I like listening to the classic country songs. This morning as I heard Conway Twitty crooning his hit I'd love to lay you down, I was reminded. You know, when that song was first released many radio stations refused to air it, it was just a little too suggestive. No matter that it would perhaps gain listeners, that wasn't relevant. What was relevant was decent programming that was fit for decent folks to hear. Oh, songs like that may be alright for honkytonks and bars, but not on the common airwaves. That song was taking things just a step too far. And that is exactly what I was reminded of, taking a step too far. When I was young and that happened I was quickly pulled back from the edge. Nowadays it seems like we encourage folks to just plow ahead, upsetting everything without a care and calling it progress. My thinking is things have gone a few steps too far ! It's time to rein all this nonsense in just a bit. There is a time and place for everything. We should maintain at least a semblance of decorum.
If you watch the reactions of folks these days it is usually in extremes. That is the way we express the sincerity of our thoughts, feelings and actions. We are either preaching, punching or protesting ! Reasonable and calm discussion appears to have been thrown out the window. Everything, and I mean everything is done to the extreme. We are deeply offended by the slightest impropriety. We launch crusades against these real or imagined indiscretions with all the fervor we can muster. In the past we would have just ignored it ! Just like that recording I mentioned. The radio stations just smashed the record and threw it away. They didn't campaign to have the recording company boycotted, the industry destroyed. No, they simply stated they wouldn't play that record. And that was pretty much the end of that. Today the radio station would insist that the record be played no matter who might be offended ! Why it is a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States ! Well, as long as it was making a profit for the radio station that is. Commerce is of primary importance, supplanting good taste and a sense of propriety. If it is profitable that's what matters.
I see all this as a shift in the basic philosophy of American values. As cliché as it sounds we were once a country about Apple pie, Momma and God. We were concerned with doing what was moral and just. The dream was to make a good life for yourself and your family. That dream was within your grasp if you worked for it. It was up to you to do right, make the correct choices and take responsibility for those choices. But now the philosophy has changed. Now we approach justice and morality as a vigilante group ! We just take the law into our own hands and make demands. We call those demands " rights " and have legions of lawyers, scholars, and " progressive " thinkers reinforcing that notion. Whatever the mob wants, the mob gets ! Yes there was a day in America when we had dreams, they have been replaced with demands. Have we taken a step too far ? I think so, but it isn't too late to take a step back either. I believe everything goes in cycles. I'm praying we have reached the peak of this one. Sometimes you just have to say, no.
If you watch the reactions of folks these days it is usually in extremes. That is the way we express the sincerity of our thoughts, feelings and actions. We are either preaching, punching or protesting ! Reasonable and calm discussion appears to have been thrown out the window. Everything, and I mean everything is done to the extreme. We are deeply offended by the slightest impropriety. We launch crusades against these real or imagined indiscretions with all the fervor we can muster. In the past we would have just ignored it ! Just like that recording I mentioned. The radio stations just smashed the record and threw it away. They didn't campaign to have the recording company boycotted, the industry destroyed. No, they simply stated they wouldn't play that record. And that was pretty much the end of that. Today the radio station would insist that the record be played no matter who might be offended ! Why it is a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States ! Well, as long as it was making a profit for the radio station that is. Commerce is of primary importance, supplanting good taste and a sense of propriety. If it is profitable that's what matters.
I see all this as a shift in the basic philosophy of American values. As cliché as it sounds we were once a country about Apple pie, Momma and God. We were concerned with doing what was moral and just. The dream was to make a good life for yourself and your family. That dream was within your grasp if you worked for it. It was up to you to do right, make the correct choices and take responsibility for those choices. But now the philosophy has changed. Now we approach justice and morality as a vigilante group ! We just take the law into our own hands and make demands. We call those demands " rights " and have legions of lawyers, scholars, and " progressive " thinkers reinforcing that notion. Whatever the mob wants, the mob gets ! Yes there was a day in America when we had dreams, they have been replaced with demands. Have we taken a step too far ? I think so, but it isn't too late to take a step back either. I believe everything goes in cycles. I'm praying we have reached the peak of this one. Sometimes you just have to say, no.
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