January 14, 2013
Click your heels together three times…
I am past the point of thinking that people care about what happens to our future in this country. Really, I am. I am now trying to figure out the best way to capitalize on the stupidity so that my family is safe and secure in their future. I spend a significant amount of time and resources ensuring those goals.
For those out there who are scratching their rational heads, wondering how people don’t care; I have the answer! It is simple operant conditioning! Operant conditioning the behavior resulting from a series of consequences. Don’t get hung up on consequences being ONLY BAD. Consequences are just the results of actions and can be good or bad.
Previously in history, people’s behaviors often were shaped by the results of those behaviors and the projected outcomes of similar behaviors in the future. An example would be not paying a loan on time or at all. In the past, the note would be called and the borrower would be without the item as well and having incurred significant penalties as well as having a negative mark in their credit history that stayed for a very long time. The good consequences for paying your bills on time would be that you got to purchase and keep stuff as well as increase you future potential purchasing power as far as credit goes. The bad consequences for not paying your bills on time would be penalties, repossession, poor credit and limited future potential buying power on credit.
I am not speaking about money solely, but using it as just one example. In the past, if you broke the law, you went to jail. If you cussed a teacher, you got severely corrected. If you talked back to your parents, you got severely corrected and so on and so forth. There was an unpleasant result for poor choices whether that unpleasant result was contrived or not. Receiving an unpleasant consequence TAUGHT A LESSON ABOUT choosing wisely and thinking ahead. However, that was the past.
What happens when you get what you want regardless of what you do? What happens when consequences are only good? Well, look around in America today. We are experiencing the consequences of more than a few generations being raised that way. It doesn’t matter what you do as long as you get what you want! Test scores are leveled for the sake of fairness. Everybody gets a trophy. Everything is a “right” now and must be provided for every inhabitant by the FEDGOV. People stay in their homes regardless of never being able to afford the home when they “purchased” it. The system of justice is fragmented and hit-miss as far as consequences AND our laws are about WIN-LOSE rather than right or wrong. “Somebody else will take care of it, because I don’t have to, BECAUSE it doesn’t directly affect ME.”
So, how does this translate into government? Who chooses our elected officials? That’s right! The masses of “me, me, me” select the people who will reinforce their comfort. The people who are chosen to “lead” will serve at the will of the electorate and ensure the comforts keep going because THEY WANT THEIR COMFORTS AND POWER to boot!!! They are doing their jobs which is to follow the wishes and goals of their electorate.
It all is very simple, really. Effort to “do” in order to “get” IS TAUGHT!!! There is no real compunction anymore for people to make efforts. They are going to get what they want anyway. Pragmatism dictates that it is the best practice to get the most for the least. It makes sense! My questions now center on the global rather than being socioocentric and focusing only on the US. If the rest of the world plays the same tune, then there will be VERY LITTLE motivation to change anything.
If I don’t pay my mortgage and the bank is forced to forgive it by the government, what happens when the government doesn’t pay its debt to the global community? Will it be forgiven just the same? If so, then forget about raging against the machine. You will actually be wrong in the new world order and more than likely receive bad consequences for your poor choices. It’s the old “switcharoo”. However, if the rest of the world decides to provide bad consequences for our nation’s actions, then HOLD ON TO YOUR HAT! It will be a bumpy ride.
Things may go back to the way they used to be. Until then just do whatever you want to feel good. However, if the lack of common sense and rational actions gets really uncomfortable for you just close your eyes and click your heels together three times…
— R. A. Grier