The Indecency of a Society Gone Too Far.

America, the land of the free and the home of the brave...right?
Well, yes, America is the land of the free, but are we (Americans) really all that brave anymore? Unfortunately, I do not know how to answer that question. After all, what is bravery? I think everyone could, if they truly wanted to, come up with their own definition of the word. For example, I could (emphasis on could) consider myself brave for standing up as a young, white, middle-class, Christian, moderate in a society which (through the media at least) seems to celebrate a more, for lack of a better word, liberal ideal. I could, in contrast, consider myself a coward for failing, at multiple times in my life, to stand up for what I believe in when it was being mocked and slandered by those around me. What is bravery, and who displays it?
I know by now you are asking yourself, "what does this have to do with the title of the post?!" Well, I'm getting to that, albeit slowly. I spent most of this afternoon sitting on my couch watching TV and inanely flipping through the channels. At one point I stopped on MTV which was showing a re-run of the show "My Super Sweet 16." As I watched the 15 year old son of two musical celebrities whine about the fact that his birthday invitations (which consisted of an mp3 player holding a recorded message inviting the listener to his party) weren't ready when they were supposed to be I realized how incredibly selfish and materialistic our society has become. This kid is 16 years old. He's had everything handed to him. He hasn't had to work a day in his life, and probably never will.

One quote that I have been thinking about a lot lately goes like this, "Tolerance is the virtue of a man without convictions." I've been thinking about it because of something I heard someone say a couple of weeks ago. "I don't really believe in anything," he said, and that seemed, to me, to sum up how our society works. It seems that many people don't WANT to believe in anything because if you believe in one thing then you are alienating someone else and therefore annihilating their freedom to believe in whatever they want to believe in. Therefore, people flounder on the issues and lack the conviction it takes to make a finalized decision, and in so doing become completely tolerant human beings who lack the ability to truly believe in anything. They want (fill in the blank), but only if it doesn't interfere with (fill in the blank) and it has to come from (fill in the blank). They leave the decisions up to others, and then, when they don't like the decision, they get upset about it. (For clarification, I'm not just talking about the President)

I realize that this post has strayed from what generally is published on this blog, but its something I've been thinking about a lot lately and had to get out there. I also realize that this post may be slightly ambiguous and scattered, that was the point. Take from it what you will...maybe it's just the ramblings of someone who spent 13 hours in a car on Friday and should be asleep right now (it is 1:30 AM after all). This could possibly be the most dizzyingly ambiguous thing I've ever written; I promise that tomorrow everything will be back to...normal?