Having survived (more or less) 2013, we stand atop it, staring 2014 in the face. We channel Janus, looking both ahead and behind with challenge in either direction. Television tonight is providing a retrospective of America’s movies, showing us Gene Kelly’s “Singin’ in the Rain” and the ballet from “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” along with much else. That’s all history now; American art died in the 1960s as Aleksander Solzhenitsen remarked in 1978. A signal, he said, of a dying culture. Movies now seem more about computers and special effects than about people.
Looking back, we can hear our parents telling us to: “Go out and play; you’re getting on my nerves! And you’d better be back by dinner time!” A lot of growing up and understanding how to function with other people came from those days. And even more self-reliance. Now it’s all organized and supervised out of fear. Today parents are raising a very different kind of kid.
Most went to church back then, many wives stayed home to raise us while dads worked to pay the bills. Men went to war while women held the home together and the American public schools were among the world’s leaders. Our parents thought education crucial; we found our careers in it, careers by which to support our own families when they came along. High schools offered an ‘academic’ preparation for college or shop training in auto mechanics, woodworking, electricity and metal working for those more interested in craftsmanship careers. A really determined student could work his way through college and many did; no student loans rode their backs upon graduation and as fewer pursued higher education, the dropout rate was much lower while standards in both colleges and high schools were higher.
The mentally ill were in institutions, not running free in the hope they will take their meds and not shoot up the place. Orphans and the homeless were in institutions too. But for those, the government wasn’t supporting anybody unless they were military. And a lot of those various institutions weren’t government operations; they were run by churches and private organizations.
In our semi-rural neighborhood, my parents used to leave the back doo (nobody used front doors but on formal occasions) unlocked when we were away so that anyone whose car broke down nearby could access a telephone. Cars did break down, too. And tires went flat as well. A lot of folks left their car keys in the ignition lock all the time for convenience. Yes, cars were stolen, but not many. And there were no radios or GPS units to steal from them. Many lacked even heaters and none had air-conditioning, unless you counted open windows. Now we’re anticipating driverless cars.
The government didn’t know we existed but at the local birth records files and school records; now the NSA hears our breathing, the Feds pay for a lot of our healthcare (with our money) and we need the TSA’s permission to fly. We aren’t the same sort of people we used to be.
Looking ahead is a guessing game after looking back. It certainly won’t be the same as we found it. Nearly every major nation is overspending its income to satisfy the demands of its citizens though all know that is unsustainable. Civilizations everywhere are giving way to violence and corruption; the litter-bearers of mass poverty, which is the historical norm. Are we reverting to that? some think so.
The seemingly inexorable drive deconstructing the churches, the traditional family and religious morality generally has produced abortion, gay marriage and reverse discrimination, demonizing any holding to prior beliefs. Until now. The recent Duck Dynasty brouhaha appears to be the first event featuring a prominent man refusing the Left position on blacks and homosexuals and receiving popular support for his position. This could be a fluke or it could indicate the public’s tiring of orders from the elite on how to think, we will have to see.
The government’s appeal as a source of security is mildly scandalized by its overspending but seems actually at risk from the failure of the Obamacare rollout. If the relics of the Right, the Tea Party are going to arise into significance, now is their time. Again, we will see.
We will predict fearlessly that the recent patterns will likely go on as they have been, until the next stock market crash. There will be no “Too big to fail” bailouts next time and the bill for the last time is still awaiting payment. It will be expensive for all of us, but we really have no complaints; we’ve hired the representatives who have brought us here and they’ve done it in plain sight of all.
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