In today’s western society, the word freedom appears to mean that the Pub stays open until 1am as opposed to 11pm.
It means you can smoke MJ...
It means that anyone can get on the internet.
It means that big screen TV’s are on sale at walmart.
It means that they get a tax credit every year to aid in the purchase of that big tv.
The concept of liberty which as you said seems to have a deeper meaning such as the freedom to fail or the freedom to succeed according to your own desires and abilities is not in the public discourse.
Nor is the understanding that Liberty and it’s cousin freedom are given to every living soul and that we all give a small portion of that to government in order to have rule of law and a structured society.
Today, that understanding has been turned on it’s head to the point where these inalienable rights are doled out by government as a trade off to the governments promise to guarantee outcomes.
People today have entirely too much time on their hands and do not have to struggle much or at all to eat or to have a roof over their heads.
As a direct result of this, the value of these things have been superseded by simple possessions, like cars and electronic gizmos, clothing etc, and all that personal energy and time is turned onto one’s self in a very self destructive way.
Ancient biblical stories reflect the same sequence of events, as does the history of ancient Greece and what is termed the first democracy and then to the 500 year old Roman Empire that succumbed to the same exact sequence of social events.
I am rambling a bit, but history is quite revealing in that it tells us that what is happening is due to a human trait that leads societies to self destruction if there is not enough effort to prevent it.
I think that is what we have today and some say we are on the brink. Quite frankly, I believe we are far past that brink. I think that happened at the turn of the century when it became clear that there were far too many people riding in the wagon and fewer to pull it. With this understanding well known to everyone, absolutely nothing was ever done and in fact the situation is now becoming a giant snowball rolling to the bottom of the pit at breakneck speed.
So well and simply stated and so well organized... not rambling.
We have kept saying, “if the present course is not changed” for some time now... it did not change and the predictions have become the fact in my estimation.
“since the turn of the century”... probably and maybe before that the turn was made and now it is cemented.
Many of the kids today have little in the way of goals and vision... they are merely “satisfied” or “comfortable”... their self-actualization does not take the form of achievement or the extra effort to make things as right as possible.... “good enough” is good enough. What should be their labor and ambition is turned into wasteful behavior as you suggest.
We keep saying the “if this does not change then X” because we hold on to hope when hope is gone and just don’t want to admit that the IF has come and gone a long time ago.
“we all give a small portion of that [Liberty] to the government to have rule of law...” That has been a choice but it got out of hand... now it is a dictate and the Liberty is not given by choice it is taken but the veneer of “freedom” remains.
Thanks for a sad commentary but a good and thought provoking post. I have a friend who often says that “people are just no damn good”... he is right.