Ponderings whilst reading Hist 378 (History of the American Family)
February 2004
Personal accountability has become almost nonexistent. Criminals are a “product of society,” and society can’t be punished as a whole. We continually shift the blame: my parents didn’t pay enough attention to me as a child, the schools didn’t cater to my needs, video games are too violent. Society will continue to deteriorate if accountability doesn’t start happening.
If you murder, you face the death penalty. If you attempt murder, you face the death penalty. If you steal, you pay the price and serve the person somehow. If you drive drunk, you get your license revoked—permanently. Make the punishments harsh. Let criminals know they’ll have to face consequences for their actions, and the actions won’t be worth the consequences. Even criminals have agency, and we need to recognize that they’ve used their agency to make wrong choices—and must suffer accordingly.
We need to be more involved.
Is law meant to reflect public opinion? or protect the society as a whole? Should only those things which are fundamental to society’s preservation and perpetuation be protected by the law? Consider homosexuality, alcohol, drugs, etc.
Why isn’t anyone complaining about laws against prostitution? Surely that “infringes on rights”?
Where did we get this mentality of “I must be free to do everything I want”? About the only things we accept as flat-out wrong anymore are murder and theft, but even those are becoming ideals of the past—take abortion, for example. We never think of whose rights we might be infringing upon by demanding our “rights.”
Sex outside of marriage has two consequences affecting people who aren’t directly involved:
1. Children are born to the union, without belonging to a real family
2. By refusing to form a real family, the man and woman deny spirits the chance they need to gain bodies
The average American woman today stops having children at age 26.
Careers are what women “need,” apparently. Society tells us that we as women shouldn’t feel tied down, limited, or restricted by children; nor should we be the “lesser part” of a marriage. We can “prove” ourselves to be men’s equals in the workplace. Why should we let “obligations” at home stop us from being better, more successful, and richer than men?
What it comes down to is that women go out into the workforce, meet attractive men, have intimate relations without marriage, and continue this way for the rest of their lives. When they get old, will they regret not having any children or grandchildren? Will they wish they were celebrating their 50th anniversary, having a big party, receiving congratulations on such a long marriage? Will they want to go back in time and be faithful to one person, to love them all their life? How long will it take before these people realize how empty it is to go on this way?