I rarely comment on the views of network or cable news shows, but after watching tonight’s episode of The O’Reilly Factor, I am spurred to action and not because I disagree with the host, but because the episode was not really fair and balanced. In fact, it took a myopic view of the world when the host proposed that America is becoming a weaker nation because teenagers are smoking weed/grass/pot at a younger age in increasing numbers and also because Americans under 30 are abusing technology with an alarming number of young people sending more than 100 texts a day.
Host Bill O’Reilly went on to add that this was an indication that our youth are trying to avoid reality and that if they continue on this path we will never be able to compete with the Chinese. It appears that the young people of China are ready to deal with reality, while America’s young people would rather escape reality. (To Oz?)
I won’t argue the point of the nation becoming weaker because there are many indicators that today’s young people are maturing at a slower pace, but there is a bigger point that Mr. O’Reilly failed to recognize.
Reality? I don’t want to embrace reality because what passes for reality today in a word, sucks! We have a Congress operating at its lowest approval rating in decades. We have a growing number of people who are spending more time figuring out how they can scam innocent people, hack computer programs, lie, cheat and steal, etc. We have scandals galore in the Catholic Church. We have an increasing number of people who hide behind race, creed and color to do whatever they want to do; we have people who believe a small portion of the public should be responsible for taking care of another small portion of the public. We have movies, music and other forms of entertainment that not only pushed the envelope but have ripped a hole in it.
That’s reality. Please, light me a joint!
And then there’s the other adult reality. Instead of people living balanced lives where work is tempered with a life outside the office, more and more adults are working 10, 11 and 12 hours a day six and seven days a week. The average worker is umbilicallyconnected to the office via the internet and social media. And it’s no longer an exception, it’s a rule and woe be the worker who doesn’t check his/her email a dozen times when home after a hard day at the office, on weekends and on vacation.
This is the real world we want our children to enter? Hey, join me for a joint.
And what the f*** about China? China’s young people are embracing reality? Chinese reality is about as far from real reality as I am from being mistaken for Brad Pitt!
China is not a bastion of free thinking. Mao may be dead, but the idea of a nation of billions of people who think the way the government tells them to think, is not reality. It’s a nightmare.
So, America’s young people are lost on the Yellow Brick Road, but you know what? We can’t blame them. We have not given them much to look forward to have we?
It is going to take a revolution, but not a military one to change the course of America’s ship. It’s going to take people who don’t pledge allegiance to a politically party or a specific denomination to stand up and speak out.
I guess you could say that “America is going to pot”, however you might consider the phrase.
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