"Shades of grey wherever I go
The more I find out the less that I know
Black and white is how it should be
But shades of grey are the colors I see"
Shades of Grey
Billy Joel
First off - relax. This is not going to be about something sexy or salacious like that racy novel which recently came out. No, this is going to be about moral relativism and how it is affecting our lives, our country. What was once clear cut, now is "maybe" or "we will see". Absolute "yes or no" are now drifting into our historical lexicon. This brave new world we created in the sixties is now coming home to roost, like an unwelcomed house guest.
What is it about absolutes that we don't like? We see it in our schools, we see it in our politics. We don't like kids to keep score in games because the losing team might feel sad. Test scores in college have become hyper-inflated because we want to make sure every one feels good about what they have learned (or not learned). We pass kids forward in school (social promotion) even though they failed to learn the grade they were in. We have come to detest the expressed or implied authority defined in any governing document, including our Constitution and/or Bible.
If we could time warp someone who was living in our country in 1950 to present day, I dare say that person would be shocked. The change in culture would be mind numbing. What was the norm back then is for the most part, the abnormal now. Why don't we see it? Simple - we have been frogs boiling in the water. The changes have come slowly and constantly. Small, incremental changes. However, today some are becoming embolden enough to take a bigger bite. For example, on New Years Eve an editorial in the New York Times (one of the nation's largest newspapers) said it was time to scrap the Constitution. This comes on the heals of a Supreme Court Justices going overseas, and telling a developing country they should look for a governing document to emulate other than our Constitution. This was a good example of many on the left who HATE our Constitution for what it stands for - rules and order, black and white.
As we press forward into the new year, our national math is also suffering from shades of grey. At one time, a budget, be it a family budget or a national budget, was absolute. Not any more. Smoke em' if you got em'. If it feels good, spend it. Not our problem, let the next generation fix it. As boiling frogs, we have gone from having a national budget which is sacrosanct, to one which is often breached, to not having one at all. Want to spend some money on algae reproducing? Print more money or borrow from China. We can spend on anything, no matter how mundane or ridiculous. Unlike our parents, who taught us the value of money and how to properly manage it, we are showing our kids that life is like a party which never ends. No day of reckoning. Borrow, spend, print, borrow, spend, print.
In the upcoming months we will all hear much about our national priorities as well as our founding documents. We will endeavor once again to re-write and re-define the Second Amendment to our Constitution. Rather than researching the historical nature on WHY we have that in our founding document, we will re-define it as a hunting amendment. There are some who even want the Second Amendment removed entirely - not needed anymore. The Supreme Court will continue to lean further left and the power reserved in that branch of our government will continue to grow. As frogs in boiling water, we have seen powers which should be reserved for the Legislative branch slowly leach over to the Judicial.
Our vision needs to be sharp. The numerous shades of grey can dull our senses. When things were black and white, the differences between the two were easy to discern. However, in our brave new world of incrementalism, only the shapest of vision can detect the ever changing, and growing, shades of grey.
What is it about absolutes that we don't like? We see it in our schools, we see it in our politics. We don't like kids to keep score in games because the losing team might feel sad. Test scores in college have become hyper-inflated because we want to make sure every one feels good about what they have learned (or not learned). We pass kids forward in school (social promotion) even though they failed to learn the grade they were in. We have come to detest the expressed or implied authority defined in any governing document, including our Constitution and/or Bible.
If we could time warp someone who was living in our country in 1950 to present day, I dare say that person would be shocked. The change in culture would be mind numbing. What was the norm back then is for the most part, the abnormal now. Why don't we see it? Simple - we have been frogs boiling in the water. The changes have come slowly and constantly. Small, incremental changes. However, today some are becoming embolden enough to take a bigger bite. For example, on New Years Eve an editorial in the New York Times (one of the nation's largest newspapers) said it was time to scrap the Constitution. This comes on the heals of a Supreme Court Justices going overseas, and telling a developing country they should look for a governing document to emulate other than our Constitution. This was a good example of many on the left who HATE our Constitution for what it stands for - rules and order, black and white.
As we press forward into the new year, our national math is also suffering from shades of grey. At one time, a budget, be it a family budget or a national budget, was absolute. Not any more. Smoke em' if you got em'. If it feels good, spend it. Not our problem, let the next generation fix it. As boiling frogs, we have gone from having a national budget which is sacrosanct, to one which is often breached, to not having one at all. Want to spend some money on algae reproducing? Print more money or borrow from China. We can spend on anything, no matter how mundane or ridiculous. Unlike our parents, who taught us the value of money and how to properly manage it, we are showing our kids that life is like a party which never ends. No day of reckoning. Borrow, spend, print, borrow, spend, print.
In the upcoming months we will all hear much about our national priorities as well as our founding documents. We will endeavor once again to re-write and re-define the Second Amendment to our Constitution. Rather than researching the historical nature on WHY we have that in our founding document, we will re-define it as a hunting amendment. There are some who even want the Second Amendment removed entirely - not needed anymore. The Supreme Court will continue to lean further left and the power reserved in that branch of our government will continue to grow. As frogs in boiling water, we have seen powers which should be reserved for the Legislative branch slowly leach over to the Judicial.
Our vision needs to be sharp. The numerous shades of grey can dull our senses. When things were black and white, the differences between the two were easy to discern. However, in our brave new world of incrementalism, only the shapest of vision can detect the ever changing, and growing, shades of grey.
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