Less than a century ago, the American was not defined by their status or possessions, but by their capacity to endure.
Zachary Patton – WashingtonStand.com
Less than a century ago, the American was not defined by their status or possessions, but by their capacity to endure. The darkest years of the Great Depression had our citizens rationing food, stretching pennies, and weathering immense hardship just to provide for their families. Generations before that, our ancestors dumped tea into the Boston Harbor to defy a tyrannical king, bled on battlefields to protect human dignity, and conquered the frontiers of both science and space.
They did these things because of a deep-seated conviction. As President John F. Kennedy famously reminded the nation as it furiously competed against the Soviets in the space race, we choose to do monumental things “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Today, that iron will has rusted. In an era of extraordinary material wealth, our national battles no longer are fought in the contexts of the high sea, on foreign shores, or in civic halls. Instead, we choose to spend our collective energy arguing online about Super Bowl halftime shows. Comfort has become our culture, and easy our default mode, all while we deliberately avoid anything remotely difficult. These choices are slowly killing the very spirit that built the West.
The Danger in Abundance
The contrast between now and what once was, should be jarring, if not outright embarrassing. We are the descendants of a people who fought for and shaped the longest-lasting written constitution the world will likely ever see, put a man on the moon, and unapologetically defeated the tyrannies of both fascism and communism. In Europe, Americans became immortalized for their obliteration of the Nazi regime.
Yet, the blessing of excess and luxury we have today has become our deepest vulnerability — our own cultural kryptonite. Modern leisure deactivates the individual, positioning us to sit dormant as we indulge in content from ever-larger screens. We abuse our excess, complain incessantly about our problems, and yet do little to nothing to actually fix them.
The data that affirms this cultural decline is overwhelming.
Civic literacy has met a gruesome death as a profound ignorance has swept through the nation. In a recent study, over 70% of Americans surveyed failed a basic civics literacy quiz over topics like the three branches of government, the number of Supreme Court justices, and other elementary functions of American democracy. Appallingly, barely half were able to name the branch of government where bills become laws.