I’ll admit I’m in a mood. I watched a video yesterday that really stuck with me. I put it up on The Reader under “That’s not Funny.” You can check it out but it shows high school kids who know absolutely nothing about their state, their country, or their history. Nothing. It’s painful to watch. And what makes it all worse is that the whole time, they’re all laughing and giggling about their own ignorance.
I wasn’t laughing. Here we are. The most advanced and prosperous civilization the world has ever seen and it’s like we’re all just assuming it’s always been like this and always will be. We’ve forgotten that this wonderful lifestyle we lead isn’t a given. Freedom isn’t a given. We’ve gotten to this wonderful place and we’ve torn up the map how to get here. Many of the people who educate our children don’t believe in the Constitution. They don’t believe that the values that built this society are anything special. And we’ve left them in charge of our children. So how can we be shocked when our children know nothing of the uniqueness of our country when their teachers don’t believe there’s anything unique about it.
And most children aren’t being taught about it at home. In many families, both Mom and Dad work long hours and have little time for the kids. In others, the father has just completely taken off if he was ever there at all. Fatherlessness is epidemic in our society. I saw recently that over 50% of births to women under 30 were out of wedlock. Over 50%! Yet we all know that kids do better in married households statistically. We know that families are the building block of this most advanced and prosperous society to ever exist. So what do we do? We monkey with marriage. We hollow it out. And then we allow it’s meaning to be expanded into meaninglessness. The moment ’til death do us part’ became a punchline, everything went to Hell. It just took a little time. But it’s still suicide when it’s in slow motion.
We have this awful weirdness right now in that we absolutely distrust our government yet every time we vote, we vote our government more power. You can’t see a movie that mentions the CIA in a positive light. Look at the Bourne movies. Look at the most recent movie “Safe House.” Television shows too like “Person of Interest.” They all start with the assumption that the U.S. government is corrupt. It’s the given in our culture nowadays. Look at any polling. We distrust the government. But we vote to give them more power over us. That kind of disconnect I just don’t get.
This country was built upon the Christian concept of the sacredness of the individual life. Yet we discard Christianity and ban it from our schools. Government effectively hounds religion out of the rest of the country. But the moment that Christianity goes, so does the sacredness of individual life. But the enemies of Christianity don’t have anything to replace it with. People somehow believe that nothing or nobody will fill that vacuum with a new morality where the individual can be seen as a threat?
I remember when my wife and I were looking to buy a house many years ago. We thought we found a nice one on a beautiful little street. We were so excited that we were already imagining our children playing in the back yard. We brought my wife’s uncle over to see it because he knows about such things. He has a good eye for spotting problems. He walked through it and he spoke all nice to the realtor but when he got outside to us he told us to run away from that house. He told us it’s dry rotting from the inside. He said it still looked solid but there were cracks in the foundation, termite damage hollowing out the walls, and the basement floor was buckled. He said it still looked pretty if you weren’t looking real careful but it had been neglected by the owners for a long time. I hadn’t seen any of that because I wanted that house. I wanted to believe everything was all right. I wanted to have the life I imagined. But it wouldn’t be possible there. It was too damaged. We had to go elsewhere.
I don’t have a great eye for seeing the damage like some others do. But I’m getting the sense that this country has been damaged the past few decades. The foundation is cracked and the building blocks are dry rotted. I don’t know if there’s any fixing it. I hope so. Because I’m not sure there’s any place to go.
February 20, 2012 at 4:26 am
Welcome to the club, Matthew.
Karl
February 20, 2012 at 4:29 am
I feel many of the same things you're feeling, Pat. I've brought it up to my husband, where could we go if it gets intolerable for Catholics in the US, because I can see it coming. And I can't right now decide if it does hit the fan, should we stay and fight or go somewhere more hospitable to us.
Got me to wondering if we could apply to the Holy See as refugees. Probably not, since there would be nowhere for us to live.
February 20, 2012 at 4:29 am
oops, sorry, Matt!
February 20, 2012 at 4:30 am
This comment has been removed by the author.
February 20, 2012 at 1:20 pm
Very same conversations were being had here over doughnut Sunday. What a weird time. We may be on the cusp of a revival (COME ON, BISHOPS! GET SOME BACKBONE!) or we are at the beginning of the end. I've had a good life – I don't care. I worry about my children.
Perhaps if Catholics could make this a mighty Lent of great fasting, we could stave off the worst?
February 20, 2012 at 2:24 pm
Maybe this is why 2012 is when the world ends. The world might end as we know it by election time. Maybe they were right.
Of course, I'm being facetious, but it's very scary. For this very reason, I think I might have to stockpile supplies. I'm not a doomsday kind of person, but this is really scary. I can no longer ignore the writing on the wall.
February 20, 2012 at 3:18 pm
I couldn't agree more. I've heard it said that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. And right now in America, folks just don't care. Sad sad sad. But I continue to hope in the Lord.
February 20, 2012 at 3:26 pm
I couldn't agree more. I've heard it said that the opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. And right now in America, folks just don't care. Sad sad sad. But I continue to hope in the Lord.
February 20, 2012 at 4:16 pm
Based on this video, I plan to sell all my guns and food and, instead, stockpiles Twinkies.
That's right. Of course, they won't be making Twinkies anymore, and after watching this, I am confident that I should have an easy time exchanging them for gold bricks.
February 20, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Hypothetical question. Purely hypothetical. If it became necessary to re-settle in another country, what would you choose, and why?
February 20, 2012 at 5:18 pm
C.S. Lewis predicted all this in "The Abolition of Man" in 1943 . . .
February 20, 2012 at 5:35 pm
Kiribati or Christmas Island.
Reason: check out a map. (And good fishing)
February 20, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Yesterday after Mass I was talking with choir director who told me her husband wants to move the family back to England, his birthplace. He loves America but is so disgusted with what is going on. I said, By all means, GO. You do not want to live in future America. Others have told me the same thing: they are moving back to Poland, or Romania or another European country. Prayer and fasting are our only hope. Trying to awaken a sleeping populace that believes it is entitled to everything, is hopeless.
February 20, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Does anybody think that the teachers failed to provide interesting and informative classes? They seemed like pretty good kids in spite of the fact that they were uninformed. Sadly, some of their boobs were bigger than their brains.
February 20, 2012 at 6:19 pm
I am in a family where my wife and her birth family are VERY pro-government and the Catholic church is evil…yadda, yadda, yadda… I feel like somedays I am the only person in the world who can see the writing on the wall and that I need to be admitted to an institution. I am willing to stay and "fight" for my children I just need guidance and encouragement, I think. God help me and ALL of my family!
February 20, 2012 at 7:02 pm
What do you expect with such witty bumper stickers as "I love country but don't trust my government", "when they pry my cold dead fingers from my gun", and Tea partiers talking about secession.
But more on point, People want ID taught as science in school, a mind is a tough thing to clean when it is filled with such crap.
February 20, 2012 at 7:35 pm
@ Anon: 2:02
BWAAAA HA HA!! Thank you! After all the doom and gloom, finally SOMEONE brings the comic relief.
BTW: Were you in that video?
February 20, 2012 at 9:08 pm
Hey, I like Person of Interest. I can never watch it without asking, "What would Jesus do?"
I've invested in raised gardens and canned food. If doomsday doesn't come at least I can still eat well.
February 20, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Related: IDIOCRACY (movie)
February 21, 2012 at 12:10 am
If you want to go further into the morass of doom and gloom, read "After America" by Mark Steyn. Then grab your Rosary and hang on. It's gonna be a wild ride and the molly-coddled folks in this country are in no condition for it. As for which country to move to, I have an anchor-daughter in the Republic of Texas.