As you can see from this page, I seldom write blogs. I have been told that in order to garner a following one should blog at least several times a week. I must confess I’m not looking for a following as much as I’m looking for a platform where I can write about deeply held beliefs and concerns.
Much editorial writing today seems to deal with trivia generated by the latest scandal or outrage. It sells newspapers and magazines, provides breathless reporting by endless talking heads, and floods social media with unending nonsense. Most of it is “so what?”
The late Charles Krauthammer was, in my opinion, a man of substance who wrote about things that really mattered. He could look past the hype and the sound bites and see the fundamental issues facing our country.
What are those issues? Attempts to define them usually end in frustration because they are many. But if one gets down to bedrock, a root cause is best described as “lawlessness.” The Constitution and the Bill of Rights provided a basis for the laws of governance along with guidelines for corporate and individual conduct. They were designed to ensure maximum freedom within the constraints of the greatest good for the greatest number.
In 21st Century America the greater good has been exchanged for the maximum benefit for the individual or the individual’s narrowly defined group. The result is laws, moral restraints and social norms are abandoned. Everyone becomes the exception to the rule. The bonds of society dissolve and the path to anarchy and ultimately tyranny is set. Chris Hedges said it well:
“We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.”
Chris Hedges is an American journalist, Presbyterian minister, and visiting Princeton University lecturer.
Welcome to the future. The future is now.