Editorial: What Has Happened to our attitude?
by The Standard | Podcast April 15 2021 https://thestandardnewspaper.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Whats-Happened-to-Our-Attitude-Apr-16th-2021.wav
You know, there was a time when cooler heads prevailed in our society. People didn’t think so much about their personal lifestyle and cared more for the very lives of those around them. They would never have complained publicly about their lack of social gatherings, parties and revelries; as if that were something of actual value, when compared to the security of our populace.
Today, people are crying foul over our Ontario Government’s efforts to corral the Covid 19 virus. How contemptible and ridiculous. What a series of cheap shots, hitting a Government when its honest efforts are in the middle of a crisis. It’s as foul as striking a boxer when they are distracted by a legitimate need in the crowd. The Ontario Government could not have counted on something like this happening in any of our present lifetimes. Yet, in selfish impatiences, some are complaining because we, in the crowd, can’t enjoy the show! What about that other crowd member who is hurt or could be? Wow!
In recent generations, we have been coddled, pacified, and become emotionally drunk on excessive ego-stroking, disguised as self-image. It’s more like an appeal to arrogance and self-importance, taught through the myriad of so-called “self-development” gurus, “educators,” and a disappointing PC mentality. Well, all of this needs to be set aside for a much clearer perspective, one which considers the more immediate health of the community. This is not to say the various psychological and social impacts of lockdowns shouldn’t be addressed. But opposing the Government’s effort, under the guidance of health care system experts, to save lives, is an effort to pit psychological and physiological aspects of health care against each other. I can almost see entities sitting back and laughing at the impulsive responses of people.
The really sad thing is, those who are not following the restrictions asked of everyone, equally, have made things needful to bring heavier restrictions, just as with children, who don’t want to stay indoors, feeling they are missing a time to play. A child taking a tantrum, usually because of lack of teaching about self-control, needs discipline (that is teaching and practised reinforcement) for their own instruction and safety, not just attention the way or whenever they want. Childishly, the very ones who complain of rights and freedoms being stepped on, often the privileges we enjoy in healthy times, are the ones stimulating their own struggle, by responding poorly. I believe, in reality, it is the dignity to stay healthy and alive in this land which is being defended by the Health Officials, the Solicitor General, the Ontario Government, and Doug Ford himself. Good on Ya mates!
The real culprit is panic, attempting to spread under the guise of care and anecdotal information. It’s unbelievable how some promote personal preference on the backs of real concerns, which should be better dealt with cooperatively. Many more people are now connecting, through our various tech platforms, spending time with family and friends.
They are becoming aware of struggles in the lives of loved ones, not revealed in any big way until now, and coming up against the guilt of neglect in relationships and out of a sense of powerlessness, they find fatigue. Many are accusing isolation in the lockdowns as the reason for mental and emotional maladies, and so, venting on Government. The actual fatigue here is like the fatigue experienced in an exercise and muscle growth regime. There is a period of time when expectations meet the hard reality. We come up to it, seeing things are going to take longer, requiring more consistent effort and trust in the guided process to gain the desired end results.
What happens when we come out the other side? Should we go back to denial, lack of perception in life’s learning, the weakness of “we want our cake and eat it too,” or anything less is tantamount to repression or justification for a temper tantrum, attitudes? This is where all goals fail, and disillusionment can turn to anger. If people feel sooo entitled, like sooo many do today, this can be mistaken for injustice. But the enemy is Covid and its cohorts of anger and grief, not the Ontario Government and the health care system. In any martial arts match, one effective technique is misdirection. If our opponent, the Covid virus and its fear-mongering agents, can successfully cause groups of us to fight alternative battles, this is dissipation.
Dissipation uses disillusionment to scatter the focus of its opponent. So if we, as its opponent, allow ourselves to fight at odds with each other, this will be dissipation. The Bible explains this is a sin because of the instability of double-mindedness. Instead, we could come together as one effort, with well-formed approaches working in tandem. Then we would not weaken ourselves, exhausting our resources. I take this attack on our society as a personal one. I believe it is an affront to the unity we have so directly purported to have up until recent times.
Throughout this pandemic, there have been doomsayers and complainers, who don’t like the way things are done, collecting and gathering testimony of the weak and using these people’s legitimate needs to grind their own axe. Some of their concerns are real, but their approach is divisive and the greatest harm we face. Left untaught how to master themselves, these can turn to bitterness, then to anxiety lashing out in depressive anger.
This is why people get fatigued in their efforts; it is undisciplined exhaustion, focused on a short-term forward motion, to gain, not grow. Instead of utilizing the growth built in to help them develop, “fish for life,” so our society can come out healthier overall, they desire to shrink back to the way things were. Short-sighted impatience acts much like a spoiled child trying to ‘pass a test,’ thinking I must get ‘past the test,’ instead of embracing the needful challenge to grow. They are “ever learning and never able to come to [the] knowledge of [the] truth.” I Timothy 3:7 KJV.
Inoculations are not the only thing, but neither is breaking of restraint. What about the next day? We will still need a “fish” for that day as well; so will disobedience to health regulations really get us past the problem. The goal here is to ‘learn to fish,’ learn to live differently with new consideration for the weak and susceptible in our society.
What goes around comes around, and usually with interest! So, complaining about what the Government is doing or what the medical system is valiantly trying is not solution thinking. Not to mention, expressing one’s insecurity at the expense of others, who may be psychologically susceptible to its influence due to preexisting inner conditions, may possibly be fuelling a new pandemic of a neurological kind.
To be kind is to address urgency with solutions and patience. I have reacted, innumerable times, counterproductively myself. Then you can see here, I’m not saying I don’t relate to the impulse, but being impulsive often gets one into a needless fight.
So, if you can come up with some real answers, then approach our officials with consideration and kindness and offer your good solutions. Use the system which is in place and allow the process and people to work. And oh yeah, if you do, pray. It certainly never hurts. Collectively, there could be an influence, one which is not just to get ‘pass the test,’ but to build a societal immune system against impatience and intolerance.