Moral Panic

In his blog, "Slacktivist", Fred Clark wrote about the phenomena of moral panics in society. He cited the Salem Witch Trials as an example, a case where the "morality" or the fear that evil was threatening society was so strong a panic ensued and 14 women, 5 men and 2 dogs were put to death.

Mr. Clark feels a better phrase would be moral hysteria. Panic is an involuntary response while hysteria grows when certain choices are made. Those choices include accepting assertions as solid evidence without allowing oneself to look at any evidence to the contrary, the decision to embrace and perpetuate at least the emotional drama and most likely the verbal/written drama.

Regardless of which term we use, moral panic or moral hysteria, as we become a nation, really a world, with more and more access to information, to research-backed data, to facts, we have become no less susceptible to this. The fear is perpetuated by politicians, religious leaders, the NRA, some of the more sensational media sources, and any group that aims to marginalize others.

Currently, the victims of the this type of thinking are Syrian refugees, Muslims, illegal immigrants and even sex abusers. We've taken a little bit of fear and let it overwhelm our responsibility to look at the facts, blinded ourselves to evidence from all sides of each issue and let our desire to protect our loved ones see enemies in the unknown. We're encouraged to do this by well meaning people and by people who have a warped sense of right and wrong. Whatever the reason it lessens us individually and as a society.

Mr. Clark is a much clearer thinker and better writer and his blog can be found on the Patheos.com site under Slacktivist.

Fixing Up

Mr. Wonderful and I have a convenient capacity to live in, not quite ignorance, but a certain willful blindness, to the slow inevitable deterioration of our home. We've been known to not change dead light bulbs for weeks, let broken furniture stay broken if it holds our weight, and walk around the pail catching the leak in the ceiling for too long. We are not the kind of people who spend the weekend rearranging the shrubbery or reroofing the house or building decks or adding bathrooms. Occasionally we'll rouse ourselves and start talking about what needs to be done but then we decide to go out to eat and get home too late to start so there it sits.

BUT, another child is graduating and the pre-party fix up is in progress. The yard and "garden" got an overhaul, a new kitchen floor, some painting, carpets cleaned, light bulbs replaced--we're going all out.

The problem is that this is our last child so once this is done, what will ever get us to get stuff done again. Some of you are probably saying helpful things like just make a list and do one or two things a week but I know how we operate here. We'll look at the list and agree and go to the hardware store to get the supplies and then decide that as long as we're out and about we might as well get a bite to eat and then by the time we get home it will be too late to start....