The other day a busty social media influencer decided it would be a great idea to “flash” Donald Trump at a campaign event.
From her standpoint, it was a decision that made perfect entrepreneurial sense because it provided her with additional publicity and name recognition that would allow her to continue to sell her images and merchandise online; any question of whether her stunt was appropriate or decent certainly never crossed her twisted mind. This type of episode, sadly familiar today in our degenerate nation, also tells you all you need to know about how America has lost its way and is racing toward disaster.
People have always been attracted to the bizarre and titillating, so human nature leaves us particularly vulnerable to the purveyors of stupid ideas and illicit behaviors. What has changed—dramatically and for the worst—is that we are today encouraged to emulate exhibitionism, accept the troubling commercialization of our animal instincts, and swoon over the “bravery” of those whose indecency erases any remaining boundary between what is eagerly displayed to the public and what should definitely remain private. To even question our current norm of no norms whatsoever is to invite ridicule, attack, and even legal consequences for engaging in hate speech.
We are silenced by censorship, shackled by our legal system, and expected to accept without complaint the continued erosion of morality and restraint throughout America.
The trap that allows this to continue is that we are now taught that any moral or ethical—or even logical—judgment is a form of bigotry. This is a fantastically destructive idea that is pounded into our young by our nation’s educators, who often sincerely believe they are “teaching tolerance” and not actually promoting degeneracy, bad judgment, and laziness because they are themselves damaged students of teachers and professors who taught them that morality and traditional standards of behavior are the enemies of some elusive enlightenment and equity they believe will result from a curriculum of encouraging hatred of ourselves, our history, and our nation.
Our schools and colleges have substituted indoctrination for thinking, and those individuals with the largest number of post-graduate credits are now our loudest champions of muzzling our brains so that we are no longer able to determine what is right and wrong. A great many students now confuse attention with accomplishment, refuse to engage with even the most basic aspects of learning, and lie to themselves about the inescapable personal cost of abandoning all morals and ethics in their sad quests for popularity, money, or validation.
Spending endless hours posting the inane shenanigans of you and your classmates on Instagram is not an investment in your future. Cheating your way through your coursework—or failing to compete your class assignments at all—is inexcusable no matter how often it is overlooked because academic standards are presumed to be a form of bigotry. Paying for your college education by being a sugar baby or focusing on building your body count (with the assistance of beer) will scar your relationships for the rest of your life and likely render you incapable of distinguishing between love and abuse as you navigate your empty and unhappy future. Choosing to embrace decency will always improve one’s life in innumerable ways and enhance self-esteem and self-respect, so it should be taught and modeled at every possible opportunity—not sneered at.
It is no wonder that so many adolescents and young adults are today bereft of the values necessary for healthy, happy, and productive lives. Our mass entertainment culture has worked for many decades to obliterate standards of behavior, dress, and speech while selling an illusory freedom that is actually a destruction of the self and soul, so we are now trapped in a hellscape birthed in academia, promoted by Hollywood, and normalized by those who profit from today’s celebration of abnormality—or see the indecency of others as a perverse validation of the wreckage they have made of their own lives.
A town, state, or nation where daily life is conducted as a series of value-free transactions where each party is concerned with satisfying only their own narrow interests—with no regard for the overall well being of their town, state, or nation and those within it—is one that cannot long survive. Community cannot be built upon a foundation of unmitigated selfishness tempered only by the need to jockey for personal advantage with others who are equally self-centered. Guiding principles—those traditional morals that our smug liberal intelligentsia believes are so very oppressive—must be in place to restrain those personal impulses that are deeply destructive to our social order. We see the rot that results from empty minds and hearts manifested in the lying and corruption that now pervades our major institutions of education, government, and law.
The core decency that restrains the powerful and protects the powerless has become surpassingly scarce as we have seen so many decide that grabbing what they can in any way they can is The American Way. It is perhaps the very lowest form of decency to be aware—as that woman at the Trump rally should have been—that flashing your breasts at a public gathering might offend some, but one cannot expect higher level moral thinking from any social media influencer whose life is built around creating a fake persona in order to extract money from the bored, lonely, and psychologically damaged among us.
The crux of the problem we face is this: Having largely abandoned all pretense of decency while celebrating base behavior for many generations and excusing—or simply ignoring it—the immoral and unethical behavior among those who are presumed leaders and role models (here’s looking at you, Presidents Clinton), how do we recover? Can we reasonably expect to find a way forward and escape the cultural, educational, legal, and governmental cesspool in which we today live, one where these pillars of our nation mutually reinforce the will of the worst among us by broadcasting sleaze, teaching moral relativism, legalizing criminality, and monetizing deceit?
There is ample evidence around us that a great many Americans are appalled at the state of our nation and hungry for a return to general standards of decency and respect in our daily lives. The question is how do we get there?
The short answer is a simple one: Stop looking to government to save us because government is itself the most shameless promoter of the problems dragging our nation into ruin.
Our salvation will be found by ignoring the experts and finding our wisdom in the commonplace of our daily lives. Resolve to be honest with yourself and others. Seek wisdom rather than mindless diversions. Cook your dinner. Buy only what you need, not what an advertisement tells you to desire. Read a book instead of playing a video game.
Reject those who want to farm your hard work for the tax money they will put in their own pockets. Remember that nothing is new, and learn about yourself and the planet around you by reading the history of our nation and world. Reject slogans and embrace debate. Don’t surrender your integrity. Speak up when you see people being harmed. Say thank you to others as much a possible.
Take responsibility and stop blaming others for your mistakes. Learn that being a human requires some pain and disappointment, but it also teaches toughness and resilience. Do your job well and expect the same of others. Follow only those leaders whom you would be pleased to have for a neighbor. Keep in mind that protecting children from harm is your highest responsibility when making your decisions. Don’t mistake mental health problems for brilliance.
If we can, as a country and people, resolve to be the best we can and be smart instead of sheep, we might be surprised by the new direction of our lives and nation.
Try it. You might like it.