tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32199165.post1425999338029265999..comments2024-03-28T15:26:12.621-04:00Comments on Blue Country Magic: Good Day, SunshineCountryDewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03243893531509380824noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32199165.post-88386061847859760002012-09-18T07:12:33.486-04:002012-09-18T07:12:33.486-04:00I'm a 70's girl, too. You reminded me of m...I'm a 70's girl, too. You reminded me of many things, both good and bad. One thing I truly miss is the sense of community. Knowing your neighbors and being able to call them 'friends' and the awareness you had of each other in trying times or celebration. I long for my kids to know this feeling of community today, but it's much harder. Even though we know who our neighbors are, everyone is too busy on the hamster wheel to be available to each other. Something feels very wrong. Christinahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03824060675675412629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32199165.post-68101900275686479182012-09-17T04:05:57.800-04:002012-09-17T04:05:57.800-04:00What a moving reminiscence. It's hard to look...What a moving reminiscence. It's hard to look back at the decades when I was sure that I lived in the best society on earth, because it assumed solidarity between citizens, a mutual social contract, with those in need helped by those able to help so that nobody need fear misfortune, old age, sickness, unemployment, all the knocks and accidents that normally make the lives of anyone not rich painfully vulnerable. Now the new consensus demands that everyone be self reliant, aspirational, competitive, aggressive, and sets out to demonise and punish, not help, those who are vulnerable and poor. This is such a cruel and selfish and greedy attitude that it is hard to believe a majority of people support it, but I think there is no doubt that they do. Why? Because those with a social conscience didn't consolidate their gains, I think. They sat back and thought they had achieved the new Jerusalem when they should have realised the old evils are never really killed. Greed and selfishness are always with us, and unless the case for a more civilised, humane society is constantly made, it is easily dismissed, simply because people naturally put "me" first, and will happily latch onto any policy which says that "me" first is okay, is even good for the country. Patriotic and selfish! What could be more seductive? Buy a big car for America! So social justice is dumped in favour of a bright, shiny, entrepreneurial dream, and anyone who isn't pushy and ruthless enough gets crushed.<br /><br />By the way, I had to smile when you recalled Jerry who "found the end of that piece of wood nearly every day." What better illustration of the truth that brutal punishment does not deter. But naturally we don't want to learn that lesson either.Briarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06242731014996459484noreply@blogger.com