Opus 2013-303: A Can’t Do Attitude, part 1 of 2

I was driving with the radio on because I wanted a traffic report.  It was a Sunday afternoon talk show, all women, talking about a topic of interest to women.  The topic was blended families and being step parents.  It isn’t that men are not effected, just that we would not spend a lot of time listening to it being discussed.  It seemed that each of the women had experience with remarriage involving children.  There were no value judgements about the growing phenomenon.  I didn’t have a big problem with that.  Kicking people when they are down is not courteous and certainly won’t help.  What got me was that they did not even seem to be aware that this situation was on the increase or feel it presented a problem.  They did not seem to endorse society would be better with less divorce and more intact families.  They had no vision for what could, or should, be.  They just accepted it as the way it was and debated the best way to deal with it.

This reflects the way the American psyche has changed.  It used to be when something was wrong we would admit it.  We believed we could fix it.  We would then try to make it right.  We had a “can do” attitude about all challenges.   Now we just shrug, say that’s the way it is and adjust our expectations downward to fit the circumstances.  Now we look for a government program to support it.  We have lost the belief that we can change the world and make it a better place.

Historically “blended families” have been common.  Women would frequently die in childbirth.  Men often died from work related accidents, attacks by animals and surprises of nature.  When this happened people girded up their loins and got on with life.  Remarriage was common but not because of divorce which was rejected by society.  Family took in orphans.  It worked.  The one option that they did not pursue was government programs and subsidies.

To be continued...

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