“To err is human,
but to persist in error (out of pride) is of the Devil.”
-Seneca the Younger
A Quaint Beginning …
Every generation looks at its successors and thinks, “oh these namby pambies can’t figure out life! They’re just going to ruin everything we worked so hard to build!” And today it’s no different. There’s a strong argument today’s young adults are weaker and more indecisive than any in the past! Especially the ones who attend college!
I believe the axis point is believing in God. That’s where family values are supported; a fortress for good tradition and strong families.
I also believe a group of insolent, violent rebels have found what they feel is a proud cause in waging an attack on Christian values. Spurred on by consequences of covid, like being locked down while taunted to criticize others in a political fishbowl, this group is a cornucopia of evil, finding, for some reason, now a good time to coalesce. Tens of thousands of people are “proudly” members of Satan worshiping groups on Facebook, while Antifa raps another old lady in the face for a random camera, prisoners are arrested for a few minutes then freed, and others serving time are let free by the thousands.
If I tie politics into your family’s best ’22 Christmas photo, forgive me!
The View’s Not Clear
My kids are good. So are yours, probably.
But there are groups using today’s mass communication tech to join forces. The Democratic party in the US, led by Barack Obama, aims to become the leader of the entire world, absorbing Mexican traffic in excess of 4-million illegal immigrants already so far, and wearing the badge of the World Economic Forum, which promises a “one world.” Followers tend to think America and her values are bad. This is encouraged by the Obama squad, which is how politics got involved in your child’s schooling, which you should know about. Creating “one world” requires disassembling the current one. It’s getting messy.
Housewives sit at home, knowing a kid acting out isn’t anything unusual, and on the news this “one world” idea sounds charming. Like treating animals with compassion and black people fairly, the average Josephine doesn’t venture farther than thinking a pretty headline and some canned applause is enough to keep me feeling good about the world, and I can keep avoiding knowing too much about politics!
The ignorance borders on arrogance, though they remain innocent. Someone knows this, and will play on it, sending out nice tweet after nice tweet, much preferred to anything “mean” sounding. The US government, so thick in its own debt, sea deep in its own mud, is using canned applause, teleprompters, puppet people, fake social media accounts, cheating with numbers and big favors with companies like Pfizer, Facebook and Twitter, to create the impression they’re the good guys. Don’t look deeper; it’s not pretty!
Out With The Old!
Today, sending your child to college no longer means they’ll have an advantage in the work force; today’s college campuses are still a place for wild ideas and experiments, but your child’s also guaranteed to be taught lessons based not on, but against history; even against logic, in the name of “justice.” Colleges were the first to surf today’s new, improved liberal wave, and many professors are known to have gone too far. Many students have earned teaching credentials and “new learning” is now prevalent in schools of all grade levels.
The new learning teaches this: reluctance to attempt to understand the values society has already given you, always ignorantly demanding things … as if everything’s free and you’re always right. This thinking breaks up society. This thinking is encouraged by extreme liberals, some just going for the feel-good ride but others intentionally encouraging breaking up society. The Democratic party sweeps up lazy thinkers by the millions, pawns ultimately to be their own victims.
It’s not logical; but not purely dramatic; it’s psychologically understandable as desperation. Society is suffering under an intentional assault, but also suffers every time a meaningful tradition is tossed in the garbage. It suffers again if these losses are not acknowledged, and even more when the importance of tradition is demeaned without any attempt to appreciate its hard-won value. What we’re seeing today is a knee jerk reaction to having set out in a floating shipwreck: never-ending attempts to re-virtue something that was wrong from the beginning, by being stubborn.
The Melting Pot
I’m not talking about all non-standard family units; please don’t try to adapt my criticisms to yourself if they don’t belong there. I’m not talking about people who are creative and want to see what their hair looks like green, and they like it so they keep it that way for awhile … No. I’m talking about people who dye their hair green to make a statement, who then are too lazy to become further involved in the statement (probably don’t even know what it is), but who’d physically harm someone suggesting the hair color was unusual.
Not you, JUST because you don’t have a traditional relationship; JUST because of your purple bangs. I’m talking about violent, anti-social people we see too often on random videos who’d treat you the same with or without your bangs. 99% of the time, my readers are not the people I’m criticizing, though at this point I’m committed to carrying the message, so to speak, without trying to tiptoe around an actual crazy person stumbling into the room.
All clear? We good?
Non-traditional households are prevalent today and can be safe and complete sandboxes for your little ones to learn and grow. A “single mom” often is really a complicated exercise in discipline and scheduling, to accomplish what could be paying more attention to the kids than many “traditional” households. It’s certainly not a bad thing all by itself, and mothers should feel both proud and empowered.
In the US, a “traditional” family has two married parents who live together forever. But beyond that, both Christian and non-Christian traditions encourage loyalty, fairness, compassion and discipline, and encourage teaching these values to children. Tradition can be done in many non-traditional ways! In a thorough evaluation, though, I’m tempted to question if there’s more going on than meets the eye in non-traditional situations.
The Pink Elephant
There’s a reason many multitudes of people have embraced and adopted a traditional family structure, and those who may not “have one” still appreciate it. In a nutshell, with a mom and dad teaching positive values, a child will learn both compassion and discipline. Looking at a “take away the dad” scenario, the elephant left in the room becomes visible. But I’m reluctant to point it out, because I don’t want to risk offending friends who are women who have children but who are not married. So hopefully it’s a good thing I cleared all that up a couple paragraphs earlier!
The elephant is these questions: In a single-mom situation, are values like “individuality,” pride, power, belittlement and compassion encouraged, but things like objectivity, calm confidence and discipline diminished, despite well meaning attempts to create a full, balanced experience for children? Are single moms capable of teaching with not only compassion but tough love? Is the credibility of both parents diminished simply because a child is eventually smart enough to realize his parents didn’t stay together (if they broke up)? Do young males think differently, related to defending their mothers, in the absence of a dad? How important are fathers?
When anti-family values are secretly being pushed on young people (attempting to further a “proud” cause), a strong family unit may be critical to give your child a foundation of principles.
I’m just a philosopher, and love everyone and the way we all roll with the punches, continuing to understand and appreciate each other on many levels. We’re all “good people,” especially when it comes to our kids. But things have changed since the 50’s, when traditional values created a world our kids would … grow up in, but wake every morning seeming only to strive to change. Make it better … donning a hat of magical importance empowering them to know better and initiate change without the benefit or bother of study or history.
I think we’ll always have a great stock of lumberjacks and sumo wrestlers, and I don’t think anyone cares if the most macho of them are male or female. The way God makes us, most will continue to be male! No-one cares if the scariest motorcyclist at the bar turns to you and effeminately asks to borrow your ketchup. We’ve “come a long way, baby!” So far, my analysis has everyone basically good, with lots of unusual, non-standard families, but mostly doing great jobs mixing and matching and making sure mom and dad co-parent well. Unfortunately, Houston, there still seems to be a problem.
The Pink Donkey
As unwelcome as my news may come to you, our families are being attacked, actively. And it’s purely political.
It’s difficult to imagine I don’t lose a few readers, turning a great philosophical ramble about kids into a political article. It’s really a shame. But these are wise foes, who’ve spent some time (years) infiltrating government for the sole purpose of waging a war of principles against good people, and family is their target.
You have rights, given to you by the same God disfavored by one political party. The family is at the center of Christian life, and Godly values are the basis for the US Constitution; that’s what’s being attacked.
When I was in public school, we saluted the flag every morning. The non-traditional brothers and sisters of Alcoholics Anonymous make a tradition throughout the world of saying the Lord’s Prayer every meeting. But while our politicians claim to be Christians, Barack Obama, serving as US President, refused to salute the flag, even when the press was taking photos. In the name of “individuality,” pride, power and whatever else you want to heap on there, many teachers today, themselves indoctrinated to challenge traditional family values, are using every freedom our veterans fought for to bend society into a constant flesh-based proving ground for impulsive behavior. They’re in schools fighting for the right to not have to tell you about it. Without parental consent, teachers are being caught (the whole time with support on social media) encouraging very young children to dishonor their parents and consider sex change operations.
Who’s In Charge?
This is an organized group, who operate under a strange pretense I’ll call “false pride.” There’s really nothing to their so-called “pride”; they are swept up by a movement intended to do nothing on its own; it’s only goal is to counter normal, healthy societies. It’s a tiny group in a world of eight-billion, but they enjoy full “poser support™” from big players, including major news outfits, Twitter, (with its millions of fake liberal accounts) and even the government, where men who wear heels are given raises and career perks.
Is it starting to “all make sense now?”
Churches were shut down during the pandemic, as were athletic clubs, but not casinos. The Governor of Washington called spiritual gatherings “COVID-19 ‘superspreader’ events.”
While it’s no longer the 1950’s, I’ve heard it said a healthy society breeds a sick one, which then breeds a healthy one. I wonder if it’s inevitable children growing up with a computer in their hands, in a warm house where someone else pays the bills, sharing fears on the Internet, creates a young person afraid to leave the house!
“Reluctance to attempt to understand the values society has already given you, always ignorantly demanding things … as if everything’s free and you’re always right.” — It’s a thing.
Be careful out there!
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Mark Urso
mark@markurso.com
@A_Candle_Lit

A single mom is a mom who is not married to anyone at this time. My sister was a single mom in 2016. In her case, she was single because her husband had been using and selling meth in 2014 when she was pregnant with their second child and he beat her so badly she was in hospital with broken teeth. The baby survived, and is my nephew Keenan Tecumseh. The marriage did not.
Everyone is different. Everyone has choices to take. God is watching. God loves us all.
A “single mom”? Does that mean a woman who became pregnant by a man or men to whom she was not married and gave birth? Does that mean a divorced mother? Or a widowed mother?
“Mom” is what I called my mother. To everyone else, she was my mother.