What is a culture, the non-medical kind that is? The best definition I could find in relation to this post is:
a particular form or stage of civilization, as that of a certain nation or period
I was recently introduced to the term “the culture of viciousness” and was immediately struck by its seemingly accurate description of our current times here in the U.S. and perhaps the world as a whole. The most appropriate term to describe what is going on in congress and in much of the country is viciousness. The way we seem to treat each other lately is very saddening indeed! Have we turned permanently to the dark side of civilization? I hope there is a way out of this current trend.
It is totally perplexing to me as to why we got to this state of affairs but I believe that it stems from the fact that the average everyday guy is just tired of running in place and still getting farther and farther behind.
- He has not seen a real raise in his income for twenty years.
- He sees the 1% get more and more each year while he gets less and less
- He sees statistics that show that he will be laid off or have to change jobs seven time in his working years.
- He wants to give his family many of the things he sees everyday on TV but can only do that by adding to his credit card debt and therefore digging himself deeper and deeper into a hole.
- Maybe most importantly he looks at his kids and can’t see that they will be any better off than him.
I don’t know if our current congress is mirroring this viciousness or just maybe the cause of it. Either way they are not setting an example for how we should be treating each other. The folks in congress are supposed to be our leaders and the wisest among us. Why aren’t they leading by example?
When Jesus, the foundation of our Christian establishment, was asked what is the most important he said to “Love God and to love your fellow man”. What we are doing today is the exact opposite of this. There seems to be very little love in any of us. How did we get into this state? But maybe more importantly how do we get out of it????
RJ's Corner - Having My Say 
I see love everywhere. I see it in the classroom as a teacher works with a struggling student. I see it on the street as people say hello and nod their heads. I see it at the library as one patron gets a book for another.
No, my children will not have the same job until they die. They seem to find Christ in their own walk instead of a church setting of the 1950’s? They will learn that it is important to form strong relationships with their parents and children, if for nothing else but they will need each other for many, many years? Is that bad? Do I think they will have less money? probably. Will they have less life? Nope
I am 54. For years I have watched people pull away from their families and then go on food stamps when the first child comes. I have watched the schools take on parenting, and then be sued when the child does not turn out the way that society expects. I have watched charities fail because we know the state will take up the cause. I watch big stars tell us we need to go and save the world from genocide. Their voice gets us into trying to get women education in Afghanistan. Of course it takes OUR army to do that.
It is time to straighten out and strengthen OUR families in the US. That is where the love of God comes in.
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Thank you for your comments Jan. Yes strengthening families, all types of them not just the “traditional” ones, is one of the solutions. I can’t agree with your comment that charities are giving it up “because they know the state will take up the cause”. I am very familiar with one charity and somewhat familiar with several others and they don’t haphazardly close and turn it over to the state. As a matter of fact they try to hold on until all hope is gone because they know that people will suffer because the state will NOT fill the gap. They fail because not enough people choose to support them with monetary contributions or a little bit of their time.
Yes, all hope has not been lost but I believe that hopelessness is rampant in our society today. Much more so than any time in my life. As you say our young people are giving up on our religious institutions so many of these institutions have moved to a bunker mentality and are no longer filling many social needs.
Where I do see hope is among the young adults who are called millennials. They seem to have a compassion for others that has not been dominant in several generations. God bless them for their efforts. Hopefully future generations will follow their examples.
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Somehow I don’t think having more money and more this and more that is the answer. Yes, it is irksome to see the disparity in wealth. But, our changing culture is more than that. Jan is right when she says that family is the key. The demographics show more and more single people, living alone…in 30 yrs or so it may be half of the population. That just seems so sad. Maybe less prosperity would mean we would appreciate all we have a bit more. My grown daughters are in their 30’s, single, living alone, working in professional careers. It was and is the accepted thing to strive for a great career and not be saddled with kids and family at an early age. They are just beginning to realize that maybe being alone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Maybe having more people to love and less stuff is the way to go.
And yes, if you look around you do see plenty of love and generosity. It’s still there, just not in our wealthy leaders of the moment.
Don’t dispair, R.J. Sometimes the stuff we read…and write…sounds harsher than it would if we were in a conversation. Nothing is ever as good or as bad as it seems. Who said that??
So, anyway, I have to say that I agree with Jan this time!
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Thanks for the thoughts Jane. While I agree that there are many who live very joyful lives I will stick to my thoughts that there are also many suffering through these time just trying to survive. Maybe I am more sensitive to it because I volunteer two days a week in a homeless shelter/soup kitchen and see the suffering on a regular basis. But even in that you two are right in some respects. It is amazing to me to see how much joy (and gratitude) there is even in these folks. They have next to nothing and depend on the soup kitchen for many of their meals but are still to some degree happy people. They are in inspiration to me in that regard.
I also read the letters to the editor in our small town local newspaper regularly and see so many that are cries of despair. So, yes there is still joy in the world but we must never become insensitive to the despair around us.
The saying you mentioned has many derivatives but I think the original one was from Bertrand Russell “Your writing is never as good as you hoped; but never as bad as you feared.” He was an English author who got the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950. He had a very long and distinguished career.
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