TECHNOLOGY IS TO BLAME?

I’m reading with interest stories about new 3-D television sets coming on to the market, a super-fast Internet that is on the horizon, and that we can now watch movies on our cell phones when we’re not using them as computers. Where you used to have to go to the right library to research something, (maybe involving hours of calls on the phone to find the right library), today, you can usually get all of the information you need on any subject within a few minutes on the Internet. You can take old photo slides or negatives, scan them into your computer and manipulate them into anything you want to.

Basically, all of this technology has come along within the last 40 years. In the same 40 years, it seems to me that we have come dangerously close to losing our country. We have certainly lost our ethics and values. The code of the day is that whatever goes, goes. If Tim doesn’t pay his taxes, but he gets appointed to be Secretary of the Treasury, then I’m not paying my taxes because it’s okay not to pay your taxes; you may even be rewarded for it. If Bill lies under oath and gets away with it, then why can’t I lie under oath? If Charlie lies about corporate donations outside of the law, why do I have to tell a used car buyer that the brakes don’t work? 

As a matter of fact, it seems to me that some crimes have become a “rite of passage.” You’re not a politician until you tell a lie, screw an intern, take a payoff, and vote for legislation that the people don’t want. Until you have done those things, all of them, you’re not a full-fledged member of the political fraternity; you’re just a “wannabe.”

I often wish that we could turn the clock back to the good old days of the 7-inch black and white television set, when we were taught real history in high school, when America was a symbol of everything good in the world, when you were ashamed to file bankruptcy, when you were disowned if you committed a crime, and when you made absolutely certain that your word was as good as your bond.

Is there a correlation? Is it true the more technology you have, the worse your world becomes? Maybe the Muslims and the Amish are on to something, but I’m inclined to think that we really lost our way in this country when we lost our religion and when we allowed those who disagreed with our religion to take it away from us. If you’re not willing to stand up for what is right, what are you willing to stand up for?

We’ve got some serious issues facing the country right now, and we need to decide where we stand and what we are willing to stand for. It’s time to change the channel.