I was called a right-wing conservative nutjob today by my favorite left-wing liberal nutjob. It wasn't so much the label that bothered me, ( as in all truth if I had to choose between ultraconservative right, and ultra liberal left), I'm almost certain once all the bets were in I'd roll my dice, and vote conservative. Its not based on any one issue. It's certainly not based on all the irrelevant issues rolled out to lather up the masses. I couldn't care less about abortion. I could care even less about the ten commandments in government buildings.

What I do care about is who we are. As a nation. Which brings us to identity. We tie so many things into our identities these days that we no longer know who we are. We base our identities on our possessions, our jobs, our education levels, and even our public affiliations. The fact that none of these things have anything to do with who we are isn't important. We shape our entire existences on what we are not who we are.

Go ahead. Look in the mirror. Is that you? Cover your face? Is it still you? Of course it is. No matter how many times you reshape your face, you don't change. Or augment your breasts. Or lift weights to build those pecs. None of those things; your looks, your shape, your car, or your friends have anything to do with who YOU are.

Its whats missing. Its what we used to have, and so many long for. We had convictions. We had values, and morals. As a people we understood the difference between right and wrong. We weren't ashamed to admit, and we didn't tolerate wrong. Now we just go with the flow.

Listen to music. Its all depression and hate and violence and rage. We tolerate filth in the name of freedom of speech, and we tolerate infidelities and lying, and theft as just part of the way we live today. You can be president and lie under oath and have apologists take up your cause. 100 years ago you would have been excoriated, and chased from power. Adultery is so common place that wedding vows no longer mean anything, and divorce is the biggest game in town. Its hard to imagine that if someone stole someones photos or their book 100 years ago that nothing would be done about it. Yet today we steal photos and stories online all the time. We do this with a smarmy little chuckle and a jab about how they deserve it for being rich and creative.

I don't think you can blame the internet, or the schools, or the churches. I think the only blame lie in the individual. Everytime you compromise your beliefs, everytime you sell out for the sake of creature comfort you become a weaker human being. You lose self respect, and you should. Unfortunately being weaker isn't so bad when you always take the easy way out.

That's who we are. That's why the world despises America more than any other reason. They see us as weak. The toothless lion. That's us. We will remain that until on an individual level what we believe in becomes more important to us than what we look like, and what we have. When principles are more important than partisanship, and honor and dignity are more important than popularity, maybe then we will again be a people worthy of the worlds respect.

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