The creation of a weak nation

The creation of a weak nation

I recently saw a juxtaposition of two pictures, one of our beloved leader president Obama and the other of Putin, the former KGB aka leader of our enemy Russia. Don’t think for a second that the “Cold War” is over or that Putin is no longer the leader of Russia, but I digress.  In those pictures our beloved leader was enjoying a leisurely bike ride on a paved surface wearing a helmet with a significant security detail near by, I’m sure.  The other picture showed the leader of Russia holding an impressive piece of weaponry.  Because I was laughing so hard at the comparison, I now don’t remember what particular kind of firearm it was. I do remember thinking that it could expedite justice very efficiently.  Once the laughter subsided I continued with the tasks of my day. 

The following day, that image of the two leaders still hadn’t left me and the previous day’s conversation with my brother on the subject sparked further thought of how my beloved nation is becoming the home of the meek and weak and not of the brave.  Don’t get me wrong…there are still many strong men and women out there.  The kind of men that only have electrical tape in their first aid kits and women who educate themselves, have careers, give birth, run the house and spin plates while driving the minivan to soccer practice.  Or if you’d like another example, imagine the hardships of the men and women, husbands and wives that make up our military. I’m simply referring to people who are, in one way or another, self-reliant, unafraid of life’s difficulties and in some cases, even pain.  Things, however, are changing for the worse right before our eyes. 

As some of you go to work, watch the idiot box, down a six pack, burn a “phat spliff” or uselessly spend your days on the couch (because you’re 25 years old and on welfare), all across this nation of ours schools are banning recess games like tag, soccer and touch football as well as standard playground equipment in the misguided effort to protect kids from minor physical harm.  At the same time they are implementing the most ridiculous rules imaginable in the same misguided spirit to protect kids form minor mental hardship. In fact, ridiculous doesn’t quite cover it, preposterous, absurd, contemptible, and unreasonable, in fact down right outrageously bizarre might be better terms to describe what is going on.  We have entered a new era of prohibition; prohibition of common sense.  Except these days, it isn’t only government-administered, but a self-imposed exile from the land of decency, integrity and responsibility.

Stop physically abusing your kids…

For the most part, the banning of recess games and standard playground equipment that you and I grew up with, is driven by misguided parents in the futile and erroneous attempt to safeguard their kids from every possible source of physical pain.  All the while taking away your children’s right to a normal childhood. There are two contributing factors, which bestow upon us the insanity we observe and will eventually dearly pay for as a nation. Due to the combined madness of the reckless legal system and shameless parents, schools are force to fear unreasonable liability.  Why wouldn’t they?

We’ve all seen the lunacy that takes place in our courts time and time again.  The OJ Simpson case or the student suing for being abruptly awakened during class and let’s not forget the Ramos & Compean border patrol travesty.  Remember that one?  When two honorable officers risked their lives in the line of duty, shot a smuggler in the butt and for their effort they were betrayed by the government they served; followed by a deliverance style gang rape courtesy of that previously mentioned reckless and in that case corrupt justice system.  Whenever possible, lawyer’s jump out from behind bushes and proceed with their Sodom and Gomorrah orgy-style dance in their ten thousand dollar suits, while the judge pretending to pay attention, in the effort to properly prepare for the upcoming weekends adventure is shopping on eBay for a new pair of six inch heels in his size.  This is all happening behind the façade of order, decency and due diligence.  It’s a complete disgrace, a sick joke on the ignorant masses, might as well be mooning the weeping Lady Justice. Of course, this type of degradation wouldn’t be possible if not for the permissiveness of the society that allows it, so sleep my precious while Rome is burning.

However, in this situation the leading role is played by the shameless parents and in the supporting role, as usual, is money. If it weren’t for people like them, there wouldn’t be any frivolous lawsuits since it takes someone to decide to sue in the first place.  However, Mr. & Mrs. Cash can’t get enough and that, in my mind, is far less complicated.  For me, it boils down to a putrid greed stew, ¼ cup depravity, ¼ cup idiocy, ¼ cup deceit and lastly ¼ cup enlightened modern humanity. Be aware that we will not be using any righteousness or integrity in this recipe.  So, we will place our pot on our recycled “new and improved” progressive stove, then just set it and forget it.  This will take a while, but don’t worry because; Dancing with the Stars, the Kardashian saga and Paris Hilton is on. Once the assemblage reaches 180 degrees on your broken moral compass, just fluff and serve to your friends on your newly won/ stolen /bought china, who god willing, may sue you in the future.          

            I submit to you that when parents shield their kids from things like bumps, scrapes and bruises those kids grow into weak and fearful adults.  Their life experience limited and thus full and proper development possibly prevented.  We all learn and grow throughout or entire lives, drawing on experiences and lessons learned.  That is never more important than during the crucial development years. During which character and habits are formed, based on the experiences we have, as well as the input we receive from parents and peers.  What will a child learn when at every step someone they look up to says “no” it’s too dangerous, you’ll get hurt, despite those things being minor to the point of child’s play?  They will learn to fear things, too many things, for irrational reasons.  They will likely lead an unremarkable, secluded life, bound by their fears. By then, those fears will not only have to do with physical activity but with decisions, taking chances, experiencing life and all that it can offer. What happens when they’re faced with forceful co-worker? What happens when they come upon truly hard times personally or due to severe national problems?  What happens when survival is on the line?  I’ll tell you what happens, the weak perish.  What if none of those things happen?  Then, they’ll probably die early due to obesity complications, as a result of being a fat kid with a complete lack of physical activity pattern, forced to be instituted by the educational system because of ill-advised parents. 

                       

Stop mentally abusing your kids…

A ban on grading (correcting in red ink) is the new craze sweeping this and other nations. It has been determined that the old way is “confrontational” and as if that wasn’t bad enough “threatening”.  I can’t help but to agree with that analysis.  What I don’t agree with is that this is a bad thing.  There is nothing wrong with saying, “Hey Billy (no Billy in particular in case a Billy is reading this, I don’t want him running off and crying to mammy), you screwed up here, here and here.  Notice my corrections and next time there won’t be any”.  There is also nothing wrong with being “threatening”.  If a kid does poorly, he should be threatened and helped by anyone that cares mainly the parents and teachers.  It is possible that Billy may start trying and pull out of the slump or Billy just might be somewhat less mentally suited for school than the other kids and will never excel.  Not to say that he can’t excel at something else, like sports or a trade, perhaps he’ll be come one hell of a welder or an artist. Of course, there is the remote, though very real possibility, that Billy is dim in general and will never do anything but watch TV, drink the alcohol of his choice (or at least what his welfare dole will allow him to drink which these days is pretty good).  In addition, Billy may not, but the other kids probably will come to the following realization; if all the corrections are in pretty purple than that’s the same as the mean red?  Notice how akin this is to the same flawed thinking behind “political correctness”.  The argument has also been made by the highly educated ones implementing this claptrap that it’s not necessarily about the color of the pen, rather the balance of corrections and praise for a job well done elsewhere.  If that is the case than why insist on changing the color in the first place, if fact why make corrections in the at all?  Why not simply place a grade on the work, and inform the student that he or she made some mistakes but did well on other parts?  But wait, then they wouldn’t have a visual representation of their mistakes to learn from.  Here I thought that school and corrections were about education rather than feelings, oh I just don’t know what to do any more.    

In the same “spare the self-esteem” spirit as the red ink craziness, there have also been so far-failed attempts at banning “valedictorians”, thank god for some sane parents out there.  Those attempts were quickly followed up with diluted versions (similar dilution ratio as the one’s doing the diluting) that included multiple students recognized as “valedictorians”.  The idea that it will be good for all, if we take away from one to serve the needs of the few is absurd, with far reaching societal repercussions.  Much like Socialism or Progressivism, this does far more damage than good.  It disillusions kids and it teaches them to be mediocre by taking away the incentive to strive for excellence. It clearly states, “don’t bother because no one will notice or care other than maybe your parents and everyone knows that doesn’t count”.  This will likely imprint and carry on to their adulthood, effectively creating an ordinary person out of what could have been an extraordinary one. Yeah it’s that little extra that makes the difference and frankly we’re a bit low on extraordinary.  Thus, shouldn’t we focus on the ones that want, try and can, rather than the one’s that don’t or won’t?  If your child falls in love with playing guitar, do you not support him/her and recognize his/her accomplishments with it? Or do you take it away and tell them that since the next door neighbor’s kid can’t play as well, he/she shouldn’t either?  I’m not saying that we should take the killing fields approach to the weak, because I believe that every kid deserves a chance.  Help them, support them, show them the right way but not by taking away from someone else to make them appear equal.  Life all around them is full of empty glitter.  They will be realizing that as they grow up so why try and scam them with another “let’s pretend” story.  Does anyone honestly think that at NO point a child will realize the truth about who they are or what they did or didn’t achieve? We should try and guide them to the conclusion that even if it takes more work they can be as good and if not as good, than the best that they can be which is NEVER bad or a waste.

This psychosis has moved beyond the school grounds and on to the baseball, football and soccer fields and is now common-place.  We’re moving away from rewarding hard work and achievement to rewarding mediocrity, with truly dim-witted things like participation trophies in order to protect their self-esteem.  This makes self-esteem more important than experiencing the exhilaration of success and learning how to deal with defeat. I certainly don’t think that should be the state of affairs.  Not to mention that it does the child no good what so ever to have their “self-esteem” built and propped up on hollow notions or false pretexts, in affect making it all a sham.  I tender that It’s this type of self-esteem building that eventually can lead kids to drugs, alcohol and other self destructive behaviors.  Since true self-esteem is built on effort, successes, failures and the lessons we draw.  Kids aren’t stupid (other than Billy maybe); they know when something is meaningless. 

I lay blame and responsibility squarely on the parents, who have lost the ability to think critically for themselves and gobble up this defective ideology of self-esteem above all else.   For the kids sake let them fail, let them get hurt, let them experience the sweet and the sour and thus prepare them for life and likely success or face the consequences of dealing with a 20 year old child.  A so called adult, that will stomp and cry if they get rejected by the school or job they applied for, because after all, they’re entitled to it.  They will be ineffective, dependent and incapable, sitting on the roof of their house waiting for days on for a rescue. Yes, of course not all kids will turn out like this; some will grow up just fine, despite all that is against them.  They will forge their way, on their own terms blessed with a strong inner voice of self-guidance.  Some may get lucky and be orphaned early on. End up being raised by their grand parents who most likely know better and never understood where their kids picked up this new age parenting drivel.  However, as the surviving overprotective parents continue their well intended though foolish practice.  From generation to generation, the number of weak adults will grow.  Eventually becoming significant enough portion of the population that as to render it meek and weak.  As a society, this is a perilous thing to be, in a very dangerous and brutal world.  At this juncture, we are far beyond stage one of this cancer. 

The fact of the matter is that some kids will succeed and others will fail, no matter what or how hard you’ll try.  Not everyone can be a brain surgeon; we also need the proverbial ditch diggers.  Therefore, rather than trying to protect them from all that they need not be protected from, try and raise your kids to be strong, self-sufficient, balanced, kind, honest and honorable men and women.  If you succeed in that, they will have no problems with self-esteem, because they’ll be cherished by the people that know and love them.               I promise. 

Apathy = Slaver

                          Tres

“The average age of the world's great civilizations
has been 200 years. These nations have
progressed through this sequence:
from bondage to spiritual faith
from spiritual faith to great courage
from courage to liberty
from liberty to abundance
from abundance to selfishness
from selfishness to complacency
from complacency to apathy
from apathy to dependency
from dependency back to bondage.”
-- Alexander Fraser Tytler (1742-1813)

Where are we?