What the hell is going on.

[Captain]

We have baseball players turning a ballgame into a MMA match, black folks are allowed to break into buildings and loot and rob uncontrollably, to the point that 30,000 folks have to shelter in place at a ball park, and a two hour special on some dude that want to be a girl, the Supreme Court wasting time to decide if men and marry men, and our president, our so called leader is doing stand up comedy....
How has this happened?

[Buckrub]

Because very few folks care.

I see some of these things. I dwell on some of them. But each day I try harder to put most of them on the back burner, as far back as possible. That is probably a sucky, selfish, and sorry way to approach life, but I'm so weak that if I focus on my own problems, and those of the world, I start to go insane. Something has to go.

But it concerns me for my family, my kids, my grandkids. Our culture is, and was, a great one and did wonderful things. To see it go just because insanity seems to be contagious, is so sad.

[Buckrub]

And by the way, this site has lost it's testicles mostly. And yeah, I'm to blame as much as anyone. Not a complaint, just an observation. We are all doing just what I said above that I'm doing..........trying to ignore the important things and just skip-to-my-lou-ing through life. So........if I advocate it, I guess I can't complain about it going on here, huh? But we used to discuss a lot of things, and I have learned a lot of different perspective from folks here about a myriad of life's events. But we don't do that anymore. Heck, the world doesn't do that anymore! We're all afraid we'll upset someone, or offend them, or become offended, I guess.

And again.........I'm the world's worst at it, so can't complain really.......but just observing this place as a microcosm of our bigger world.

[LJ3]

I think most of us are pretty exhausted from it all as well. I'm starting to withdraw from politics, slowly but surely. So I wouldn't characterize it as losing our testicles as much as clinging to each other as we all witness our society twitch and convulse in the clutches of a cultural death rattle.

I honestly and sincerely believe there is nothing that can be done at this point. There are as many that don't care as those that do. Discussing or arguing about it will only make you tired and less likely to do it again. Nobody from the other side of an argument is going to see the light and agree.

I read a book a few months ago (The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion) that really changed my perspective on arguing politics, religion and other meaty subjects. The premise is that we each have an intuitive reaction (based on several factors) and then use reason to shore up why we view things a certain way. Think of an elephant as your intuition, the rider is your reasoning. Before the rider (reasoning) thinks or does anything at all, the elephant has already start leaning intuitively toward it's position. The rider is only supplementing what the elephant is going to do.

That's not the only reason but it's a really good one.

Tell me, when's the last time you actually changed your position on in important, substantive subject based on discussing it with someone who held an opposite view?

[quercus alba]

It's Bush's fault

[Buckrub]

Len, that's interesting stuff. Thanks. QA is right, though.

Preacher today had an interesting sermon. I had to think of this post, which I read before I left. Sort of ironic. He said that basically, Sin has disappeared in America.........that in the 1950's, it was prevalent, but now that most things thought to be sin back then are no longer viewed that way. In fact, he said (and I believe this is right) that we've deteriorated into "every man for himself" in philosophy and thought, and it is no longer valid to argue right vs. wrong, because every man thinks himself, and himself alone, to be the standard of right.

I've said for some time that we DO have a National Religion in this country.......it's new........it's the Religion of Diversity and Tolerance........and if you are disobedient to that religion, you'll be excommunicated! Now, "tolerance" has a brand new meaning these days, requiring total buy-in and acceptance......which is not the meaning of the word, but it's what is expected nowadays. But if that is the new National Religion, count me as an Infidel.

And I guess "lack of testicles" was a bit too strong. I do respect the folks here and their opinions. They just don't talk about their opinions anymore. I miss it.

[DeputyDog]

Bucky, it's called "relativism", which basically means that there is no absolute truth and that every person forms their version of truth from their own personal, ethnic, or cultural experiences.

This seems like a contradiction to me since if there are no absolute truths, this is open to interpretation, or if this is true, then the whole theory is wrong because there is at least one absolute truth.