We have somehow become victims of our own success. When I was young, my grandmother, parents and everyone around me used to ask, “what do you want to be?” It was a question of introspection, asking even then for us to look inside and begin the long process of discovering and nurturing our talents, our God given talents. When I was young, God was still in the classroom, and even though it wasn’t always spoken, we knew a great deal deepened on him and our relationship with him. Life was about “completing yourself.”
MOST people went to church. Parents were really careful about access to junk food and what we watched on TV, even in my dysfunctional family. Much of this is gone, along with God along with parental monitoring. We live in this golden age of marketing, where products lines like Underarmour are made and EVERYONE has to have it. Incredibly children everywhere from all economic classes are running around with 600.00 cellphones, in classrooms that all have some form of child centered education, and a parent driven form of social promotion.
Society is writing emotional entitlement checks that our kids are not going to be able to cash. I have a kid in my class right now that wants to be a nurse, but she cant multiply without a calculator and knows nothing about geometry really, and not much about algebra. We import our doctors and nurses now. In the home improvement store where I work part time [I was downsized from the place I thought I would retire from years ago] the 20 year olds won’t even say hello to you unless you have something they want, or you have authority over them.
Like someone said earlier, we aren’t going anywhere soon, we are just going to diminish, no we are diminishing. We will remain a military superpower for quite a while barring something really big, but I think our days of being an economic power are numbered. I could be wrong, but I just can’t see this level of decay of the family and spiritual values being sustainable, not to mention this new pursuit of sexual identity, or lack thereof. Everything is about money, instant gratification, and being pampered. You can run your whole house now from your cell phone.
It took a great deal of pain, physical, emotional and financial coming into MY life for years, before I began to get my priorities right, before I invited God back into my life. In the west we think of pain as a CORRECTION. That is what it will take to reverse what is going on now. Good ole fashioned pain, that or some sort of Fatima style sign. Until then, you have to ask yourself, why would anyone want to take over the land of couch potatoes? We couldn’t even surrender, there’s not an app for that.
last and even the whole world united against her shall not prevail.
I’ve been anticipating their arrival for quite some time. We deserve it, but long term occupation won’t work. No Man in the High Castle scenario do I foresee.