Nice vs. Nasty: The Movement that Is Destroying Critical Intelligent Thinking

This morning I was listening to Armstrong and Getty's Talk show and they read from an article in The Australian, an online newspaper in. And yep, you guessed it, published in online Australia. Everything is going online and pretty soon The Matrixwill become more than a movie. More on Adam's blog about this and the effect of social networking can be found here.

The article was entitled Discipline overthrown by the new-found tyranny of niceness. It focused mainly around the topic of failed schools and the possible causes. Kenneth Minogue states,

"My argument is, then, that the collapse of family and school discipline largely results from a dominant moral sentiment that we may call "the niceness movement". Niceness as a political sentiment has many departments -- political correctness is one, for example -- but I am concerned largely with its sentimental undermining of authority in family and classroom. The selling point of this niceness was, as it were, that pupils would become a nicer, gentler generation, but in fact the disorderly tendencies that teachers soon lost the power to check have spilled over into the playground, where bullying has long been increasing, and from the playground this disorder has spread into the streets. Thus can politicised compassion lead to misery.

Moral vices prosper by dressing themselves as virtues. Niceness presents itself as benevolence but is often merely an evasion of hard decisions that the realities of human nature require. And it has spread throughout our societies because it is often popular with voters. The road to hell, it is said, is paved with good intentions, and so is a good deal of democratic politics."

I couldn't have written this more eloquently, except the spelling error of "politicised." Then again, I can't spell or use a comma, correctly, anyways. Who am I to critize?

But this article did get me to think. It did get me to ponder. Armstrong and Getty's commentary concluded that it comes back to the same argument, a feel good view that the world can be always seen as "oppressor verses oppressed." The political tipping point for the average voter has boiled down to simply this, which party can best portray the other as the oppressor? And this, combined with our inability to critically think, has led to our current debacle in the economy and abandonment of decent morality. Let me explain.

Personal responsibility has been watered down, devalued and subsequently, diminished as a virtue in our culture. It has been replaced with entitlement and a host of "feel good" belief systems. Do not think me to be so naive that I see this as something new, nevertheless, there is continuous evidence leading us back from adulthood to adolescence.

Mr. Minogue puts it this way, "Niceness presents itself as benevolence but is often merely an evasion of hard decisions that the realities of human nature require." What does this mean? We have a jar of M&M shells filled with dung, not chocolate, and call it sweet. Sure it looks like candy. Tastes like candy...at first. BUT, don't dive in too far because you will uncover something unpleasant, therefore, just leave it in the jar and believe it to be candy. Don't throw it away and get something real, just leave crap on the table and call it candy. And in doing this, you miss the greatest opportunity for advancement, the opportunity of pain and difficulty.

This "evasion of hard decisions" has led us to not address problems today with critical thinking. We make decisions based upon how we feel and determine it's goodness from emotion, not sound reasoning. When did America regress? Children do what feels good, and adults do what's right. I believe that America has become like a child, being led by the hand and spoon fed politically correct ideas that in the end, hurt us as a people.

What kind of country allows a woman to sue McDonald's and win, because she didn't have the words "Caution: Hot Drink" on the cup? (Liebeck vs.McDonald's) Answer: An America that believes she is oppressed by the larger oppressor, McDonald's.

What kind of country allows us to murder unborn children upwards in the tens of millions, the equivalent of Canada's population (source), in the name of choice? Answer: An America that believes the adult is the victim, oppressed by the Religious Right.

What kind of country would sit by idly while some call for the execution of AIG executives and their families with piano wire when the very government who caused this problem owns 80% of AIG? Answer: An America that believes people who lied on their loan applications and couldn't afford the home were swindled (oppressed) by the larger (oppressor) lenders who should have known better.

Now, I realize that my sarcasm and pointed articulation is uncomfortable and unpalatable to most people. However, you who read my blogs regularly are not regular people. You are not normal. Dave Ramsey would say, "Normal is broke, so let's get weird." I'm gonna modify it for politics and state, "Normal is a lemming, so let's weird."

I call you to exercise your cranium, muster some courage, and stand for integrity and principle. We cannot sit by and do nothing while the fundamentally foundational freedoms are eroded daily by men and women, who claim falsely, they do this in our best interests. I refuse to believe that another being, other than Jesus Christ, can have something better in mind for me than myself.

So, if being "Nasty" means that I promote individual liberty, expect personal responsibility from all, and stand up to those who believe otherwise...well, I'm sorry Mr. Politically Correct, but you will just have to live with me calling you an ignoramus and a dunce. And I hope that works out for you.