A Nation in Confusion
I’ve long thought that what we believe to be true philosophically, is a matter of emotion rather than an objective discovery of fact. Of course we all like to think of ourselves as objective, accurate and honest about our discovery of reality, yet it is obvious that there are 50 million varieties of facts. See, I just exaggerated, well, maybe!
The mantra of some of our political figures seems to be, “I will not lie. I will tell the truth a thousand different ways before I would lie about it.”
None of us think of ourselves as an extremist. We are all balanced, right in the middle. We are factually objective and emotionally mature and open-minded, leaving us between the extremes but without any extremes in ourselves. But then, given that there are such varieties of different position, opinions and perspectives, someone is not in the middle of anything.
Difference is a fact of life. Politicians do not agree, judges do not agree, Christians do not agree, mechanics do not agree, no slice of our humanity across the face of the globe agree on everything and quite possibly on anything. Yet, we tend to affirm ourselves and others by our sense of being right. If you agree with me, then you are also right, but if so, then we two are the only ones right on all things. So being right is a shallow and exclusive measuring devise. It doesn’t reach out there very far.
It is my personal opinion (can I help it if I am right?) that in many areas of life, the middle ground has shifted, and what was once a balance point is now extreme. Take cooking as an example. I remember when our family discovered tacos. What a wonderful thing. At least once a week we had tacos, you know, tortillas rolled in parmesan cheese, filled with ground beef, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. But tacos have changed. Today, there are chicken tacos, sea food tacos, vegetarian tacos (Blasphemy) and just about every form you can imagine.
I was raised in church and we were balanced, right in the middle of orthodoxy. We were right. But there are now far more denominations, styles, kinds, and mixtures than I ever imagined could be. What ever happened to the old time religion? Well, it is gone and now we have the social gospel, the black liberation theology, the seeker sensitive gospel, the upscale productions of church entertainment, the – you name it, it already exists. Balanced Christianity your say? Not that I can find.
So is it any surprise that our entire political equilibrium has shifted from the position of our Founding Fathers to God knows what? If you ask any person on the street to tell you what America is, at its essential core, in terms of its central beliefs, you may end up in total confusion or at least philosophical chaos. And therein is the problem we face. Those who can give a definitive answer to that question are seen by the majority of Americans as a radical fringe. They are the trouble makers who want to change America. Change it to what? Our answer is, change it back to the point of equilibrium it started with. We would argue that we are not changing it but redeeming it from the changes that have ruined it.
Yet I ask, change her from what? We no longer have an American culture, sense of values or definition of purpose. We are adrift in the sea of philosophical confusion, headed a thousand directions, with no central sense of purpose, definition or culture. For some, it is this vague senselessness that is our definition. We call it multi-culturalism, which more often than not means we do not have the faintest clue what we are for, who we are or where we are going.
My evidence? Simple! We voted in a non-descript president who articulated no position, who as a senator voted “present’ on all of his votes, who has no background, no records, no education, no birthplace, no sure and certain name and no sense of direction. His cry was that he was going to fundamentally change America, but never got around to telling what that fundamental change was comprised of. We, the general populous of America, bought it because we have no clue ourselves. More to the point, we no longer care. We have been reeducated to believe that a sense of definition is not needed, in fact may be the evil place where exclusion divides the people who want to live without expectations, foundations, morals, ethics, and a sense of what we are as a culture.
For some, like myself, the question of culture is easy to answer. We are what we were defined to be at our inception. We are a people who are free to determine our own worth and value by striving, succeeding, owning property, accumulating personal worth and wealth, and pursuing happiness as we see it. We are a people who have been given the power to do so, by God Himself and in that sense, we delegate power to our government and can get it back if they do not function. We are a people who have no king, answer to no sovereign, and delegate only such power as is necessary to our government to take care of the essentials of defense and infrastructure.
But for those who so define our culture, they are but extremist looneys, in light of the aimless and ill-defined nonsense that surrounds us.
The question remains: How shall we get our culture back?
