OUTRAGEOUS, LASCIVIOUS, AND SALACIOUS...
I think we Americans have become a whiny, selfish bunch.
If something goes bad in our life it's not our fault. It's someone else' fault. And we are always the victim of something, never the victimizer. Why is that? I don't remember it being that way when I was a young man in my twenties.
The Medlock theory of American whininess is that it has happened because of three reasons: 1) the expansive media coverage that developed beginning in the eighties and 2) the legal profession and of course 3) our own human propensity to take the easy way out.
To paraphrase Tina Turner, what's media coverage got to do with it? Well, I grew up in the fifties and sixties. Television news then only consisted of the nightly newscast on the three major networks and some local news once a day. It was the was the main source of news other than the daily newspaper. There were no cable channels or very few. Contrast that with the current state of television news at twenty four hours a day and the Internet with on line news, bloggers, etc. If we didn't have enough news sources when I was a kid clearly we now have too much. We are saturated and that makes the media look at everything microscopically in the search of news to fill the space and time. That's how we get coverage of stories that we wouldn't have gotten in the past. And often those stories are about perceived or real injustices and for dramatic effect tend to paint victims and bad guys.
As for my legal buddies their profession continues to try to foster an image of professionalism that is above reproach. It's BS. The fact is a great many of them have become shills for malcontents and/or people who know how to work the legal system to their advantage monetarily. Before you legal types get all excited I'm very much generalizing here.
But it seems to me there's a disproportionate number of lawyers out there who will say or do anything in the name of a win for a client. Want to sue McDonalds for their coffee being too hot? How about suing your pastor for malpractice? You'll have legal types lined up at your door with percentage offers. Once hired they're all over the airways parroting Jackie Chiles' grandiose vocabulary, "what they have done is outrageous, lascivious, and salacious."
I say enough already. Let's go back to being strong and self-reliant people. It was the backbone of this country's founders and it needs and can be again.
And that's my rant for the day.
That wasn't whiny, was it?
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Your Comments
NOT AT ALL!!! More people need to make these statements, until parents start requiring their children to take responsibility - then, when the children grow up, they will continue the teaching. Adults now are not trainable, unfortunately we have lost at least one generation. We have to start with the children, and we are running out of time.
Posted by: katherine at Jul 31, 2008 1:23:15 PM
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