Hello, family. Let’s kill the small talk and jump right in it. Enjoy.
Last week, I had the pleasure of spending the week working in the beautiful climate of San Diego, California. And while the cool ocean breezes offered up a gracious pardon from the extreme heat and humidity of my Texas home, the excitement of my surroundings quickly subsided when I went to the gas pump. This is no exaggeration. I saw gas in San Diego for a whopping $4.85 per gallon. AND THAT WAS FOR REGULAR UNLEADED. Maybe my eyes are going bad, but it seems to me that everything is going up except for people’s salaries. People are losing their homes. The price of food is skyrocketing, the price of gas is absolutely deplorable, and we are still sending troops over to Iraq to fight a war that was declared won years ago. And, in the midst of all of this, I have to hear our president whine about how he actually believes that our economy is in good shape. And as I sit and listen to a host of economic analysts debate on whether or not our nation’s economy is going through an economic recession, I wonder if I am alone in my understanding that America’s economic woes may not be attributed to the laws of supply and demand. As a matter of fact, I would safely argue that what America currently suffers from is not a recession, but a depression. Yes, I said it. America is currently undergoing a depression. However, I am not referring to an economic depression, but a sociological and a national psychological depression.
While the two may be different in scope, they do have one great commonality–their resulting representations of the abnormalities that exist within the overall landscape of their respective areas. In other words, when there is an economic depression, there is an indication that there is something wrong with our economy. An emotional or psychological depression is an indication of one’s emotional or psychological imbalance; both of which illustrate inequalities within various economic or psychological factors. And while I can’t be completely certain of the exact causes of an economic depression, I have been able to gain a high level understanding of the factors that may lead to an emotional or psychological depression.
In an earlier blog titled, “Loneliness Continued…“, I mentioned that depression often occurs when one’s values are not directly aligned with their actions. For example, your actions may have you stuck in a job that does not align with your purpose or the things that you truly want to do with your life. Or, you may be involved in a relationship with a person that you are more than certain is not right for you. Or better yet, you may have difficulty experiencing, demonstrating, and expressing your own worth and value to others. In either case, one’s actions are no longer in parallel with their values, which can cause a person to experience a period of depression. And as I take a closer look at what has become the norm in American society, I can clearly see that our actions are no longer aligned with our values. Better yet, what are our values?
The very fabric that once defined this country, and our lives, can no longer be understood, as our values often shift with the changing trends of popular culture. The very things that we once fought against are the same things that we now stand for. The very morals that we once held true are the same standards that we preach against, as we attempt to “…change with the times.” We have even witnessed this same behavior within our legal system, as law is no longer a static phenomenon. Even today, the meanings of our laws have been left to their interpreters. Because of this, we have become a society, and a country, that accepts immorality, classism, sexism, and racism as long as it benefits us. We have become, at best, a society that has built its foundation on situational ethics. In one situation, we believe one thing; whereas in others, we believe something else. With this, we have unfortunately become a society that refrains from accepting responsibility. We have become a nation that desires the image of progress at the expense of family. And, we have, of course, grown to be a nation whose overall actions are no longer aligned with its initial values. Therfore, we have become a society that’s currently undergoing its greatest period of depression yet. Now that we have determined our state of depression, how do we overcome it? I am glad you asked. I will address that next time. Let me know your thoughts.
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