I’ve always been a fan of old movies. Part of the reason is the pictures themselves, but an even bigger part is the way they reveal how people used to think and behave. Bottom line: our current level of “progressive” thinking is killing the nation.
When you boil down the attacks on someone like Sarah Palin, for example, to their essence, her most grievous deficiency is that she has “old-fashioned” values. Only “unsophisticated” people still have large families, or live in out-of-the-way places. Only throwbacks hunt, fish, believe in God or–in what has been revealed as the ultimate betrayal of progressiveness–believe in the sanctity of life.
For decades, bedrock values such as the above have been disdained. In America’s current environment, the biggest “sin” one can commit is to be uncool. Everyone and everything must have a cutting edge attitude, a “hipness” measured by how far one is willing to go to rebel against tradition. That such tradition sustained us for the better part of two hundred and thirty years is irrelevant–or so we thought.
It is no accident that America is in hock up to its eyeballs. Being progressive requires much in the way of material wealth absent the ability–and in many cases, the intention–of paying for it. Only squares drive cheap cars, or wear non-designer clothes. Only Neanderthals work hard for a living (some, God forbid, still using their hands and backs) or save money for a rainy day. Only out-of-it Americans believe there is something inherently unseemly about commercializing virtually every aspect of our lives.
If such progressiveness were limited to the private sector, we might not be in the predicament we are now. But the people who inhabit government aren’t immune to cultural influences. They too wanted to be rebels and take part in upending tradition and re-defining values. That one of those “traditions”–allowing only qualified people to buy homes they could afford–was tossed overboard has brought us to the brink of insolvency.
Unfortunately, we’re all rebels now–whether we like it or not. Those Americans who’ve done the right thing their entire lives are as much at risk as the sophisticates. It is their effort, their labor and their largesse which will be used to save all of us, including the “cutting edge” Americans who are suddenly and shockingly discovering that no party lasts forever, and that “progressive” values are as hollow as the inside of too many peoples’ heads.
Being the best-dressed person on a soup line doesn’t get it.
atahlert@comcast.net
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