5 Character Flaws That Are Destroying America's Future

Townhall.com ^ | June 2, 2009 | John Hawkins

[Kaslin]

1) Lack Of Personal Responsibility: As a society, we encourage a "victimhood mentality" and an overweening government that never met an issue it didn't want to dive into with both feet; so we shouldn't be surprised that so many Americans expect to be rewarded for failure.

If GM fails, we've got to step in and keep it afloat. If people snuck into this country illegally, we can't be so hardhearted as to obey the law and deport them! If you bought a house you couldn't afford, you shouldn't be penalized for that when the market takes a bad turn. If you bought a blender, tried to start it in your bathtub, and were nearly electrocuted -- that's not your fault! The manufacturers should have put a warning sticker on it.

We're descended from pioneer stock. Our ancestors explored, conquered, and tamed a continent. They couldn't rely on the police to show up if an Indian raiding party showed up at their isolated cabin at 3 AM. There was no school lunch program on the Oregon Trail. If your buggy whip company was going out of business because of those new fangled auto-mo-biles, you didn't get 20 billion dollars in taxpayer money so you could open up a new branch in China, you went out of business. If our ancestors were alive, they would sneer in disdain at what a nation full of whining babies their descendants have become.

2) Short Attention Spans: Perhaps because of the internet, the stunning variety of news sources, or the complexity of modern society, we've become much less able as a people to follow logical arguments and deal with complex messages.

This has bled over into Congress where they write legislation dealing with issues they don't truly understand. That legislation is voted on by legislators who admit that they haven’t read it and it affects the lives of millions of people who were unaware that such legislation was even being contemplated.

The problem with this is that there are many issues in life that are too knotty to be broken down into a soundbite or a 30 second commercial. Those affairs require more extensive knowledge and deeper thought and consideration than can be placed on a bumper sticker or weaved into a music video. When we lose sight of that fact, utter disasters that have been in plain sight all along for anyone with an attention span longer than five minutes can blindside much of the population.

3) Excessive Self-Esteem: Perhaps because we've spent decades trying to pump up the self-esteem of children in our public schools, irregardless of whether they've done anything to merit it, we have legions of people in our society who have an excessive level of confidence in their beliefs and abilities.

They're just so darn sure that what they believe is right just by virtue of the fact they believe it. Traditions? Codes of conduct? Religious beliefs? Customs? There's no need to even understand why previous generations believed what they did or to question what purpose it served. Just remember that they were racist back then and so they couldn't have had any good ideas.

Of course, we don't look back and say, "Gee? How did they make it without welfare, social security, or an income tax? Why is it that they had a divorce rate that was a fraction of the one we had today? How is it that the crime rate was so much lower? What made the people so much more polite than they are today? If we were in the same situation as the Founding Fathers, could our political leaders step up to the plate and do as well?"

Because we have forgotten the mistakes that convinced our forefathers to adopt the policies and mores that they did, in our ignorance we will be doomed to make many of those same mistakes again.

4) Short Term Thinking/Instant Gratification: Thomas Sowell once said that killing the goose that laid the golden egg can be a viable election strategy as long as it doesn't die until you're out of office and no one finds your prints on the murder weapon.

That is played out in American politics on a daily basis where few politicians think farther ahead than the next election. Time and time again, we have politicians advocating policies that either bring immediate benefits or avoid short-term pain, but are extremely harmful to the country over the long-term.

4) Short Term Thinking/Instant Gratification: Thomas Sowell once said that killing the goose that laid the golden egg can be a viable election strategy as long as it doesn't die until you're out of office and no one finds your prints on the murder weapon.

That is played out in American politics on a daily basis where few politicians think farther ahead than the next election. Time and time again, we have politicians advocating policies that either bring immediate benefits or avoid short-term pain, but are extremely harmful to the country over the long-term.

5) Immorality: The default mode of Hollywood is hedonism and we've been told again and again, at least since the Clinton years, that character doesn't matter for our elected officials.

The problem with this is that character does matter -- quite a bit, actually.

Our leaders are corrupt to the core -- and that's not just the ones who are in violation of our laws, which have been crafted in order to allow staggering amounts of corruption to be done legally. The families of politicians are given plum jobs and paid ridiculous sums of money in order to gain influence with legislators. Government earmarks that aid campaign contributors or family members of Congress are common. Chrysler has even been handed over to Barack Obama's union allies in broad daylight. Ethics have become the very last consideration for our government and perhaps it's no surprise given the state of our society.

Civility is dead and buried. We have people protesting funerals and the private residences of citizens. There are perverted gay parades in the streets of San Francisco. The most grotesque, blasphemous, and offensive material imaginable is regularly displayed on the internet and TV and we are drenched in sex from the time we get up until the time we go to bed.

As a replacement for actual human decency and morality, we've turned to political correctness and bloodless legalisms, neither of which is an adequate replacement for doing the right thing because it's principled or virtuous.

The corrosive effects of this decline are seen not just in our government, but all throughout our society in the size of our prison population, the number of unmarried women having children, drug use, school shootings, and even our staggering abortion rate.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Mark.

[Clemenza]

ENTITLEMENT! THIS is so bad that you even find it on this site in the form of: "I deserve a good payin' job and would have one if it weren't for those damn immigrants and affirmative action. I'm a patriot dammit!"

Thankfully, the entitled are a small minority among JimRob's site. I am more concerned with a certain occupant of the oval office, to say nothing of a certain "entitled" Supreme Court nominee from the Bronx.

[Badabing Badablonde]

I enjoyed the article until he used the word “irregardless”......

[fleagle]

I would argue that the lack of personal responsibility stems somewhat from all the lawsuits we've seen in the past decade or so...an old acquaintance of mine once tripped coming out of the grocery store and twisted her ankle. She went to a lawyer and got $10,000 for "negligience" on the part of the grocery store. ??!!!!??!?!

Thankfully, those kinds of ridiculous lawsuits seem to be running out of favor, but let's just say they haven't helped to foster a sense of personal responsibility in modern society...not when there's always someone to blame or sue.

[Tolsti2]

The article makes good points, but he used ‘irregardless’ in there and that drives me crazy.

[ETL]

"5 Character Flaws That Are Destroying America's Future"

They left out extreme naivete/gullibility and laziness for seeking out the truth/apathy.

[silverleaf]

Excellent

[rbg81]

While I think there are a lot of destructive trends in society today, I’m not one of these people who thinks the “old days” are as great as they are made out to be. There was no shortage of injustice, cruelty, misery, and immorality back then. Back in the late 1800s, there was literally a whore house on every block in New York City. If I had to pick a time when we “peaked”, it might be the early 60s. At least the pictures from that era look great. The physical difference between the college students back then and today are especially stunning.

[Larry Lucido]

Agreed. Should have said “irrespectiveless.” :-)

[wintertime]

What institutions are a MAJOR factor in all of the above????

SCHOOLS!

Government K-12 schools and our colleges and universities are indoctrinating our nation's children in all of the five qualities listed above!

(Yes, I am shouting! Conservatives are deaf, dumb, and blind.)

[Badabing Badablonde]

Personally, I’m partial to “disirregardlessivity.”

[TChris]

... irregardless ...

Can we add a sixth? Decreasing english literacy!

[MikeGranby]

This looks to be pretty interesting stuff, but the article is too long. I couldn’t concentrate beyond point #2.

[mgist]

I agree with a lot of this except I don’t think people coming here trying to find honest work should be thrown in with those who are “entitled”.

I think the new American mentality of many, which supports killing babies and old people, adores animals but can’t stand children, resents population growth, fears climate changes, and promotes sexual deviance with no tolerance spiritual values, lacks brotherly love. Lack of brotherly love manifests itself in many different ways and we are all guilty. Sometimes we deserve what we get.

[Neoliberalnot]

These 5, fully characterize the liberal/progressive personality of the new millennium.

[Kaslin]

From Merriam-Webster dicionary

Main Entry:

ir·re·gard·less

Pronunciation:

\ˌir-i-ˈgärd-ləs\

Function:

adverb

Etymology:

probably blend of irrespective and regardless

Date:

circa 1912

nonstandard : regardless

usage Irregardless originated in dialectal American speech in the early 20th century. Its fairly widespread use in speech called it to the attention of usage commentators as early as 1927. The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however. It is still used primarily in speech, although it can be found from time to time in edited prose. Its reputation has not risen over the years, and it is still a long way from general acceptance. Use regardless instead.

[mouske]

I enjoyed the article until he used the word “irregardless”......

I’m with you.

[MissouriConservative]

“I enjoyed the article until he used the word “irregardless”......”

Well, at least he wasn’t a “co-conspirator”.... :-)

[Sans-Culotte]

Yes, I liked the article, irregardless of its grammatical deficiencies.