I hear plenty of talk about the primacy of ‘traditional’ values. The image usually associated with this is something along the lines of a tableau from a Norman Rockwell painting or Leave It to Beaver. The unspoken assumption was that this was what life was like for everyone and that everything about it and that time period was a wonderful idyll that should go on in perpetuity. Two parents who loved and respected both each other and their children, a mom who stayed at home and did housework while wearing a dress and heels, a nice house, roast beef or chicken complete with sides on the table every night, 2 children that were well meaning, loveable scamps. A father who worked, came home, and gave lots of good and concerned advice. Good schools full of kids who never drank, never did drugs, and never had sex before marriage. Great neighborhoods where everyone was just like you and where everyone was friendly and looked out after each other. Love of God (the Christian God) and country was the motto of the day. Children were safe on the streets; there were no abductions, abuse, rape, or bullying. All authority figures were honest and to be trusted and corporations had morals. You started at an entry level job and could plan on retiring there, moving steadily up the ladder by working hard. That was normal life for everyone, not just the chosen few, right?
Fiddle sticks! I said that for the PC crowd. I d love to write something stronger. People have short memories, and very faulty ones at that. That picture postcard that so many long to go back to was as much of a mirage then as it is now. That wasn t even close to how life really was. First of all, that was a life only open to whites and those who could afford it. Moms may have stayed home, but they weren t doing housework in dresses. Look even at the TV shows. How much time did mom spend with the kids? She sent them off with a snack when they got home from school to play outside or wherever, or up to their rooms to do homework. Later, the kids sat on the floor and watched TV while mom hung out in the kitchen, talked on the phone, or did some knitting. Dad sat behind the paper or the TV from the moment he got home at least until the kids went to bed while having a drink or two. Dinner was a TV dinner, cold cuts, something premixed out of a box or can, or something frozen.
Kids did smoke and drink, but parents didn t know about it unless they were dumb enough to get caught. Kids had sex, or pretty darn close to it, but parents didn t know unless someone got knocked up or caught. Then the kids just got married, whether they were suitable for each other or not, or ready to be parents or not. Kids got abducted, abused, and raped just like they do today, but no one talked about it and it did not make it onto the news. There were no ‘Amber alerts’ or Nancy Grace show.
Women of great skill, talent and intelligence were only able to contribute in socially acceptable ways. A woman s place was in the home being a mom, anything else was looked down upon as ‘something to do until you got a husband’ or a job she had to do because her husband wasn t ‘man enough’ to keep her home. Even charity work was only acceptable up to a point, because it was understood what a woman s ‘real job’ was and that charity work should not interfere with wifely duties. And if she did work, she was in a subordinate position and made minimal money, no matter how intelligent or skilled she was. Spouses were abused at least as much as they are today, and it was understood that a husband needed, and had the right, to ‘keep his wife in line.’ Sometimes a woman could ‘deserve what she got.’
Corporations and the government lied and were as crooked as they are today, but people had been taught to blindly trust authority, to be respectful and to not ask questions. ‘Rebels’ were the ones who asked questions and were to be avoided as a ‘bad element.’ There were no ‘investigative reporters’ or consumer groups. No one ‘fought the system’ because if you did, you were labeled as a Communist or worse and your life was effectively over. If you were anything other than the homogenized version of ‘normal,’ your life was effectively over.
Were there some good things about those times? Yes. But they were not the ‘good old days’ that a lot of right wingers and conservatives think they were. And they are GONE, irretrievably gone.
Scandals like Watergate exposed government and guaranteed that no one will blindly trust the government again. Kent State and police brutality guaranteed that people will never blindly trust someone in a uniform again. Mom works to support the new idyll that Madison Avenue has put out there, that we can have all the big house, big car and all the stuff that goes with it. The media has us so convinced that a pedophile and predator lurks around every corner and lives just down the street, so we lock everything up in our house, including our children. We move around so much because the next step is a continually ‘better’ neighborhood and bigger house that we don t get to know our neighbors long enough or well enough to have a relationship with them. If you start with a corporation, you will only be there a couple of years. The minute they can hire someone to do your job for less money or benefits (whether here or overseas), you re out on your butt and the only way you can guarantee yourself promotions is to go out and find one with another company. Saving up for your retirement is YOUR problem. Most families don t even eat dinner at home, not even pre-packaged food, and not around the table. Half of all families experience divorce at least once and the media teaches that if you aren t happy all the time in a relationship or marriage, there s something wrong and you need to move on. Minorities now have equal rights in both the eyes of the law and in practice, so your neighborhood will not be full of people who look and act just like you, nor will your children s school. And their heritage is rightly seen as just as valuable as yours. People live in this country from all over the world and bring their culture and religion with them. Technology brings the world and great knowledge, as well as advertisements and manipulators, into your home.
I could go on, but I hope you have the point. Instead of standing around wringing our hands over the disappearance of a world that never was, trying to preserve something that was a mirage at best, to the detriment of what is, let s take the blinders off. Once we do that, then we can look at the world the way that it is and can go about making it the best that it can be. Stop focusing on labels that separate us from the truth and deceive, on placing value judgments on people and things so that you can dismiss them. Facts are facts; things are the way they are. Until you look at things squarely and make decisions based on reality, you will never change anything. Chase an illusion and you will never get anywhere.
The 2012 Presidential Election is fast approaching
The GOP race is now a field of 4 with only Romney, Gingrich, Paul, & Santorum still standing. Who will be the next candidate to exit the race & who will emerge as the eminent GOP nominee?
Follow us on Twitter & join our 2012 election FaceBook page for updates & new blog articles.
Contact us if you are passionate about politics & want to blog with us.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
When the conservative starts using quotes from the princess diarys…..
I suppose they dont have a real edumacation, just a hollywood TV one. LOLs. Hey I’m surprised The Babble hasnt been brought into this yet!
TC,
Spellink not so gut there is it? That’s the public schools for you.
Catchy title.
Here’s another: Liberal Thinker–my favorite oxymoron.
“Conservative, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” [Ambrose Bierce, "Devil's Dictionary," 1911] http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/liberal
Ben,
And the Declaration and Constitution don’t say capitalist or free market eithr, yet the Founding Fathers are supposed to have intended that too. Looks up the definition of the Greek root demos, then read the words “Government of the people, by the people and for the people.” Sounds like democracy to me…and we are exporting it to the rest of the world like General Motors exports cars…
Split hairs much?
Yet another article I loved.
I think for social issues, in the past, it just wasn’t talked about. I think for social issues today, such as gay marriage, abortion, gays in the military, legalizing marijuana, and sex ed in schools, its not a matter of conserving anything, its a matter of denial.
Au contraire, Laura Bramble. America wasn’t established as a democracy at all. We were established as a Republic. Nowhere in either the Declaration of Independence or the U. S. Constitution is the word democracy found. Republic, however, is prominent.
We already have the same thing we had before. This administration has shown by it’s actions and attitudes it’s no better. Hope and change was just another slogan I have heard for the past 20 years. Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, gore, etc, all said the same thing. And since you won’t get into politics I can only say you haven’t gotten up and DONE anything either. All you do is blog your opinion and intolerance. Since I HAVE WRITTEN AN ARTICLE wondering where the third party candidate is, yes that would be GREAT! WE should through the bums out. Want to really fix the government? Then vote for term limits for senators and house representatives. Then you won’t have greedy career politicians. WOW, simple huh?
And who are we going to put into office? The clowns that we just got out of there? All of that could have been said about the Republican party 2-4 years ago. Are we going to elect a third party candidate? While I think it’s a good idea, that would mean that people would actually stand up and DO SOMETHING instread of just sit and gripe. They would have to come up with platforms and solutions. “Throw the bums out” is not a viable long term strategy for any of this country’s problems.
No, in 4 years, unless we take responsibility for ourselves, our expectations and our obligations to this country we’ll get exactly the same thing that we’ve always had, which is exactly what we deserve… I wouldn’t enter politics and neither would anyone else who truly cares or has any common sense. There are people like you just waiting for them to be less than perfect so you can jump all over them and feel superior, while not willing to stand up and do anything to change anything… But hey, feel free to point the finger and pass the blame. I’m sure I’m personally to blame too.
Yes we are the government, and half of us don’t agree with the other half. WE are paying for others not by our choice. We are being asked to sacrafice while those we elect cheat on their taxes and remain in power. WE are expected to have civil discourse while those we elect call US, evil, ignorant, gun toting, bible thumpers. We are expected to pay for things we don’t need. WE are the government, and in 2010, you will find out what the governement of WE are capable of.
I don’t expect you to get it…this is a democracy, we are the government…
As you point out on several occasions just complaining about something doesn’t make any thing happen. Again, what do you replace it with? If there is a problem logically one would fix it. What is your fix? All you do is bash the public as greedy, self-centered, nair do wells. If you want to talk about societys problems perhaps that would be better left to one of the several other blog sites you post at. This one is about government, and since all you say is to look at ourselves I wonder why you post that here to begin with. It’s not about looking at ourselves as a society it’s about who will win in 2012. It’s about the government and politics. Not social justice.
Was that a question? Didn’t come off like one… And yet, again, you insult me for no reason, when I did not insult you…par for the course, as it has ben from the moment you got on this site.
I’m not intolerant, I’m tired of your deliberately not reading what I write, but attacking me anyway. I’m tired of repeating myself and rephrasing what I write so that you get it straight. What needs to be done is just as I have been suggesting for months. Society needs to take a good hard look at itself, its goals, its expectations and its responsibilities and do something about it. Societal change, not government is the answer. I have said this heaven knows how many times, I’m not going to repeat myself again…. Again, since I have said it before, Washington is not where we need to look for blame or for answers- we need to look at ourselves and our attitude. This article is not discussing Washington, the GOP, or the conservatives in politics. It was to the people of this country that consider themselves conservatives and to ask them “what are you conserving?” Is it real, or wishful thinking? With the changes that have come to our world, even if it is real, is it attainable? What do those things have to do with any of the questions you asked? Answer-NOTHING, unless you didn’t read what I wrote.
Thanks for answering my question with more bile as usual. However, you don’t answer the basic question. WHAT do you replace it with? Since you can’t seem to answer that simple question I can only assume you have no answer. As usual, glad to see you as tolerant as you claim to be. Inclusive of other views I can see you are not.
1. The Constitution does not grant life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
2. It’s got to be either black or white with you, doesn’t it?
3. Where did I call for socialism, a welfare state, government as parent, removal of personal freedoms or redistribution of income? This article had nothing in it about those things, nor did it cry about fairness. I did not attack or vilify anyone, let alone call anyone a “kook”, racist, or a bigot? I made some observations and asked some questions, that’s all. But you always read what it is you want to read, so why should I be surprised?
And this sordid past is to be replaced with what exactly? Socialism? A government as nanny state? The removal of personal freedoms for the “greater good”? The redistribution of income to make life “fair”? No where in the Constitution does it call for “fairness” of income. Life, liberty and the PURSUIT of happiness. That means getting up off your couch and making YOUR life better. Not the Government handing you cash to sit on your brain. Life isn’t fair, never has been never will. “Life is pain princess, anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.” – The Princess Bride. Simply because what YOU think is fair others do or may not. And when they disagree they are attacked, marginalized, dismissed as “kooks”, ignorant, racist, bigots, and vilified. Again, the attack on the American public by the government is evident, and disgusting.