I received this comment on my second "dignity" post over at Blogspot.
Who are you hanging around with and what are you watching on TV? I wouldn't describe the people I associate with in the way you describe people. I think dignity is alive and well.It's not that I'm unaware of bad stuff going on in the world every single day. But that's because this is a fallen world. It won't be all put right until the end of time when Jesus comes back.
But I am very blessed in my part of this world. I am always spending my time around good people. And I don't pay too much attention to the news, because it's depressing.
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I read it last night when I was really, really tired. And I thought, "Yikes! You’ve got to be kidding me."
This morning, as I was frying eggs and flipping omelets, I thought about it again. Charitably conceding that no one could be that hopeless, and be cocky enough about it to leave such blatant evidence thereof, I convinced myself that of course, obviously it was tongue-in-cheek! I would log on this evening and find that this person had a wonderful, thoughtful political blog somewhere and was just poking fun at the clueless right wing masses.
No such luck. Couldn’t find a link to any blog. I suppose I could email her, but I really don’t want to get too close. Maybe she has some dreaded brain-devouring superbug, and I don’t want to catch it.
Seriously. Maybe I do hang around with the wrong people. Maybe I do watch the wrong stuff on TV (HGTV and Food Network…?)
But I’m not about to slough off my possible accountability for some of the uglier aspects of modern American society by blaming the situation on "God." Or some mystic battle between good and evil, where my only responsibility is to sit on the sidelines and wait to see who wins…
More frightening is her parting line, almost as an afterthought… "I don’t pay too much attention to the news, because it’s depressing."
Oh. My. God.
Most terrifying? It's a cinch this vapor-brain votes.
I don't watch the news, because I got tired of all the ads during the "news" shows and the not news news stories. but I read the paper and the magazines and yeah, I get depressed. So I do the best I can. And you do the best you can. We won't solve the problem by ignoring it. Keep chipping away.
ReplyDeleteJackie
Me again. Yeah, let's blame God for it. The world is "fallen" so there's nothing we can do about. Jesus, if he really existed, didn't wait around, he kicked the money changers out of the temple. LOL
ReplyDeleteJackie
I'm sure that this person surrounds herself with others like herself and limits her exposure to "the world" to thoughts and information that parallel her beliefs. I don't know how anyone can truly believe that everything that happens everywhere is spiritual warfare...but I do know that it conveniently excuses one from taking any responsibility in the world. Yeah....she's scary.
ReplyDeleteAaaaaaarrggghhh, where do I start? There is a type of person in this world...well, OK, I'm sure there are male counterparts, but for the most part it's women whom I've heard voice these sentiments...who announce that they don't watch or read the news because they find it depressing, don't like to see "sad" movies, or movies that might make them think; etc., etc. When I volunteered at Suicide & Crisis, sometimes if I mentioned that to one of these women (which I was not above doing, on occasion), I'd get a look of discomfort/disapproval, and a question would be asked, in a peevish voice, "who exactly calls a crisis line anyway?" I'd always say the same thing: "just ordinary people, like you and me, who get blindsided by life...sooner or later, all of us get blindsided by life..." They didn't believe it, I could tell, and I'd always be reminded of Janis Ian's brilliant lyrics, "their small-town eyes will gape at you in dull surprise when payment due exceeds accounts received at seventeen..." (or at seventy, for that matter...
ReplyDeleteGood post.
J
I admit that I don't LIKE TO WATCH the news. BUT HECK, if I don't spend time keeping up with what's going on ... how am I to know what is going on?
ReplyDeleteI don't believe for a second we can blame our 'fallen' world on God.
I don't always watch the local news anymore. I know I should but for a time I was so depressed and so sick of the criminals. Not like I don't know what's going on anyway...I was in the law office for so long and I still travel in those circles. I try to pay attention to the national and international news though. Still sometimes, ignorance is bliss....or at least as much as you can find on the meaner streets in a decaying city.
ReplyDeleteI think people use the word *depressed* too much anymore. I was too depressed to watch some of it. I couldn't bear to see another killing. I didn't know why we didn't just put the warring gang members on an island and let survival of the fittest take over. I didn't know why God would bother with people such as us. I didn't blame God though...it is us.
At any rate the problem at hand is whether or not these people should be voting...Of course they should...but first they should be learning. We can't change the world and make it a place where we aren't afraid to watch the news if we don't pay attention to what is going on politically. People need to be informed....they need to force themselves to look at the ugly stuff to make the right decision. It is a responsibility not just a right. Everybody should vote....but everybody should know why they are voting the way they do.
I came to your post on dignity from the link left on "Life on Flamingo Road"....and found i agreed with everything you stated, you just said it much more elegantly than i ever could have. As for the response you just posted....I, also, attempt to surround myself with positive, caring, dignified people; and they ARE out there. But i do not shield myself from the fact that so much of that dignity and simple manners has also been lost. In my not so humble opinion, it is good to surround yourself with like minded people...but not to the point that you do not see the rest of the world, or the country. To blame it on "a fallen world" and wait for Jesus to come back and shape it up is just absurd. If you believe it is fallen due to a religious thing...then it seems you would also believe that same God put you here to do something about it. And that something is NOT just preach and ignore. Thanks for giving me something to think about...and think...and think...and think :)
ReplyDelete~Cathy