CHOOSING COSMOS OVER CHAOS


There certainly is a solution to the problem of the rampant, escalating rate of violence and murder in our land. The callousness of people's behavior, the forceful seizing of other people's property, and the cheapening of human life can be reversed, indeed!

This requires some very simple, but very radical changes in our lives. Although I am a person of faith, I could, even as an atheist who has studied the evidence, say that first we need some kind of religious revival. The individual members of our society need to get re-calibrated (that is, form consensus and adhere) to the values espoused in admonitions such as "love your neighbor as yourself", "do unto others as you would have them do unto you", and "do not steal, do not kill, do not covet . . .", etc., and even "love your enemies", and "do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good". A society embracing these values would begin to produce some very good and "peaceable" fruit.

Going on from here, we would need to voluntarily return to a society that in many ways would look more like that of pre-WWII. Here is the radical part: one of you needs to stay home full-time, in order to be a guardian to the home, the children, and the community. Even those who do not have small children in the home need to maintain a presence in the everyday community. Single parents who are unable to work from home could especially benefit from your help. This model is essential because we need to start valuing our common life and its nucleus, the home, as much as we do our material possessions.

Would you leave your brand new car unlocked (with your Ipod on the front seat) in the parking lot at the mall while you spent the entire day inside shopping? Would you leave your house windows wide open and the doors unlocked while you went away for the weekend? Or put a sign on your front door when you leave for work in the morning that says "No one will be home all day so anyone who reads this is welcome to come in and do what you want in our house. Please take away or destroy anything from here as you please" ? How ridiculous! People who would do this would be certifiable or fools or both!

Why then, do we leave what is truly precious, our moral health, our families, our human community to the dogs of depravity? Why take such good prenatal care of our babies, monitor their health, development and well-being as infants and then abandon them to the culture of death as soon as they can sit up in front of a glowing screen? Why also the rush to stick them with care-giving surrogates (on said screen and with human ones) whose values may not be ours and whose "care" may be questionable or negligent? Why do we keep the windows shut so as to keep out the rain and bugs, but leave our teenagers in the house alone while we take off for the weekend?

Because we need "our space" and our things?

Because this culture is now out of control, we may have noticed that our space is shrinking and our things are rotting. Our space? Please, we need to grow up. And yes, of course nobody wants to live in an unsafe neighborhood so they think a big fancy house in a "great school district" is mandatory. But in the last year I have heard about or attended the funerals of several young people who lived in the "great school district". I would never, ever blame individual parents for any of this, because they may have done everything right, but their children fell victim to bad people and the culture itself. Only as a community together can we change things for each of us, but each of us must start with changing ourselves and our lifestyles.

My point is that as people's behavior becomes good, so would their surroundings. Better to have to rent a tiny house, have one old car, and have your children home, helping you hang clothes out on the line while you talk with them about important things. Or have them do garden chores or help with meal preparation after school in a neighborhood full of families who have decided to do the same. We need to be people who adhere to the principles that were literally etched in stone a long time ago and upon which our civilization was founded.

Those who by word and example teach love and respect to their children, who

mind their own business, live within their means, stay out debt, and teach their children to do the same, are people who create a culture of life, not death.

Or as a wise person once said, "Better a dry crust with peace and quiet
than a house full of feasting, with strife.".