| Note 570.0
GEMVAX::KOTTLER
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>What *is* this "deep problem" afflicting our society? I assume it has
>something to do with our being overly sexually repressive. But what exactly
>is meant by that? Why is it true? Do we teach our children to be repressed?
This is a subject that I have been giving a great deal of thought to
lately. I believe the subject is not so much sexual repression as it
is repression itself, which extends into many different areas of our
culture (including the sexual area).
During the last few administrations, there has been a shift in personal
responsibility from the individual to the government. Individual behavior
has become a government priority (ie. the war on drugs: where the entire
country is subjected to violence in order to protect a group of
self-destructive drug users from the consequences of their own actions).
As the government assumes responsibility for individual behavior and sets
priorities, so do individuals focus on those priorities. Domestic concerns,
children, and education have not ranked high on the agendas of the past few
administrations.
Parents today carry a terrible burden, financially, and emotionally.
In California, a woman with no criminal record of any kind, who has worked
for the same company for 15 years to support her family, was arrested
for "allowing her son to be a member of a gang". The evidence is a photograph
showing gang members making a "hand sign" at his birthday party.
Since government has usurped individual responsibility in so many areas,
many individuals no longer feel responsibility for themselves or for their
families (ie. the welfare mother denied an abortion may not feel responsible
for the resulting child).
As the individual loses control, he loses interest in contributing to the
well being of society. Society looms like an inhuman machine that exists
to devour the individual, to use and discard him, not to give him a pallet
on which to display his skills, intelligence and talents.
The individual may feel that he doesn't have a chance.
College is so expense, the High School diploma is worth nothing today. A
person can work an 80 hour week at minimum wage and still not lift his or
her family above poverty level.... so much for hard work buying success.
And what of our spiritual hunger? The old religions do not teach us how
to live in today's world. Instead they keep trying to keep us locked in the
old ways, ways that no longer work for many of us. Old power structures
trying to perpetuate their continued existence through control of the
individual.
Our values are all centered around money and money can be hard to come
by in some circles. Some of us have so much and others so little. Yet
the measure of a man in our society is how much money he has... not his
character, not his integrity, not his intelligence, not his talent. Do you
wonder that some kids see drug dealing as a quick route to success (as our
society has taught them to measure success)? Our children are a reflection
of ourselves and we are a violent society living on quick, self-serving short
term solutions to complicated and intricate problems.
Futility and stress can lead to the sociopathic mindset that inspires random
violence, apathy, and apathetic acceptance, and the overwhelming desire to
escape an intolerable reality that leads to drug abuse.
Schools have become tools for social conditioning. Sexual behavior is
considered a social problem leading to pregnancy and AIDS. Rather than
focusing on preventing teenage pregnancy and AIDS, we tell teenagers (at
the peak of their sexuality) to Just Say No to sex. Abstinence is considered
to be the only acceptable behavior, rather than one of several choices.
Perhaps it is time that we as a society, and our government, stopped trying
to control the individual. The individual needs to develop a sense of
personal responsibility. That happens by making mistakes, by making choices,
by learning through experience. We can set goals and make recommendations
but the individual does not exist to serve society. Society and government
exist to benefit the individual. We cannot change human nature, we must
adapt to it.
Mary
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| re Note 570.1 by 24733::STANLEY:
> In California, a woman with no criminal record of any kind, who has worked
> for the same company for 15 years to support her family, was arrested
> for "allowing her son to be a member of a gang". The evidence is a photograph
> showing gang members making a "hand sign" at his birthday party.
I'm glad that I'm not the only one who found this new law,
applied in this fashion, appalling.
The fashionable solutions in our society today are to punish
and to ban (contrasted with the '60s, when the fashionable
programs were spending programs).
We are always looking for new actions to punish, or new
people to punish, or greater punishments, in attempt to
reduce or eliminate harmful activities.
I think that deterrence is HIGHLY overrated. I'm not saying
that crime shouldn't be punished, but I suspect that the
potential for punishment, beyond a certain threshold, has a
diminishing effect on current and future criminals.
Punishment and deterrence are no substitute for
self-discipline. Punishment and deterrence alone won't
foster self-discipline, either. Our society has a severe
lack of self-discipline. I'm afraid that our public
officials, with the majority of us acquiescing, will continue
to erode our civil liberties in a vain attempt to reform
society through punishment.
Bob
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