Thirty years ago a subversive sticker appeared for a brief while plastered in various places. It said, " Do not defy authority. Ignore it." I first saw it stuck to a toll booth which I thought was absurdly appropriate. Most people, if pressed, would define anarchy as defiance of authority or rejection of authority but refusing to acknowledge authority as a viable concept in the real world is far more subversive and seems to really piss em off. I realized that concept had become not just my unspoken motto but the unspoken motto of millions of passive-aggressives everywhere. A lot of them stoned.
Over 40 years ago people just started ignoring authority and started using marijuana among other recreational drugs. When you consider what the penalties were in those days that was a pretty big rejection of authority as some sort of viable concept. It was subversive and corrosive but not really. In the end well over 99% of those people went on to become productive, willing participants in society and willing subjects of authority albeit with some reservations. Although, there is something about legalization that makes me uncomfortable on some level.
Most people are honest but the idea that what the IRS doesn't know won't hurt them is pretty common. Most people don't lie. Well, that IRS thing again but as a general rule people only lie to their spouses.....their kids, well and bosses sometimes but for the major part.
My point is, the average person, to this day wouldn't dream of committing a major felony or defying authority in any significant way but there is a kinda laissze faire attitude about the more prominent committing more prominent crimes. The days of Pat Nixon's good, Republican cloth coat are long over. That scandal in 1952 or so was over a relative few thousands that Nixon couldn't really account for. It nearly ended his career. By comparison, Trump wrote a check for 25 million to settle fraud allegations the same week he was elected President and that, in the overall picture is just the tip of a very dirty iceberg. Nobody seems to care at least not in proportion to the fantastic amounts of money involved. I wonder why that is.
Is it possible our collective decision to roll a joint and ignore authority seeped into other areas? Our elders said it was a decline in morality. We didn't think so. What if that was right? What if we had recoiled from euphoria in favor of Sunday School morality? I know, not likely but what if?
I guess the question here is: Would society and we be different if we had been more amenable to authority just because it was authority? Would frauds and thieves be less likely to rise? Would nude models be less acceptable in polite society?
My point is, we are seeing things today that just wouldn't have happened 40-50 years ago well outside of political conviction. Is that at least, in part due to our casual attitude to morality?
I don't think the morality of the fifties is going to make a comeback but maybe we shouldn't be so casual. Spin one up and we'll talk it over.
Brilliant!
ReplyDelete