Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Romney and the Culture of Envy

Have we ever seen a more callous campaign? Of course we have. Have we ever seen a campaign that imploded at this level? Probably. But the reality is that the future of the country again stands in the balance and one candidate has made one misstep after another. And no, that candidate is not Obama. A day after internal strife led to accusations from his own party that Romney's team was too short on specifics and real proposals to address our current malaise, the GOP Presidential candidate told us what he's really about: Yahoo. And that is about supporting the interests of the monied elite at the cost of at least 50 percent of the rest of us.

A trope that I've noticed popping up in the U.S. and England in the last year is of the "culture of envy." The majority of the public are victims who only seek to use the government to support their lazy, unmotivated and unproductive behavior. They are leaches that are sucking at the government teat, unable to be self-sufficient and make their way through the world on their own. There is no place for community, only the individual in an increasingly social darwinist world. And the winners, or 1%, are the only ones who are truly contributing to the world. Romney described nearly half the country, or 47%, as people who won't "take responsibility for themselves," who are "dependent on government, who believe they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it."

Apparently we are no longer entitled to the essential elements of life itself. Half of the country should starve, die in the streets or suffer through their sickness without healthcare or, it seems, even a whisper of the self-indulgent desire to survive. Is this really where we have ended up? Have our moral and ethic fiber collapsed so far that we have no sympathy (or empathy) for those who work two or three jobs just to feed themselves and their family? Is this where the collapse of an alternative to unfettered capitalism have led us? And is half the country really willing to vote for a man that seems intent on undermining their quality of life? The answer to these questions appears, at present, to be yes. Too many have become so bamboozled or cynical that they can't see any alternative path to prosperity but to destroy the very essence of life itself. Rather than go on endlessly, I just wonder if there is any sense left in the world. If someone this callous and clearly ill-prepared to lead can actually remain viable to lead the "free" world, we are truly lost. Let's hope that enough people see through the lies and hatred and actually vote with a grain of hope for the future. Otherwise, I fear we are lost ...

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