When Reading This Blog ... You Are Not Alone

In case you are wondering who else reads this blog, here is a table giving you the answer.  These statistics were provided by 'BlogSpot.com', the host of this blog.

Thank you all for your social concerns!

United States	4152
Russia	631
Germany	421
Brazil	210
Ukraine	193
France	146
Turkey	123
Ireland	75
Malaysia	59
United Kingdom	55

Socrates-the Greek Philosopher (469-299 B.C.E.) Identified The Problem

Pretty much everybody senses that the morals of societies, worldwide, are in a drastic decline, while at the same time the societal problems are increasing at an exponential rate.  Why might this be so?  To begin with let us identify some of the manifestations of moral decline reported in the media.

 Driver ploughs into pedestrians
 Gunman kills and hurts many in movie theatre
 Service men commit suicide at an alarming rate
 Vandals destroy historical monument
 Teen commits suicide following harassment on social media
 Young man kills self; following prolonged inducement by young woman, to do so.

The list could continue practically forever, but we get the drift don’t we?  One might ask, what is going on here?  While violence in wartimes is readily understood, violence within a society is an enigma.
Some of the perpetrators of violence are young people, while others are soldiers returning from little wars in other countries, who become abusive with their spouses, and/or their surrounding.   The latter often suffer from depression, or the so-called post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, accompanied by personality changes.  Police officers are sometimes reported as spouse abusers, the very people called to intervene when domestic violence is at issue.

It is most difficult to identify the root causes of these extreme, and violent expressions, because the affected individuals mostly refuse to share their most inner struggles, with others.  Moreover, these individuals often seek to repress their dramatic experiences, either witnessed or perhaps perpetrated by them.  Governments in so-called developed countries, ours included, in the name of political correctness, have started to remove religious symbols from the lives of their citizenry.  It seems, I was mistakenly thinking the USA was a christian country.  Will they next remove all money which shows "IN GOD WE TRUST"?  Currently, in our country, historical statutes are also removed, by local authorities, for fear of offending some of us. Gangs of lawless people can be seen on TV destroying historical monuments without being challenged by the police.  Is not ISIS doing the exact same thing?

Whether or not one is a religious person or not, we should agree at least that religion represents a moral compass, without which too many of us cannot function in a civilized manner.  The cathartic redemption (catharsis), following confession and absolution, is indirectly taken away from some of these troubled souls.  Socrates held the view, that whenever we are unjust to others, or hurt others; we not only afflict damage upon the victim, but deal a severe blow to our soul as well.  A damaged soul brings about pain and suffering of the individual, if not immediately certainly in the future.

We, as members of the human society, should consider first being ethical towards others in all our dealings, and the ramifications for our own souls, before we inflict damage onto others, with words or deeds.  Socrates suggests that the damage to ones soul is greater than the damage inflicted upon the victim.

To me, it is amazing how Socrates’ description of the children of that day, fits so perfectly for the children of today.

“The children now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.”
― Socrates

Today some children turn into monsters unbeknownst to their parents.  In hindsight, parents acknowledge that their child was a loner, kind of withdrawn from the family, but they thought, wrongly, it was nothing to be alarmed about; they wanted to give their child private space.  Here too Socrates had the correct reason for the child’s created wall.

“Sometimes you put walls up not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to break them down.”
― Socrates


Parents must break this wall down, and show that they care, this way a child seeking attention and confirmation, need not perpetrate crimes to get the attention desired.

Our politicians are no good example for our young either; all they young people see is their greed and self-serving actions, to the detriment of the nation.  It is all about winning, thus corrupting the minds of the young; many of whom start to think that this is the norm, and must be adopted by them, in order to succeed.  Politicians are also a poor example, for our young, when it comes to losing; they cannot admit defeat gracefully.  Here too Socrates had the insight!

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.”
― Socrates

To fully appreciate the importance of a healthy soul we must also go back to the text in scriptures, which is very instructive, along the lines of the world’s great philosophers.  The bottom-line seems to be that the damaged souls will perish, while the undamaged soul will be eternal.  While there are many examples, I will only site a few, which leave no doubt as to the end of both the damaged and undamaged soul.  It does not matter, in my opinion, whether one believes God, or just the intuition of men possessing an undamaged soul inspired the scriptures.

Ezekiel – 18:4
For all lives are mine; the life of the father is like the life of the son, both are mine; only the one who sins shall die.

18:20
Only the one who sins shall die … .

18:21
But if the wicked  man turns away from all the sins committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

18:24
And if the virtues man turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does, can he do this and still live?  None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this, he shall die.

 It is evident that we all shall die at the end of our lives, therefore, Ezekiel must be speaking of a second death, after the soul departed the body.

Matthew - 10:28
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

The world's social conscience, ours included, is mostly, for all practical purposes, dead.  Consider the following.

 We no longer care, universally, for our fellow men (includes women)
 We take advantage of our brothers and sisters, on this planet, when and wherever we can
 We lie in our courts to win the process, for personal gain; truth no longer matters; lawyers are expected to help us lie more convincingly, and often they do
 We slander others falsely on social media
 We overcharge for services rendered
 We steal goods from stores
 We mistreat our spouses and the elderly
 We do not respect age
 We do not respect our fellow men
 Bottom-line we are no longer ethical in all our dealings

It is no wonder that so many people are totally screwed-up, and suffer the effects of their damaged soul.  Nowadays we have all these mentally disjointed individuals, seeking fame by carrying out ever more headlines making murders and mayhem.  Today, the grosser a posting is on social media, the more attention it gets; it goes viral so the saying is.  Everybody, it seems is trying to outdo the other, just to become viral on the media.

Our young people of today have been totally abandoned by us, the older generation, for some time now; we have thought them nothing about being a descent human being.  We buy them their first electronic device to keep them occupied, so we can concentrate on our own desires, instead.  We do not even perceive, or care that our future generation and we are going down the toilet.  It is probably fair to say that this current older generation has also been neglected, and therefore lacks the necessary skills to properly grow  this young generation.

Even if we do not care about the afterlife, let us at least care about the here and now; we must reverse this downward spiral of our morals and ethics now!  Save this young generation now, and you will probably help to save mankind's future.

If you care enough to bring about a reversal of  our declining morals and ethics, then kindly share this with your circle of contacts, and ask them to do the same; to borrow  a phrase from the young, it could go viral, and thus will influence many.