Christ_empowered
Member
I think modern society is full of them. What's odd, I guess, is how we're supposedly a "tolerant" society, gay affirming, all that...
...and yet, self-righteous hypocrisy abounds. Poor people? Get a job! Felons? Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Lock 'em up and throw away the key! Former junkies? Shouldn't have done so many drugs, loser.
See what I'm saying? And what's strange is that as we go from being guided by Christian norms (not that we were *Christian* as a society, just that Christian concepts guided things more than now) to...I dunno what you call this...secular humanism, lots of psychobabble in place of Judeo-Christian concepts, we're growing more intolerant by the day.
The US locks up more people per capita than any other developed country, except I think maybe Russia. We even beat out some poorer nations. Part of the problem is/was "tough on crime" sentencing initiatives that keep people in prison (especially at the Federal Level) for long, long times, costing tons of money and making it hard to rehabilitate and reintegrate ex-offenders.
We have lots of mental hospitals. Mentally ill people don't generally go to state mental hospitals anymore--group homes, jail, prison, the streets--but lots of people end up committed, one way or another. I know, its "therapeutic." Right. Mental health stigma follows you forever, everywhere you go. Dr.Thomas Szasz calls being a mental patient "psychiatric slavery," and I tend to agree (in most cases). Also: the concept of "cruel compassion." "Oh, its just that your brain and/or personality is defective. Poor thing. More Seroquel?"
See what I'm saying? Its like, we're less free now in important ways than we were a generation or two ago. Millions of people in the criminal justice system, millions of people in the mental health system, no time for leisure or family because of work, lots of people can't even retire...
...but we have new freedoms. Easy divorce. Abortion. Gay "marriage". Promiscuity.
And the self-righteous hypocrites abound, fueled by a distinctly American, hyperindividualistic worldview. We have no sense of the common good anymore. Its all me and mine.
Ramble ramble. Comment if you want to, lol.
...and yet, self-righteous hypocrisy abounds. Poor people? Get a job! Felons? Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. Lock 'em up and throw away the key! Former junkies? Shouldn't have done so many drugs, loser.
See what I'm saying? And what's strange is that as we go from being guided by Christian norms (not that we were *Christian* as a society, just that Christian concepts guided things more than now) to...I dunno what you call this...secular humanism, lots of psychobabble in place of Judeo-Christian concepts, we're growing more intolerant by the day.
The US locks up more people per capita than any other developed country, except I think maybe Russia. We even beat out some poorer nations. Part of the problem is/was "tough on crime" sentencing initiatives that keep people in prison (especially at the Federal Level) for long, long times, costing tons of money and making it hard to rehabilitate and reintegrate ex-offenders.
We have lots of mental hospitals. Mentally ill people don't generally go to state mental hospitals anymore--group homes, jail, prison, the streets--but lots of people end up committed, one way or another. I know, its "therapeutic." Right. Mental health stigma follows you forever, everywhere you go. Dr.Thomas Szasz calls being a mental patient "psychiatric slavery," and I tend to agree (in most cases). Also: the concept of "cruel compassion." "Oh, its just that your brain and/or personality is defective. Poor thing. More Seroquel?"
See what I'm saying? Its like, we're less free now in important ways than we were a generation or two ago. Millions of people in the criminal justice system, millions of people in the mental health system, no time for leisure or family because of work, lots of people can't even retire...
...but we have new freedoms. Easy divorce. Abortion. Gay "marriage". Promiscuity.
And the self-righteous hypocrites abound, fueled by a distinctly American, hyperindividualistic worldview. We have no sense of the common good anymore. Its all me and mine.
Ramble ramble. Comment if you want to, lol.