Reality is something that seems crystal clear when we are very young but becomes increasingly difficult to determine as we age.
What is reality? I am very aware that it is a matter of perspective, your reality may be in line with mine on some issues, poles apart on others.
Two articles this week got me thinking about reality.
Both articles are a mix of fact and opinion, written from the authors’ perspectives, coloured by their biases. My interpretation comes from my perspective, with my own biases.
However in that mix of facts, opinions and biases, there is some reality.
The first by Carol Brown, in American Thinker is about the Swedish Authorities attempts to deny that the fatal stabbing of a social worker by a Moslem migrant at a refugee centre was an act of Islamic terrorism. Even conceding that it may not have been a planned terrorist attack, by no stretch of the imagination can it be called “an accident”.
That’s what the authorities are trying to call it.
The reality is that it was a deliberate act of murder by a migrant who may or may not have been a genuine refugee and was certainly an ungrateful recipient of Swedish hospitality. The police are refusing to show the murderer’s country of origin on the grounds it may “inflame passions”.
The growing backlash in Europe against the flood of Islamic migrants is already inflaming passions and will do more than inflame them if these cover-ups continue..
This is a blatant example of censorship and propaganda. The latest in a string of similar examples.
The second article was by Sadies Ceng in substance about “slackitude” defined as:
(N.) Referring to Student Attitudes: Expecting to be able to Slack-off & Make CEO, Top-Dollar Salaries
The author is a student herself. She honestly describes the pressures, distractions, desires, disdain for hard work and sense of entitlement that many students experience.
I believe that the condition described in this article is a direct consequence of the censorship and propaganda described in the first.
The reality is that it has always been difficult for most students, difficult for many to get accepted at any university, to pay for their studies, to find time between tiring jobs to study. Difficult to pass exams, difficult to find well-paying jobs and satisfying careers.
Costs are higher today than for earlier generations, but so are salaries.
The reality of the situation for students is that a higher percentage of the population are graduating from high school and obtaining bachelors degrees.
High school graduates have increased from 50% in the late 1960s when my generation completed high school to 88% in 2014 and those with bachelors degrees from 10% to 32%. source – Wikipedia.
Calculate the effect of an increased total population, greater numbers of graduates, automation, technological advances and the export of many types of work over the same period. It is not surprising that graduates today have difficulty in finding jobs to their liking.
The reality of life
The reality of life for the majority of the world’s population is that it is hard.
Censoring news items by politically correct media and governments to hide uncomfortable truths about Islamic terrorism, slacking students or harsh employment prospects is as dishonest as censorship of battlefront news was during WWII or the Vietnam war.
Continually telling students how unfortunate they are to be faced with astronomical tuition costs, intense competition for jobs and long working hours is not helpful. Guiding many of them towards other career options that do not need degrees, might serve them better.
Censoring news to portray the world as one big, happy play room where violence and hardship are merely, infrequent bouts of bad behaviour is short-sighted.
The reality for much of the world is that violence and hardship are part of the normal condition. They have been for most of the world’s population ever since man got up on his hind legs and developed language.
The sooner students and all those who feel “entitled” realise that, the sooner some sort of reality will return.
Despite the pressures faced by today’s students, in many ways, they have faced little adversity compared to earlier generations. One example; few in the first world have had to face military conscription as many baby boomers did.
Intrusive legislation that attempts to protect children from harm has only succeeded in removing risk and the ability to think for themselves. It has stopped them exploring, playing unattended, experiencing minor physical injuries, and losing in competitions. It has denied them the opportunity to develop resilience, perseverance and determination.
Some degree of adversity, discomfort and exposure to the realities of life is essential for growth and success. Too few people today are experiencing them. They are too busy being distracted by electronic devices and too sheltered by a society scared of allowing the truth to offend someone from a different religion or race.
My reality is that the West must wake up. The USA must choose a leader who will guide the country back into its place as the superpower it was from the end of WWII until the early years of the 21st Century. The alternative is too horrible to contemplate.
What’s your reality? Leave a comment.
Research graphic courtesy Stuart Miles / freedigitalphotos.net
WOW!
You bring up so many topics in this brief essay it is hard to focus on one or two.
Every generation thinks they had it worse than others. As we age we see that most of us had it good, at least in America.
Today’s version of political correctness is probably the worst thing to come along in my life time. It is worse now than I have ever seen.
Today it is no longer PC. It is plain lies! We cannot say what we want or speak the truth.
These days I say what I think and I don’t worry what others say.
We must fight fire with fire.
I see the two main issues as cause and effect.
Political correctness and bias in the media is causing two or three generations of children, teens and young to middle age adults (thankfully with a few exceptions) to believe they are entitled to an easy life without having to work for it.
Obviously, the effect of this is that they will continue to believe and vote for, the very politicians who encourage those expectations.
Until there are no longer enough producers to fund this idiocy.
Not only is this a matter of politically correct behavior that is never correct but always political, it is a sign of how students easily are brainwashed into socialist ideology. In a socialist society they can get paid as much to not work as they would to work 40+ hours a week. Their food is paid for if they don’t work, their college education is paid for, if they are considered low income, and they see some students already living this life because of someone other than them paying the bill.
It’s an easier life to move into than paying your own debts, never having enough money for your desires, and taking 40 years or more to make enough to retire on.
The problem is it requires someone else to work and pay the bills, to pay for these programs. That leads to fewer people leaving entitlement, to more people losing the ambition to become job creators, and eventually like cold war Russia and Current Day China there are a few billionaires who have the only operating businesses paying for everything but as the population grows their wealth shrinks due to higher taxes and you soon run out of other people’s money.
In Russia and China North Korea and Vietnam the solution to the running out of other people’s money was to adopt Communism which works for the majority because they are not the percentage of citizens forced to work, pushed to start companies the government chooses, and then they issue things like pregnancy licenses, and murder female babies as China Does to keep population from rising faster than revenue.
In a non politically correct world these are the things they would be taught in school instead of the entitlement mindset.
Appreciate you visiting and leaving your comment Andy.
Your points are cause for concern, what will our supposedly “democratic” governments in the West do when their socialist policies lead to widespread national bankruptcies; when money can no longer be printed faster than it devalues?
Any wonder most governments have disarmed the population, encouraged vehicle manufacturers to install technology in cars to track movements and disable engines remotely. Why too are governments and major banks pushing for a cashless society?
For control.
The most significant aspect of “political correctness” is the ability to enslave a mindset and squash honesty.
We have observed almost a generation growing up AFRAID of being a true person, and honestly expressing their thought.
Worse, the mid-age adult population has lost it’s IDENTITY and have allowed the Masters of Subjugation to enslave fundamental aspects of Freedom.
Thank you again Peter for your candor.
Thanks Chuck, I must apologise, I don’t know why your comment got caught up in the spam filter, I only found it today.
May be this election campaign will be the watershed, after which people start realising what’s been happening.