A casual scan of history reveals that mankind has always had bad actors. It is impossible to name an era when people with malicious intent weren't causing chaos and sorrow. Tyrants and dictators causing wars, famines, gulags, and holocausts have been the rule rather than the exception. I remember studying in college that the post-moderni…
A casual scan of history reveals that mankind has always had bad actors. It is impossible to name an era when people with malicious intent weren't causing chaos and sorrow. Tyrants and dictators causing wars, famines, gulags, and holocausts have been the rule rather than the exception. I remember studying in college that the post-modernists believe in the infinite perfectability of humankind. Christians believe that we are born into sin and in need of salvation. The evidence is in, and has been for eons. Christianity is right.
One of the accomplishments of the American system was the recognition that there are BAD people out there and that history showed that when one man rules ultimately bad things happen. Because the founders understood history, they constructed a system that did not rely on any individual. It required compromise at all levels. If there were bad actors they would tend to be revealed by their peers and the free press. There were always bad actors but they tended to falter at some point and often remained hidden. Now, the bad actors are in our faces 24 hours a day. This constant visibility is proving that we all have feet of clay. This pulling back of the curtain has revealed our collective and individual fallibility. The result? Where once we could trust our institutions, today we see that most of our leaders are just in it for themselves and have not only lost our trust but have actually shown that they didn't deserve it in the first place.
When everybody seems to be out to get theirs, no matter how it's done, who will be willing to defend us, protect us from ourselves, and make the many sacrifices necessary for the continuance of modern societies? I think this is one of the most important questions of the day. It's answer is built on a foundation of trust. How we rebuild that is a monumental challenge.
A casual scan of history reveals that mankind has always had bad actors. It is impossible to name an era when people with malicious intent weren't causing chaos and sorrow. Tyrants and dictators causing wars, famines, gulags, and holocausts have been the rule rather than the exception. I remember studying in college that the post-modernists believe in the infinite perfectability of humankind. Christians believe that we are born into sin and in need of salvation. The evidence is in, and has been for eons. Christianity is right.
One of the accomplishments of the American system was the recognition that there are BAD people out there and that history showed that when one man rules ultimately bad things happen. Because the founders understood history, they constructed a system that did not rely on any individual. It required compromise at all levels. If there were bad actors they would tend to be revealed by their peers and the free press. There were always bad actors but they tended to falter at some point and often remained hidden. Now, the bad actors are in our faces 24 hours a day. This constant visibility is proving that we all have feet of clay. This pulling back of the curtain has revealed our collective and individual fallibility. The result? Where once we could trust our institutions, today we see that most of our leaders are just in it for themselves and have not only lost our trust but have actually shown that they didn't deserve it in the first place.
When everybody seems to be out to get theirs, no matter how it's done, who will be willing to defend us, protect us from ourselves, and make the many sacrifices necessary for the continuance of modern societies? I think this is one of the most important questions of the day. It's answer is built on a foundation of trust. How we rebuild that is a monumental challenge.
For what it's worth...g.