More Signs

Twelve years ago I concluded and began to write our nation was in a long-term slide. Initially, I focused on the economic slide that I believe began in 2001. I then got a clue and realized the decline was much broader --- spiritual decline (no longer fear God and living by his instruction), social decline (no longer able to unite for the common good) and moral decline (collectively losing our sense of right and wrong).

For those thinking I’m a perpetual pessimist, John and Jane Q. Public feel the same but they are just not writing about it on their Facebook page. The right direction/ wrong direction polls have been negative or below 50% at least a decade now. Today, only 24% of those surveyed feel the country is moving in the right direction.

What is more bothersome is less and less believe in organized religion — 29% now say they have no religious affiliation, an increase of 6 points since 2016. Casting aside God often also means casting aside His moral code, and that is most bothersome to me. Collectively, and you see it in the news, our society is losing its sense of right and wrong and which choices are best for us in the long-run.

To me the root of that, and I first wrote about this in 2007 in a piece entitled, “Entertainment Industry’s Harmful Ingredients” is too many children are unsupervised today. Instead of getting their moral lessons from parents, church or school, they are learning them from TV, movies and the internet. These are harmful lessons and will hurt them in the long run, and society as a whole as they grow into adults.

We don’t have to look hard for such evidence — child serial killers, high teen suicide rate and so many kids on anti-depression medication.

This part may be a bit controversial, because serial killer Ted Bundy was a bad man through and through, but the day before his execution Bundy described how what he watched fueled those evil impulses in him (click here).

What we watch and are feeding people, especially children, teens and young adults is harming them. I often say we are growing into decline. That is, we are losing the Depression/ World War II generation and replacing them with children polluted with today’s morals, values and principles. In time those children will become adults and in mass will become our society. Further decline.

Our nation is in decline, the dots are there and it is not hard to connect them. Our leaders realize this, but instead of doing something about it — identifying the problem and dealing with the root cause, they are doing all they can to keep the people happy for the moment — a roof over their head, stock portfolio up, a car in their driveway and an IPhone in their hand.

The long run problem folks, is the system that produces and often times gives people these creature comforts — the economy — is burdened structurally from 50 years of mismanagement. Our leaders know this. The US/ world economy nearly collapsed twice, once in September 2008 and then again in March 2020. Without the government intervention at that time, we were looking at a financial and economic collapse and a prolonged depression.

An economic depression (empty pockets), absent morals and values, a weak social fabric and less spiritual guidance equals social unrest, political upheaval and quite possibility chaos in parts of the country/ world. So our leaders are doing all they can to keep the economic ball rolling, that is, borrowing, spending and printing at record amounts. Despite the cracks — inflation for now, so far whitewashing the problem has worked, but it will not work forever.