Prussia

I have been reading about Prussia.---- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussia

Supposedly one of the main reasons for the great power and success of it was the culture of “Prussian Virtues.” They are listed as perfect organization, discipline, sacrifice, rule of law, obedience to authority, reliability, tolerance, honesty, punctuality, frugality, modesty, and diligence.

This is a very good list of virtues with one major exception: Obedience to Authority. Blindly following authority figures who were racists and madmen is what completely broke this large and powerful empire. Unfortunately it now seems that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction in many of the advanced western cultures of the twenty first century.

Extreme individualism has morphed into egotism and selfishness. Many people with quite limited experience in life and/or poor educations think that their opinions on complex subjects are just as valid as those people with far greater experience and education.

Disrespect for the rule of law is rampant. You see this on the highway in how many people exceed the legal speed limit, and you see it in all the people who smoke marijuana or drink underage. Tolerance has been replaced by in-your-face rudeness and discourtesy. Wearing offensive symbols like the burqa or a swastika to intentionally be aggressive is viewed as almost normal.

Refusing to use proper punctuation, capitalization, or paragraphs is clearly an insult to the reader. It is a way of saying that the writer is way too important to bow down to these literary conventions. So it makes the job of the reader much more difficult? I view this refusal to follow the rules of capitalization as just plain ill-mannered and lazy.

Frugality is a joke in the era of debt run amok. This is unquestionably true among individuals but equally true for companies and even cities, states, and entire countries. If you are buying a car which gets poor fuel economy on a 72 month loan you need to seek counseling; and I don’t mean credit counseling. Student debt is completely out of control. Until the bubble burst you could get a home mortgage with no down payment required and the payments would only be the interest on the loan - nothing at all towards principal. And you didn’t even have to prove that you had a job or the financial wherewithal to repay this home loan.

Rather than gradually becoming more tolerant and open-minded than they were in the 1960s, many societies have now become fanatical, bigoted, and prejudiced. Just watch Fox news if you need some proof. With everyone carrying a cell phone which allows them to call and say they will be late, punctuality has declined. Some people no longer even wear wrist watches. Modesty has certainly become a joke in the era of Botox and plastic surgery.

Life is still good for us old geezers in our 60’s, but the future doesn’t look so promising for the generations that are following us.
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