Just before classes started this term, the Dean told me to remove a sign from my door advertising that "Let's Get Beer Tacos And Quesadilas" because someone from the HDTV+ community might be offended. Our world is bombarded with "a multitude of loud, persistent, appealing voices. Murmuring voices that conjure up perceived injustices, pointing voices of that abhor challenge and work, seductive voices offering sensual enticements, flattering voices that puff us up with pride, commercial voices that tempt us to spend money for that which is of no worth and our labor for that which cannot satisfy" (James E Faust). There are not enough voices or at least not enough voices teaching us correct principles, and so we do not govern ourselves correctly, particularly if we do not know how. With the advent of home internet and smartphones, we no longer take charge of what comes into our homes. With the obsession of social media, we no longer know what truly normal looks like and have skewed versions of what normal or real life resembles. With a change in campaign finance laws that ensure that the best funded candidate wins rather than the one of most upstanding character, there is no way Mr. Smith will ever get to Washington. What is the solution to that? The solution when the tail wags the dog is with the dog to decide who is the dog and who is the tail.
I grew up in the 1990s, and there were some arguably deviant things during that time. I didn't notice some of the things because I was not an adult, but there was a greater effort to shield children from adult themes that you don't see now. For instance, some of the more suggestive shows and offerings were offered at times on television when children could not watch them. Then came TiVo and then Netflix, and now anyone can watch anything anytime if they know the password to the account. When I was in high school, they were still asking parental permission for certain things, and when I was shown "Glory" in high school, which is Rated R, without my parental consent and I complained, the teacher was removed from the classroom. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was considered inappropriate for 13 YO children without parental permission, but apparently it's totally ok to talk with 8YO children about sexuality without parental consent or even knowledge.
In a world with plenty to offer in terms of entertainment and choice, it strikes me as particularly odd that we are obsessed so much with outlier attitudes, beliefs and norms. Even more repugnantly, we let a loud, violent minority of persons dictate the drift of moral sentiments. Somehow these groups amassed lots of money or have learned to leverage their particular privilege cards in order to tempt lawyers into profitable litigious arrangements. Stop making stupid people famous. We all used to mock people who played video games but now people earn millions of dollars while streaming gaming and other people WATCH THEM PLAY. So, now people are held ransom to the will of aberrant and abhorrent attitudes on the auspice that resistance results in a diminution of their fiduciary power. If we stand up to silliness, we'll be silenced, fired, or cancelled. I removed the sign for LGBTAQ from my door because I wasn't willing to die on that hill over a funny sign, because that is the ultimate solution for which these morally marginal groups will campaing- the loss of your ultimate livelihood.
Sometime between 2012 and 2016 a switch flipped in America and things that once belonged in the shadows emerged into the limelight. I do not think it is good for the nation, for the world, for civil society, or for people of morality. Society says that promiscuity is wrong; promiscuous people fight to change it. Society accepts that eating meat is fine; vegans fight to change it. Society says that gender is from birth; people who don't like their gender fight to change it. Society accepts legal immigration; illegal aliens fight to change that. Society claims it needs cheap, available access to energy; "climate advocates" fight to endorse less efficient and more expensive energy sources over fossil fuels. The majority of people say they want something; government assists a minority in changing it to the opposite. It's repugnant. We elect people to serve our interests and enact our voice and then a small intellectual elite sides with a small but vocal minority and somehow they get reelected? How?
Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people, James Madison said, and it is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. What we really need in this nation is more morality, except that that's probably not going to happen, at least not without a lot of work, work that I cannot do alone. I teach correct principles in Sunday School, but that's a whopping 90 minutes a month, and the voluminous contradictory opinions of pop culture, worldliness and even their own families countermand most of my feeble efforts. What really needs to change is at home. Parents need to control what comes into our homes. Parents need to teach children about outliers and normality. Parents need to be fighting for and voting for people who espouse and vote for the moral outcome, even if it's not the one that enriches us. We need to act. YOU need to act. I am only one man, and none of my children are probably ever going to make a difference, particularly as long as I continue to remain childless. If you don't like the tail waging the dog, then you need to tell it when to wag. You need to be the dog. And you need to be a good boy (or girl). Who will be a good boy? WIll you?
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