that, the news of the man in Ohio who murdered and buried multiple people around his yard and house,simply underscored my anxieties.
I can only wonder at what is happening to us. It seems the more we move forward, the more we also move backward.
Technology has allowed us to ascend to great heights intellectually, but, I think also that it has undermined us spiritually.
As I think back into my childhood, I remember freer days....and longer summers.....unfettered by fears of child molesters, rapists, murderers and terrorists.
I spent long unsupervised lazy afternoons exploring the canyons and hills of my town, wandering alone, with my dog and goat, miles from home, unconcerned about any potential boogie man attacking me from the bushes.
I remember with great fondness my neighbors: nosy Mrs. Stuebe, annoying Mr. Costello, and friendly Mr. Munoz.
These people were the eyes and ears of my neighborhood, keeping us kids in check if we did anything they thought was unacceptable.
It has been said that it takes a community to raise a child, and I truly believe this.
Mr. Stuebe always had her nose in our business, knocking on our front door if we screamed too loud, or yelling through the fence when she thought the chickens hadn't had enough to eat.
These people annoyed me to no end, but I also admired and loved them as...in some way, an extension of my own family, never allowing me to go beyond the limits of civility and common decency, and always holding me accountable for my actions and behavior.
If these cultural expectations were in vogue today, would we still see such heinous crimes as the above mentioned, on the rise?
As I have aged, I have seen this kind of ethic dissipate, and with it's dissipation, I have also seen unspeakable actions against even the most innocent, grow.
Perhaps these horrors did exist in the time of my youth and were sorely under reported, or perhaps, more likely, if they did exist, they were simply few and far between.
There has always been violence from one human to another, but there was also always a counter balance: religion,ethical thinking and moral behavior.
It seems to me, that the more we embrace technology, the more we let go of what is true and valuable.
The more we have, the more we want to obtain.
The more we obtain, the more we detach from one another, and in our gluttony, we become apathetic to so much around us that needs to be remedied.
The industrial revolution, as the technological revolution, was a blessing and a curse.
Rural living and familial dependency and accountability went the way of the horse and buggy and our connectedness to the earth.
We made an exchange for the niceties that came into being and promised us a better way of life.
The promise was a nice place to live, enough food so that we would not be in want and....more time.
Some of these promises came true, but some, like time, actually became more elusive.
In our race to obtain, we lost even more.
I believe that perhaps now is the time to rethink our priorities. Throw out that which is not productive and revive that which is, so that the future will be a place for our children to also have a chance to live freely.
I'm just sayin...........................
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