Yesterday I read one of the most depressing posts I can recall reading recently from photographer Chris Arnade at UnHerd. In a “road trip around the United States” interviewing people Mr. Arnade found many people expressing despair with far fewer bright spots along the way. He cut his trip short, giving up in dismay:
A decade ago, I had hope that things were so bad that we couldn’t possibly keep ignoring the malaise, the emptiness, the ugliness and we would move to right the ship. Instead, we buried our heads deeper into the sand, allowing life in the US to grow even more banal and isolating. We still haven’t grasped that the problem isn’t economic, it’s spiritual. And the answer isn’t to build another basic housing complex, another road, another shopping mall, but to build more cohesive and meaningful communities. Which isn’t easy, but unless that’s done, little will change towards the good, not in another year or another decade.
I honestly can’t recommend that you read it but I think he’s pointing out things that are real. While I agree that Americans eat junk I don’t attribute the sense of despair to eating lousy food.
To the contrary I think that both the lousy food and sense of despair have a common cause. We’ve spent the last fifty years or so tearing down institutions that have grown up over thousands of years, replacing them with nothing. Marriage, the family, faith, social organizations. The grounds on which these institutions have been criticized has largely been that they aren’t perfect, pointing out these imperfections as proof of inherit viciousness.
People have turned to self-gratification but hedonism has never been the foundation for a happy, fulfilling life. That’s why they’re eating mostly fat and sugar. It’s why we have substance abuse problems, an increased suicide rate, and why life expectancy has plateaued or actually decreased.
I had a long screed, but it got away from me (more than usual). It was about philosophy, but it is a subject nobody cares about, anyway.
Anyway, I had a therapist who said that a cause of depression is a misalignment between our actions and values. For me, I know this is true, but for those with no values or flexible values, I wonder if it is the same.
How many Evangelicals actually live the example set by Christ? How many consider the Evangel’s example to be an actual goal?
Most atheists believe in a table of values based upon that same God that they claim does not exist. NEWSFLASH: Natural rights means the strongest or most cunning.
So, there is one group that is not strong enough to act according to their values, and their is another group that is not strong enough to create a table of values.
I do not know if I understand this world too much or too little. Loyalty, honor, duty, honesty, and trust are not just words to me. They mean something, and I try to ensure that my actions are aligned with them. Apparently, I am a freak.
I better stop before this gets away, too.
I’m still hopeful because I have heathy and intelligent grandchildren. Not sure if I will see them mature but I can hope.
I’m sure going to explain while I can why Kamunista cannot be their dancing savior.
If she’s elected, we will grow up and go on, with lowered expectations but still a lot of hope for our country past this Maduro moment.
Marriage, family etc have been replaced by government. Charity is a prime example. This was by design
Certain institutions have just naturally become corrupt over time. FBI. Media. CIA (if it ever was not corrupt). Our education system. All politics and power
Who needs marriage or families? We have government income maintenance programs? And so on.
We shot our dicks off
I don’t know that these trends are why people have poor dietary habits. It seems to me that more just plain and simple sloth in all aspects of life are to blame. Plus, turn on the TV. Just take a pill….
Meh. This exaggerates how good things were in the past. Things were great if you were a white male. Not so much if you weren’t. Now everyone gets to compete for the most part and it has been unsettling. Maybe most of all has been the rate of change in our economics/business. You used to work at the same place or maybe 2 or 3 places for your entire career. Now people move frequently so they dont establish roots and there is less of a community. On top of all that the businesses/professions that formed the backbone for so many communities have moved. (In coal country they just assume the brightest of their kids are going to move.)
The influence of the church has always come and gone. This could just be another cycle. OTOH, while the church has always had corruption issues they have been less successful at hiding tham than in the past. The deep involvement in politics has also been a negative though this also seems cyclical.
Charity worked fine in the past in an agricultural community. Medical care largely consisted of bed rest and hoping you got better. Sick kids just died. Families stayed close to each other and everyone in the community knew each other so charity consisted of taking care of people you knew. We now have a more mobile society. We live longer. Medical care is much more extensive. We know that charity failed during extreme periods in the past and even when times were not extreme it was only sporadically successful.
Steve
Reading the article, I was reminded of this quote
“[Gatsby’s] dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night” from the Great Gatsby.
One hundred years ago, before “American dream” became part of the vernacular, it was already observed that Americans were turning to self-fulfillment and the corresponding corruption to idealized values.
So it isn’t new, but Gatsby was close to the beginning of those societal trends and what we are seeing now is the results of that.