During the run-up to the recent presidential election, I really noticed a disturbing characteristic of our nation. People spend gobs of time and energy bashing our current administration and obsessing over what our next one should do for them, which is absolutely their right in a democracy like this one. However, I get the feeling that a lot of Americans expect to see change and progress from our elected leaders, yet they aren’t willing to make the necessary changes in their own lives.
It’s easy to band together and demand a change from the status quo, but individually we often remain stuck in our own ways. We want collective change, but only if we personally don’t have to make any sacrifices or difficult transitions; heaven forbid should we have to do that! When the promised changes don’t materialize, we are lightning quick to start calling for the heads of the people in charge.
Flat out denial and finger-pointing don’t solve anything, but they allow us to avoid the possibility that our problems could somehow be at least partly self-inflicted. It’s a pretty lame cop-out, but millions adopt it as a way to live. Here are a few places where I see this happening…
Personal Finances: I understand that a lot of people are seriously struggling right now, and I feel for them. Despite their best efforts to get ahead, it’s extremely hard in this environment. However, I also know that there are a lot of people who bitch and moan because they think they’ve got it bad, but in reality they are the digging their own grave.
How many people would you estimate are out there teetering on the brink of a complete financial meltdown, with creditors calling daily and the bank ready to pursue a foreclosure, but they continue to manage their money without a lick of common sense? They smoke a pack a day, eat out five times a week (and probably pay with plastic to boot), and don’t even make an effort to budget their money. Yet I’ll be willing to bet that while they’re sitting on their cans chain-smoking, they’re blaming others for their misery. The government needs to help these people out; let’s print some more money out of thin air and give it them so they can go stimulate the economy with more cigarettes and Wendy’s! Then maybe we can help them better afford their $300,000 house on their $35,000 yearly salary. Come on Washington- help us out here!
Energy: We all want government and businesses to give us cleaner energy that’s cheaper than what we have now, but only a small fraction of Americans are making the necessary changes in their personal lives to make this a reality.
So you commute to work in a V8 monster and live in an energy-hogging McMansion, but you complain about high energy prices? What a hypocrite. You are a huge part of the problem, so don’t be bitching about a lack of solutions. If you are still using gobs of energy even at high prices, you send the message that you don’t care enough to change. When you send that message, no changes materialize! Who would have thought?!
Why complain about the big oil companies when you are heavily supporting their record profits? You know why they make so much money? Because Americans are so damn wasteful. All they’re doing is supplying our demand. The next time you’re filling up your gas-guzzler, you should feel good knowing that you are supporting the oil sector and discouraging alternative energy!
This post was a bit cynical compared to most, but I had to get it off my chest. I could list more examples of this, but you get the idea. Basically, I see a lot of complaining, but not much action to back it up. If people would put half the effort into doing as they do into whining, we would amaze ourselves.
Real change isn’t easy. It sometimes hurts. It involves sacrifices. But if you want to make progress, then it’s a necessity. So what’s it going to be?
This post developed in part from the comments on John’s post- President-Elect Obama
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