Zeitgeist - "the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era"
M-W Dictionary
I really hate to dig up an old college word, but I though it was apropos to today's environment. Some may remember studying Voltaire back in school. He was one of the most prolific and diverse writers in French history. Not only did he write volumes and volumes of material, most critics believe it was also quite good. He was very good at capturing the Zeitgeist of the French culture during that time. He was often frank and blunt - sometimes so much some considered him to be an iconoclast.
Today, we have a spade of cultural critics attempting to define our Zeitgeist. I dare say I might be one of them. In fact, I do think quite a bit about our social milieu (might as well keep the French thing up). Or if I can put Zeitgeist and milieu into my kind of language - "Where are we, and what are we doing?" When our kids were smaller, sometimes things would get out of control. So much so, it seemed like we were spinning like a top. I would sense the chaos and say, "Stop. What are we doing here?" It was a chance for all of us to get grounded before moving forward again.
I think about that with our society, our country. Where are we, and what are we doing? Really, what are we doing? Our compass, both morally and directionally seems to be lost or broken. The simplest problems seem to vex us to the point of stasis. We continue to be wrapped up in knots with race issues that should have been solved decades ago. Because we can't figure out education, we continue to see our national treasure, our youth, slip away by the tens of thousands. It has been determined by the bourgeoisie the curriculum used to educate the masses needs to be "dumbed down" once again. Why? It is easier that way. Challenging kids to learn is not considered "fair", so the playing field needs to be leveled. In other words, we focus on the denominator rather than the numerator. Result - the world passes us by as we continue to worry about how we feel rather than what we know.
Successful societies have governments which act as a facilitators instead of enablers or obstructionists. If our government would just "plow the road" and then stay out of the way, our country is still capable of doing wonderful things. However, the thousands upon thousands of regulations being promulgated are nothing but milestones adding to the burden of our businesses. We have no energy policy, no viable energy vision for the future, and special interests keep our energy developers tied up in court for years.
So when I look at our environment, our surroundings, our society, I wonder what Voltaire would have thought. I think in the midst of his prolific writing, he would have been perplexed. He would have wondered how a society which has so much to offer, so many gifts, so many resources, can be so at war with itself. We are so much better than what we are right now. We should be so much further down the road than where we are at.
I have looked at our Zeitgeist and I am disappointed. None of us should be satisfied with it. We are better than this and we deserve better - from ourselves, from each other, and from our leaders.
Today, we have a spade of cultural critics attempting to define our Zeitgeist. I dare say I might be one of them. In fact, I do think quite a bit about our social milieu (might as well keep the French thing up). Or if I can put Zeitgeist and milieu into my kind of language - "Where are we, and what are we doing?" When our kids were smaller, sometimes things would get out of control. So much so, it seemed like we were spinning like a top. I would sense the chaos and say, "Stop. What are we doing here?" It was a chance for all of us to get grounded before moving forward again.
I think about that with our society, our country. Where are we, and what are we doing? Really, what are we doing? Our compass, both morally and directionally seems to be lost or broken. The simplest problems seem to vex us to the point of stasis. We continue to be wrapped up in knots with race issues that should have been solved decades ago. Because we can't figure out education, we continue to see our national treasure, our youth, slip away by the tens of thousands. It has been determined by the bourgeoisie the curriculum used to educate the masses needs to be "dumbed down" once again. Why? It is easier that way. Challenging kids to learn is not considered "fair", so the playing field needs to be leveled. In other words, we focus on the denominator rather than the numerator. Result - the world passes us by as we continue to worry about how we feel rather than what we know.
Successful societies have governments which act as a facilitators instead of enablers or obstructionists. If our government would just "plow the road" and then stay out of the way, our country is still capable of doing wonderful things. However, the thousands upon thousands of regulations being promulgated are nothing but milestones adding to the burden of our businesses. We have no energy policy, no viable energy vision for the future, and special interests keep our energy developers tied up in court for years.
So when I look at our environment, our surroundings, our society, I wonder what Voltaire would have thought. I think in the midst of his prolific writing, he would have been perplexed. He would have wondered how a society which has so much to offer, so many gifts, so many resources, can be so at war with itself. We are so much better than what we are right now. We should be so much further down the road than where we are at.
I have looked at our Zeitgeist and I am disappointed. None of us should be satisfied with it. We are better than this and we deserve better - from ourselves, from each other, and from our leaders.
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