I was lied to. Mother raised us to be good, my brother and me. To do the right thing. To treat people with kindness. Respect. That the world has no place for corruption. Lies. Sexual harassment. Scandals. Someone being convicted of a crime.
Well, these days, it's a badge of honor. Time spent in court. Affairs. Evidence to prove guilt. Someone being chosen to lead who has a track record of mismanagement and alcohol abuse. Another who lives in a swirl of conspiracy therories. Another that has not shown an ability to be a true leader.
These days if you don't have an accusation of sexual misconduct, I guess that's a bad thing? I'm confused by these moral inversions, which I overheard David Brooks talk about in a podcast. Shouldn't inappropriate behavior eliminate that person from consideration or senate confirmation? It all goes against what I was modeled and what a third grader is told.
That's what it takes to get ahead in life or career?
This is not some political rant. It's fact with my curious mind, wondering why this is happening? How did we get here? Where are the honest men and women? The ones that don't pay hush money payments. The ones that don't need NDA's or confidentiality agreements. Individuals that stand for something. Not just their wallets, power or selfishly themselves.
What happened to doing the right thing? Being a good and wholesome person? Yes, these men and women exist. Yet, daily, we have the opposite coming to the light of day. None of them preclude us from doing good. Of being good and acting with decency and respect. My concern is we let those assholes turn us into assholes. That as we raise children they challenge virtue ethics with contemporary times. That we as a society throw our hands up and say, "what the hell." Just because everyone else is doing ‘it.’
That is an actual trend in our human behavior and psychologists have called it the "what the hell" effect. Everyone else is doing it, 'what the hell' I'll do it too. Our role with the unfavorable and disgusting times is to correct the ship. To persist and resist. To have a code we live by where good comes out. Where this moral crisis ends.