Some words to counter our current trend of selfish social decline...

[circuitbored]

Pardon our dust...

As America renovates and tries to solve a devastating social decline that began with the phrases "Make America Great Again" and "Drain the swamp" we really haven't done that at all, and ended up making a rather huge freaking mess instead, haven't we? Let's be honest, it was a self-serving and devastating lie, which was also poorly executed.

We all need to accept responsibility for thinking things would be okay after 4 years of a total media circus and through reinforcing cults of personality and celebrity on TV and on social media outlets. We need to account for where things went wrong in reality to counter the endless sensationalist narratives floating around pretty much world-wide due to the stir-craziness that the on-going quarantine has birthed within us.

Nothing about what is occurring right now is normal. It is also compounded by an on-going pandemic that threatens to make world-wide life itself a moot point. If we don't resolve our current siege by coronavirus quickly and effectively, political, cultural, and every other other societal concern will all be washed away by it.

There is only a bright side if we can learn from what has transpired, and begin to curb our impulses to more productive and responsible means; to simplify problems and to integrate compassion, empathy, and ethical behavior back into all of our discussions.

This situation is reminiscent of back when my parents used to leave the house for extended periods of time around the time when I was 12 years old. Yes, I was a "latch-key kid" (showing my age of course), and that meant I had a lot of responsibility even when I didn't have a lot of experience. The latch-key experience taught a lot of Gen X'ers like me a lot about limits and about responsibility for our actions. I wouldn't have had it any other way, don't blame my parents, they did the best they could because they struggled to create a life for themselves in a world that was often brutally challenging for minorities and lower income Americans. We are still finding out that world carries on every day, and as minorities and lower-income Americans, we are also finding out that in many ways that world may never change.

When our parents left the house things usually started out well, we had ideals of how we'd govern ourselves, we had food, we had entertainment, and possibly even a little bit of pocket change as a "stimulus" payment. Once resources began to dry up, we realized the leadership void... Fights ensued, we realized there was no leadership and things got worse... We ended up breaking things during our fights and disagreements, not thinking about the consequences we'd face when parents returned home. Just as we began to lose hope, our parents returned thank goodness, and we paid for our sins with sore butts, but it was comforting to see law and order get restored, because living among my other siblings, we were all inexperienced and had no idea that accountability would visit us later for our bad actions and selfish behavior, such as eating all the baked goods early and not sharing them with each other, to preserve peace overall throughout our unsupervised experience.

There are a lot of points to evaluate there, but major problems arose in the void of accountable and experienced "parental leadership"... As a result, each of us wanted to become leaders ourselves, which drove resentment, arguments, and even physical fights that still manifest themselves to this day in my family among us as adults, over 20 years later. My parent's at times also weren't the best leaders, they argued as well at times, it's normal, many of you had the exact same kind of experience. We are all flawed humans trying to make the best out of our lives. I've come to terms with not being embarrassed about my past enough to look at it as preparation for leadership in my later life, which turned many imperfect experiences into more positive lessons and outcomes I hope (thank goodness). Ultimately, my childhood served as preparation for what would come in later life, some things never changed. The immaturity, confusion, and often baffling experiences I encountered all taught me how to navigate the same cases of order and chaos I'd observe later in life. I had to figure out how to stay sane, how to resolve issues, and how to govern myself in order to avoid total breakdown within a constantly changing family dynamic. I also had to learn that my family (as a metaphor for safety social stability) was more important to preserve than my own personal gains, comfort and happiness, and through supporting family I ultimately achieve independence, stability, and comfort if my family is comprised of good people.

Woah, that last paragraph went from 0 to 100 real quick didn't it?

FACT: There is a vapid "self-obsessed culture bubble" that is plaguing America right now, and it's not just one individual at the hilt of it. Social media and TV (news outlets specifically) have figured out how to tap that pulse and found a way to profit off of it. This is like feeding sharks on a public beach. There are severe consequences for feeding sharks on a public beach, but it's often only realized when "swimming season" resumes. We really need to start talking about this as an issue, and create new ways of countering the drive for creating celebrity through infamy.

"Feeding sharks" in the above paragraph refers to rewarding bad behavior from TV and Social Media personalities that stroke fear, ignorance, greed, selfish attitudes, and careless behavior without any accountability. 'Swimming Season" refers to any event where lives and out futures can be at stake, most recently for example, like our last US election cycle... I'm not going to delve into what facts are concerning the election, that is already over-debated on every news channel and web site from here to Japan, and it's pretty obvious that the outcome is going to be what it will be. This isn't about what I personally think is right, it's about what is in the actual test of what is right to do in the world.

"How does one determine what's right?!" (you may say at this point naturally). That's easy, you already know what the right thing to do is... It's in the constitution, it's in your religion, it's in everything you've seen throughout history. What's right is definitely NOT rooted in racism, nor violence, nor in wealth hoarding, nor selfishness, nor vanity.

The question raised by all that has transpired for me is WHY DO WE KEEP ADMIRING AND PROMOTING PEOPLE THAT EXHIBIT THESE HORRIBLE TRAITS?

The answer is now more than ever that we have relaxed our expectations on certain people who exhibit harmful behavior if it benefits us emotionally, financially, culturally, or in one of many other selfish ways. This ethical "hall pass" almost always historically leads to horrible results, especially in suffering for those outside of the cultural fraternity who do not mutually benefit from these (ultimately destructive) people. Real success and profit should not come for anyone based on suffering of others. It's cosmic law if you believe in religion, being good, and/or karma... Yet right now televangelists, news correspondents, and many (considered) normal people faithfully subscribe to people who ritually exhibit hypocrisy in their words and actions when placed in positions of influence and power. This is our growing, unique, and dynamic challenge as we head into the future.

A wise professor of Political Science at Howard University once told me that societal decline (in it's most simplest sense) is usually triggered when a popular " social minority" class (that is flush with wealth, control, and influence as a "ruling or elite class" perhaps) forgets that their wealth does not serve as insulation from an angry and unstable (disadvantaged) majority within a society. Additional Context: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/ar ... ce/517164/

Living in a mansion behind a huge wall and even a moat cannot prevent millions of angry people who are void of opportunity from storming your "castle" and defeating your defenses and ultimately "re-distributing hoarded wealth"... The "wealth re-distribution" part is often "quite painful" for the wealthy, if you objectively check out one of the "Let them eat cake" episode from the Marie Antoinette era. SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Antoinette.

That being said, I am in no way advocating revolution, nor Socialism, nor any other remedy to the issue of course, and anyone who committed crime and violence should be accordingly accountable for their actions. That is a much more complex and involved discussion that I would be happy to entertain through many other conversations because it would be intense to type it all out right now in this one post. The above paragraph concerning revolution serves as a reminder to anyone who thinks that chasing and grabbing wealth now, without stopping to consider the broader impacts of doing negative things to gain that wealth, will not ensure their ultimate success, and it may well plan you in Marie Antoinette's camp when consequences of an unchecked social decline or imbalance arrive.

The concept of "construction" is a lot more complex than hard hats, tools, and noise, as well as the concept of "demolition" is. In this world, each of us can be either constructive or destructive, both roles are essential at various points. It is better to be constructive even in creating a plan for demolishing a structure, because that way you don't end up taking down "good structures" that exist next to the bad ones.

Things we rely upon need to have stable foundations, built on stable ground, and with quality poured concrete... Hypocrisy and ego (for example) are far more inferior "rubbery" foundations, and nothing vital and important should be build on a flimsy foundation. Let's all agree moving forward that we'll only hire licensed and bonded contractors moving forward, so that our societal foundation won't "rupture" again any time soon like it did.

Now is a vital time to re-invest in humanity rather than in creating a new news channel or social media site based on cultural division and profit. Abandon cultural and wealth bubbles, reject vanity and consumerism, protect each other, support and promote genuinely good people, help each other to grow, support unity for responsible and accountable people across political lines, support and preserve all forms of social justice and peace. Let's have more CONSTRUCTIVE conversations rather than fights. Make NEW friends, and let go of the ideology that people struggling for opportunity are simply our enemies and create new things that build more constructive foundations that help EVERYONE to succeed and grow.