The Lost Virtues of life.

            With all the tech advances in society in the last hundred years something has been lost. That something are virtues that people use to take pride in exhibiting. Though a few virtues like being able to work hard, and being organized never go out of fashion. But one virtue in this age of seemingly endless plenty is the notion of being frugal. If you are frugal in this day and age chances are you are part of a very small minority. We seem to live in an age of excess driven by the endless promotions of corporations. Corporations are not going to tell us to be frugal, no they want us to spend our hard earned money on their products. Granted this is all part of living in a capitalist world. But a world in which we are free to choose which products to buy. Or rather whether or not how frugal we wish to be. Frugal doesn’t mean we don’t like to spend money. Rather to be frugal can also mean a person prefers to save and invest their money to build it up for a later time.

    Another virtue that would have been taken for granted in another time period would be to be independent. People rely so much on government for some kind of assistance or protection from hateful speech rather than to think for themselves as to how to get by in this world. Then you have younger generations who rely on their parents for support far longer than used to be the norm. Young people seem set the all or nothing attitude. They want a job in a certain field or no job at all, and are content to live off the good will of others until they find that “perfect” job.

    Which leads me to mention another of those forgotten virtues. Responsibility. People seem to have forgotten how to be responsible and accept responsibility for themselves and their families. Responsible people focus on getting the basic needs of their family taken care of. Those basic needs are a roof over their heads. Food on the table. Clothes to wear. People shouldn't ignore their responsibility in getting these basics for their family, and expect big government to provide them. That's a sign of laziness. Or to have money but take government assistance all the same might be thought of as theft. Why get food assistance if you wear fancy clothes and drive a seemingly expensive car? Why pay with food stamps if you are showing off your seemingly abundant wealth? You should be paying with cash not with a government card for those groceries. 

Much could be said about responsibility and the need for people to take care of their own spiritual life. Just like getting the necessities of life so too must a person accept responsibility for their own spiritual well being. It’s not up to some aunt to pray for you and your redemption. A person must make that effort themselves.

Responsibility is such a big word that weighs a lot on people. Sometimes it's almost too much for some.

Thoughts on Individualism....

Some thoughts on the notion of Individualism.

Individualism is what made America great. It was the nature of frontier life where the individual was solely dependent on what they made  with their own hands that allowed them to survive on their own in the wild, amidst a hostile environment from both the native Americans and the elements of the weather. As time progressed society and civilization throughout the country, with the various advances in technologies, the increase in  the trade of America's abundant resources. In the 1800's trains were invented that allowed the increased transportation of large bulk goods such as steel, coal and logs that were the fundamental building blocks of this country. It has been through trade that man has felt the power of individualism, that of providing for himself and that of his family through the advantage of trade. 

    But above all individualism is about responsibility. To be responsible is the ability to care for oneself without outside help in the form of government direction. The government can’t help us when the power goes out. It's’ not going to light a fire for us to keep us warm. Nor is it going to light candles for us to see through the darkness. Thus we as individuals have to make the choices that make us responsible for our well being. We don’t want the government caring for us since it never ends well. When the government takes more and more control over our lives then we are going down that rabbit hole of socialism. 

But on the other hand it's the younger generations who are used to having everything given to them by their parents, and who are more politically active, that they believe that the government should do more, have more control over their lives. So that they don’t have to be so responsible. Or rather who don’t have to accept responsibility for their well being since they can replace parent direction with government protection and direction. Why should people care about student loans when they can get the government to forgive their loans? Again why be responsible when people can get others to care for them? But then you are being a burden to society rather than being a responsible, productive member of society. Thus being responsible and individualistic becomes a virtue, and a desirable trait that active members of society should exhibit.