It occurred to me that I’d be much more unhappy, if things were going the other way.

I happen to be of the opinion that America has walked away from its roots and is suffering the slow death that accompanies any decision to abandon what works, in search of other options. I’m specifically referring to the country’s moral downfall, and the fact that we used to hold certain things off-limits; these days, we are more and more often deciding that those things are now allowable.

The problem with this is the sliding scale. With the sliding scale, it is impossible to know what is right or wrong, because the scale is in motion. Any one thing might be morally unacceptable at any particular point in time, but totally okay at a different point in time. It’s relativism, really –> nothing is absolute; rather, truth and correctness are relative to the individual. While no one wants to think about where this course leads, let me say that, at some point down the road, the things that we couldn’t possibly imagine as ‘okay’ are going to be declared ‘acceptable’ by a society that has walked several miles down the road that we first started taking a few steps down.

Imagine the scale –> it has, at its one end, that nothing is acceptable and that you can’t do anything that would be deemed ‘appropriate behavior’ (sounds awful); its other end is that all behavior is acceptable and that nothing is inappropriate (sounds equally awful). The bar is moving toward this latter end, in case you haven’t been paying attention to the society, lately. We are slapping a label of acceptance on all manner of behavior which would have been morally unacceptable not so far in our past.

* * *

I live in a town in Michigan that has decided to jump onto the pot bandwagon, ever since marijuana was legalized in Michigan for recreational use. We now have a number of dispensaries in town, and it’s starting to change some of the dynamics of the town. Depending on who you might ask in my town, those changes might be for the better, or they might be for the worse.

As an example, most of these dispensaries exist on the main street that runs through our downtown area. As a result of the business that is coming in to the downtown area, we are starting to get traffic congestion in this area, where none existed before. The area, which is built for small town traffic, is now having to handle cars from all over the tri-state area, and I suspect that it will only be a matter of time before this traffic starts to become a real problem.

Whether or not you think that the legalization of marijuana for recreational use is a good thing or a bad thing, it is certainly an example of our society and its recent decisions to legitimize previously unacceptable behavior, to be henceforth deemed as permissible. Remember the scale that I was talking about earlier? Whether or not you are in favor of us, as a society, making decisions of this nature, this example is certainly an indication that our sliding scale is moving toward a greater level of leniency than what has existed in the past.

* * *

I know that I have written this post before. Moral decay, America’s declining, blah blah blah. But, this is the point where this post parts ways with what I’ve previously had to say on the subject.

If I’m going to be honest, then I might have to admit that the moral sufferance of our current society frustrates me because I’d love to just let my guard down and abandon my own personal moral code, since it seems that everyone else is doing it. Maybe all of these other people, without any ethical boundaries, are getting to enjoy life in a way that I’m not, shackled by my principles. That’s an issue that I am going to have to deal with, if things continue on their present course.

Furthermore, it occurred to me that I’d be significantly less happy if the sliding scale was headed in the other direction.

Imagine our society getting more intolerant of behavior that might fall outside of a set of acceptable norms. Imagine that we might start to get more strict with our laws, and that we should start to become more dogmatic, when it comes to our licit behaviors.

Take, for example, an issue that was recently raised to me by a friend
–> the respect for human life. While steps like abortion and euthanasia take us down the road to undervaluing human life (unfortunately), imagine what it would be like if we started to try to head in the other direction. Imagine that the video game that I play, where I shoot zombies, becomes illegal. That would suck. Or, imagine saying things like “I’ll kill you” and then getting arrested for threatening a human life. That would suck.

The legalization of gambling on sports has taken our society a little further down the road to total fiscal irresponsibility, but imagine trying to move in the other direction. If I bet my son a quarter that I can do a hundred sit-ups in five minutes, and I win, imagine the police showing up to arrest me for petty gambling. That would suck.

These are just two examples.

My point is this –> a sliding scale of behavioral acceptance slides both ways. And it wouldn’t have to slide very far toward dogmatic intolerance before I would become uncomfortable with my guilt. In fact, the slide toward tolerating more behaviors is probably reactionary, now that I think about it. As society becomes engaged in doing things that are illegal, it then slides the scale so that people can stop feeling so bad about their behavior.

It’s about guilt.

And laziness.

Because getting on top of the set of behaviors that I am comfortable with, when society tells me that they’re not acceptable, would involve work.

I guess I am wishing that we could just leave ‘well enough’ alone.