Lifestyles and virtues struggling against political influences
OPINION — Those born in the middle of the 20th century may have shared the American dream of raising a healthy and secure family. The path to their dream was self-reliance with minimal government influence.
Does it feel like the 21st century progressive governmental philosophy is moving the American Dream into a populace willing to welcome a socialist/welfare state?
Will “justice for all” remain sustainable via capitalism or surrender to socialist/communism? Capitalism enables various economic generators. Socialists’ promises for “free buses and childcare” requires taking the earnings and savings out of the workers’ pockets to redistribute among selected welfare recipients. Hasn’t excessive government’s debt already demonstrated a poor history of managing and redistributing tax dollars?
The most basic postulation within a struggling democracy may include deciding what’s more important, human touch and intimacies; or apparitions on a video screen that deliver instant, albeit temporary, diversions. What are the social/leisure trends ascending with digital technologies: isolationism, gambling, pornography, sexual voyeurisms, electronic bullying, violent acts? Positive business and recreational technology advancements are important, but they are subtle, not shoved in your face like raging cultural behavior that sometimes turns violent.
Children raised with the evolution of computers may have developed a different version for their American dream. Does the American dream mean actively participating in a community of wholesome families or submersion into a digital virtual world of instant self-gratification and personal vanities?
A simplistic view of lifestyles and virtues struggling against political influences might compare: spiritual faith against government instituted totems; traditional nuclear-family values or the debates about multiple genders; belief that freedom is an absolute right not conditioned on government consent; the established returns of entrepreneurial capitalism or gamble on the socialist’s promises that have failed in the past.
Will voting for a party determine your lifestyle options?
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