Mediocrity


There is a fever in America today. It is not a plague in the epidemical sense, but it infects far more people than any disease ever has, and it has no vaccination for those whom have contracted it.

It stings the very senses of one's soul. Once contracted, it billows around its' host, until it interacts with a neutral bystander. The more vivid the disease becomes to the community, the more likely it is to infect others. It is easily promulgated. Spreads largely through word of mouth.

I profess to be a lot of things. Student, runner, aspiring attorney, etc. But I never will be a cynic.

This nation is filled with individuals whom saturate themselves until they are fat and happy with material contetment. They escape from the mechanized gears of life's struggle, with alcohol, television, and vice. They settle for the illusion of safety, over the excietment and danger that comes with even the most peaceful progress.

The future does not belong to these pagans.

It does not belong to those whom prefer outworn slogans and obsolete dogmas. It does not belong to those who cling to a present that is already dying.

Let me preface what I'm about to say with the following disclaimer:
I am a registered Democrat. I believe in firm government assistance to the poor; faith based initiatives; I believe in strong national defense; Universal health care. I drive a Volvo; My single credit card issued from Chase is in partnership with a certain Seattle-based coffee company; I grew up in the North Shore of Massachusetts. I am consistent with William Safire's definition of a Liberal: "One who desires more government action to meet individual needs."

In short, America has has grown soft. Somewhere between 1968 and Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations", Americans grew complacent against the hills of self-betterment.
We became a nation of New York Times reading, McMansion mortgaging, Latte sipping, artisans. As did my party.

There are several weapons to combat this foe, or vaccinations to eradicate this disease. Ambition, effort, endurance, optimism, sheer force and more. Yet many in this nation feel it perfectly acceptable to succumb to the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. They become at best timid, and at worst irate, at the very idea of suffering. For the instant their dreams take them outside of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, they retreat.

This, inter alia, bothers me.

It concerns me, not because my lifestyle surges to become antithetical to these "qualities". It concerns be because what my grandparents and parents worked so hard to achieve is being taken for granted by my generation. We have become safely encased in the cocoon of leather-trimmed suburbia.

Enlistment rates for the armed services are at their lowest in decades. Patriotism peeled away from this country, just as the metallic flags affixed to our cars did after 9/11. When you drive down the highways of this country, you see sympathetically complacent faces. Where have the people whom were once smiling, laughing, and deciding when they were playing family game night? Or those who would wonder what they would do at the beach on their weekend? Or what the single mothers struggling to feed two children, would do to make their child's birthday special? The work ethic of this country has all but dissolved, seeping into their soda pop.

Children aren't outside anymore. They're caged by their fingers - On video game systems, computer keyboards, or portable gaming systems. Call me old-fashioned, but I challenge you to prove otherwise.

Young professionals have become chiseled into their ordained destiny. Commuting. Working. Drinking. Sleep Deprivation. Poor Diet. Excessive Caffeine. How is it, that a culture that encourages the advancement of Red Bull, 5 Hour Energy, and Aderol, is capable of keeping it's sanity.

Days go by when I feel as if I am the last optimist. Somewhere within the nucleus of all I stand for, is the collective energy of nature's influence. What I see, and what I hear, and what I perceive, has a limited effect on any person. These influential energies have for the better part of my "adult" life, been that of fierce pessimists -Individuals who fear the mere notion of challenge and its' friend risk. Most times I am able to put down my head, and simply ignore them. But when it swells to record levels, it seems almost irrevocable.

Almost.