Complacency

Over at Flopping Aces, there is an interesting post up discussing the phenomenon of complacency within America.  What caught my eye was:

During our political discussion Steve said to me “why do you even care about politics?  Why even try to stop this stuff? There’s nothing you can do.  You should just live your life and go with the flow.”  I told him “that’s exactly why I care.  I just want to live my life.  I don’t want the government involved in every aspect of my life.  Who are they to tell me how to live my life?  Who are they to tell me what to do with my money? … I care because if everyone had this “give in” attitude we would already be living under tyranny.”

The thought of Steve’s “just give in because there’s nothing you can do about it” attitude has been swirling around in my head for a while now.  It’s shameful that any American’s feel this way.  It is infuriating that any man would prefer a life of uninterrupted subservience to government authority  over one of turmoil in defense of their own rights and that of their descendant’s.  Yet it seems that many American’s have this attitude.  Our founding fathers recognized this unfortunate trait that many human beings possess.  They recognized that people would often prefer to do nothing rather than stand in their own defense.

It reminds me of many things:

1. My attitude towards politics 20+ years ago.
2. The self-centered attitude of much of our society.
3. The lack of leaders within our society.

It is also reminiscent of a clip that I posted a while back, of Mike Rowe discussing the concept of “work” in America.  It’s a little long but worth the time.

My thought is this, you get out of life what you put into it.  In turn your actions influence others, either by example or by competition.  If you want to sit in the mobile home all day and watch Jerry Springer, then that’s the influence that you will bring to your children and to your social circle.  On the other hand, you can work to better yourself and your friends and family.  This will in turn have a ripple effect through society.  Like the expanding ripples in a still pond.

Is it hard to do?  Hell ya.

Is it worth it the effort and pain?  Somedays you question the path but, yeah it’s all worth it.

Can anything you do “make a difference”?  Everything that you do makes a difference in someone’s life everyday.  Some days the ripples are small, other days they are far reaching and very large.

It’s up to you.  Influencing your immediate environment.  Influencing politicians.  Sharing your visions on issues with your elected officials.  Being the “squeaky wheel”.  All these actions will have an impact.  It’s up to you but, don’t ever be complacent.