Society has gone to hell

I am firmly convinced that western civilization has degenerated and regressed significantly during my lifetime. After much consideration I've concluded that the root cause of it is one simple thing: selfishness. Even though people, cultures, and religions have been preaching against selfishness since the beginning of time I just don't think it has sunk in.

The basic unit of society is the family. A mother, a father, and children are the usual constituents. In 2005 over half of the men and women who enter into the "death do us part" union of matrimony do indeed part, often after only a few years, and often even when there are children in the mix. Why is this the case you ask. Well I think people are just to darn selfish to be unhappy or have to struggle even temporarily. Nobody is willing to put forth the effort to fix a marriage gone bad. It's easier to just end it. After all, it's better for the children, right? WRONG!

IN THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE LONGITUDINAL study of the impact of divorce on children to date, "The California Children of Divorce Study," psychologist Judith Wallerstein found that, five years after their parents split up, more than a third of the 131 children she tracked were experiencing moderate to severe depression. Ten years later, a significant number of the young men and women appeared to be drifting and underachieving. http://salt.claretianpubs.org/issues/children/duncan.html

The kids are also six times more likely to be poor and 30 percent more likely to divorce themselves.

But why do people feel this greater freedom to divorce than ever before. The best I can conjecture is that marriage is dispensable for them instead of sacrosanct like it was for their grandparents. After all, we've pretty much separated sex from reproduction and reproduction from marriage so what is the point of entering into a binding social contract that isn't unique in any way. There is no point. But the statistics say that what we've done is bad so I put forth the radical idea that we correct it. Instead of congratulating hollywood stars for having children out of wedlock to demonstrate their freedom and feminism we should call them what they really are: SELFISH.

Unfortunately everyone seems to embrace selfishness, perhaps more than ever before. Making loads of money, often at the expense of others is commonplace among Fortune 500 CEOs, Character assassination and slader is a typical journalistic tactic, and political corruption seems to be the norm, because after all, they have to get reeclected, right?

At a personal level, so many people come through my checkout line and are unable to even voice a hello, much less a thank you for doing something extra. I just wonder these people made it this far without appreciating other people's time and skill. They seem to be so wrapped up in their personal affairs that they completely eliminate anything that doesn't lead to material gain, like social interation, I guess.

Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't seem that hard to muster a little altruism once in a while. Sheesh.

Spring Is Over

It's June 2 which means the spring phenological season is officially over. Spring is a very exciting time to be doing things other than blogging. It is the small window of time that you can be outdoors with no mosquitoes. June means breeding bird surveys, nesting time for turtles, trees fully-leafed out, and the opening of bass season June 18! My goal is to focus on fish ID this summer and hopefully some minnow trapping so I can start separating the shiners from the chubs, from the daces, from the stonerollers, et cetera.

Other than that the Brewers suck (Ben Sheets has lost his first two starts off the DL). Even though they're 24-28 you still have to appreciate the magic of Doug Davis, especially in his last three starts. Brady Clark's hitting has also been admirable.

I'm glad that I learned about watergate and the scandal before we knew who deepthroat was. It made it much more interesting. I feel sorry for all the kids of the future that will have to read W. Mark Felt in their history books. Even though I think Pat Buchanan is a decent guy I thought it was kind of stupid of him to call Felt a snake. Can anyone really defend Dick Nixon in any way, shape, or form?

Anyone heard Leopard, Pickerel, or Green Frogs yet??