21st Century Values

Before my arrival in the USA, I resided in Rome, Italy for a few months. I befriended in Rome an old gentleman who had a family restaurant. We used to sit in his restaurant and debate political and social issues.

His opinion about America I could sum up in his own words:

"Americani, grande bambini".

I don't think I need to translate that. It speaks loudly what America is all about from a European view.

The more I see, I am more convinced how true it is. The lack of social and political maturity of the American people is mind boggling. More distressing is the deterioration of moral values. And I am not talking about gay marriage, or indecency on the air waves.

I am talking about lies and deceit which have become the norm of surviving in this society.

You see lies as an acceptable way of dealing with social issues and common interaction in society, in sit-coms, TV Commercials, in reality shows, in the news coverage, political debates, government policies. If you turn on your TV and flip through channels they all scream at you: "It is OK to lie".

In my view, this syndrome is more dangerous than gay marriage, or occasional nudity shown on our television screens, or the lack of attending the sunday mass.

Everything is the result of a horse race mentality, competition pushed to the limits, beyond rationality. Winning is more important than principle, moral value, justice in society and in the name of winning anything goes:
If you look at reality shows, they are peppered with lies, deceit, conniving, elbowing, stopping short of murder. In TV commercials, lying is a cute way out of an impossible situation. In news coverage, giving forum to liars is a common practice. In political debates it's called either flip-flopping, or blatant denial of truth. Government reasons of invading another country are embarrassing, proven to contrary outright lies. Manipulation of wording and facts is confusing a whole nation.

It is all about winning!! Mothers of prospective child beauty pageant contestants are conspiring to murder the competition, fathers of child sports events fist-fight over winning, disgruntled employees spill blood of their colleagues with high powered killing weapons to revenge misdeeds done by their employers.

Fairness and value is a thing of the past. In political debates, they used to call each other as "my distinguished opponent". Conceding defeat used to be gentlemanly, for the good of the country

Now it is about the "horse race". No matter how ugly or how handicapped my horse is, anything goes to WIN.

Football mentality has penetrated our everyday life. We want our team to win, and if the referee penalizes our team for a flagrant fault committed by one of our team players, 80,000 boo's will fill the stadium disapproving that decision despite the facts replayed over and over on the Big Screen on the stadium. Does that mean that 80,000 people lost their sense of justice, fairness or value? I don't think so. They're just blinded by the desire to win. Our team has to win, no matter what.
This syndrome has penetrated even the presidential election. People have turned a deaf ear to the truth, and voted for the TEAM. You could draw that conclusion from the pundits, arguing against the truth with the most undisturbed facial expressions.

It is scary. It signals anarchy, and breakdown of reason for social coexistence.

That is very sad for the future of this country. The political and social immaturity of the members of this society is alarming to me. People act in a manner that reminds me of my days in kindergarten. Immature, spoiled, self-righteous, beyond reason spoiled brats.

Are we too spoiled? Have we lost our dignity ? Are we teaching our children, that winning is more important than principle ?

Are we denying "Liberty and justice for all" ?

If we do, we're DOOMED my friends.