Will the Great Play of Western Civilization be a Gigantic FloP? (Part Three)

My last blog concerned itself with high crimes and misdeeds in Washington and the apparent tendency of large sections the electorate to vote for names that promise monetary rewards to those who cannot see that those doled out rewards will enslave them and their thinking forever.

I am well acquainted with the concept. I observed it full flower in Communist East Germany. Those of my sorry countrymen who toed the party line and mouthed the slogans were well rewarded. I saw sadly inadequate scholars, spouting the party line, promoted and others, with independent thoughts, relegated to the sidelines. I saw questionable doctors, psychiatrists and health care workers rise to prominence, while sardonic, anti-communists with brilliant minds scraped for a living in small semi-private practices. Having experienced those things first hand I am suspicious of any hand-out by government. Nothing is free in life—as the first prostitute you ask will tell you. If you receive—expect to perform for the giver.

I know that my sentiments are true, having known families of four generations to live on nothing but welfare. By now, the notion that they are owed their monthly check, their subsidized housing and their food stamps seems inbred into their psyche. They just know that they must be provided for, because what else is there? The families of that type also had many unwed teen girls with children from different fathers. Rational: What else is there to do?

Yes, the other scourge of our time is that responsibility for our actions is not required anymore. Personal responsibility has gone by the way of the Dodo, together with honor, guilt, honesty, morality and ethical thought.

So how did America get to this point in history? When I came to this country in 1964 it was so different a place that our young people would not recognize it if they were placed in it. I almost imagine they would find it dull. Kids were quite happy I remember. They also had jobs and chores, which they were asked to perform from the time they were about six-years-old. They started with small things and grew into greater responsibility as time went by.

At that time, people also had great freedom. Kids played in the dark streets on summer nights till late—until their parents called to come in. No one feared abduction, molestation—murder. How could that be? How could a mother allow her children to ride bikes all over the city without worry? Well, we raised people by a different measure then. And we all knew right from wrong. No one worried about injuring our psyche by telling us unvarnished truths about ourselves. It was fine to criticize and expect the same in turn.