Morally Corrupt and Emotionally Bankrupt

Looking back over decades it is easy to see cultural shifts in our thinking and actions. The sedate post war era led to the suburban 1950’s of quiet comfortable family living. The 1960’s brought upheaval, a cultural revolution, and the 1970’s saw further pains. They were precursors of the movement for the “me generations” of the 1980’s and 1990’s. The whole thing brings to mind an episode of M*A*S*H* in which a drunken Hawkeye and B.J .tie a toe tag on their bunkmate nemesis to indicate he is dead as a practical joke. Written on the tag was the phrase "Morally corrupt and Emotionally bankrupt". Frank Burns stumbles into an ambulance, and is accidentally shipped to the front lines of the war. He doesn't awaken through the whole episode. Our cultural toe tag however, has us awaking, and thinking “how did I get here?”

The latest hullabaloo regarding O.J. Simpson is culturally revealing. It would be comical if it were not for the fact that many people believe that the great American football hero killed his wife and her friend in the early 1990’s.

This time Mr. Simpson was allegedly told that some of his personal memorabilia from his football glory days that was supposedly stolen from him was being sold by unscrupulous dealers in Las Vegas. Sounds plausible enough to be true or it could be a set up. After all in some folks minds who more deserves to be set up than a suspected murderer?

Mr. Simpson, instead of going to the police for assistance took matters into his own hands, it seems. He inspired others to help him, and in a hotel room in Las Vegas stormed in and confronted the dealers. At this point in the public revelation much of this is heresy however, as with many dramatic court cases fought out in the media, the existence of an audio tape will clarify things over the along haul.

The lack of video or audio tape in the death of Mr. Simpson’s ex-wife might be seen in retrospect to be how the perpetrator slid away from justice. In this latest almost bizarre scenario, the tale of the tape should illuminate things sufficiently.

There are many people jumping the gun, as the media is apt to do. What of Mr. Simpson’s rights? Yes he still has them because in a court of law he was never convinced of any criminal wrongdoing. Those that want to deny Mr. Simpson all the courtesy that the law provides American citizens are swayed way too much like many in this country, by their emotions rather than logic.

If there are actionable crimes here, Mr. Simpson should be charged with them, and then convicted. However, if his actions were somehow justifiable then that should be allowed to come to the forefront. To say gotcha on burglary and weapons charges because you think O.J. killed two people is not just, even if it were determined to be accurate. The justice system is not designed as a venue of vengeance; it is designed to give all parties a hearing with impartiality.

This O.J. Simpson case before the court should be judged on the audio tape, eyewitnesses and the events that took place in a hotel room in Nevada. They should not be about how much notoriety a particular District attorney cab garner in the political arena of his state (as we saw in the Duke Lacrosse Rape case with Mike Nifong). It should not be about settling an old score. That does have some precedent in the American court system (as seen in Al Capone’s demise in the 1930’s for tax evasion in place of the real desire to put him away for running a murderous crime organization). This case should not be fraught with emotion. Feelings have no place within the walls of a jury room during a trial. Leave that for the lawyers with a sense for the theatrical.

The judgment of a case should rest upon cold hard law and logic. That however, is not realistic in today’s America. We leak emotion at every corner. Has Brittany Spears endangered her poor little children’s lives? She is breaking our hearts! Why did Princess Diana have to die? Princesses are supposed to live happily ever after! Who won the Emmy awards and who was deemed best dressed for the occasion? Our cultural focus is drenched with emotion. We can’t even speak freely anymore because someone might be too sensitive (that’s emotional), and offended by our words. Yes political correctness is also emotionally driven; not the stuff of logic.
Finding a fair jury for another Simpson trial? Good luck! Mr. Simpson having pulled the biggest slight of hand since Houdini in the 20th century is likely screwed here in the 21st. Then again we may see once more that money can buy justice for those capable of hiring the best legal team.
In any event, polarization was big after the last two Simpson trials (criminal and civil). Do you suppose that white America already has convicted him, and black America is right now thinking “right on O.J. you got your stuff back, and rightfully so.” If so maybe we have not entered a new enlightened century. Maybe it is the 1990’s still and our growth has been stunted by our reliance on emotion. That time period seems to be where the distinct division in this country began to outpace our logic. “Today is really only yesterday and both of them sucked”. That might make a good carving on America’s cultural headstone. Ready the stone mason! Here we go again.

Beware of What “Everybody Knows”

A sure indication of the downward spiral in American wisdom is the brilliant thought processes displayed on any number of radio and television talk programs. You can hear similar nonsense at numerous cocktail parties around many cities and towns too. While there are often plenty of well reasoned logical theories put forth in many circles, the vast majority of the great unwashed rears its ugly head with emotional leaps, conspiratorial contortions, and conclusions of irrational thought.

How does one tell the lucid from the far out proposals on the nation’s airwaves, on the street, or in front of the office water cooler? One dead giveaway of this mental minority comes in the form of people so dug into their point of view that they must project it upon us all. They preemptively attempt to explain away their position’s weakness with sweeping generalities that they think will fill in all of empty space in their hypothesis. In reality their suppositions are really riddled with more gaps than a fine block of Swiss cheese. They preface the conjecture that they are about to espouse often beginning with the phrase “everybody knows that…” Such a ridiculous premise being laid at the opening of someone’s statement should have sound thinkers either laughing or running the other way. Surrounding oneself with such self-absorbed and closed minded thought processes are not the hallmark of traditional America or a sign of balanced, and cogent thought.

Eventually the unbridled emotion that is corrupting dispassionate and more accurate thought will push things a bit too far; as if we haven’t already gone far enough. The culture supports such hedonism in all of its outlets as evident in the can you top this sweepstakes of stupidity. One need not look any farther than reality television shows to see the confirmation of our own corruption of thought, debauchery and self esteem. We as people will pay the price for abusing privileges bestowed upon a free nation; more so that we already do. We are eerily on a similar track as the Roman Empire. In its finale throes the Romans also experienced an almost anything goes cultural upheaval as it slid into a comparably long slow steady decline before its final collapse and overthrow.

Once upon a time in America, the culture penalized weak thinkers, improper behavior, and more or less policed itself by shunning those whose thought and actions were weird, off center, or out of the mainstream. Cultural guidelines were unspoken yet everyone adhered to the regimen out of moral fortitude. Today’s culture embraces all of those bizarre elements and seeks to push the envelope, even if it means logic falls off the edge of the world. After all, everybody knows that…. the world is flat.