Our local TV station runs a puff piece or two every evening of the year, pleasant stories about riverside cleanup, trail maintenance, new brew pubs, rallies, fund raisers for the homeless, fund raisers for our hungry children, all good effort and not to be despised. We are a generous people, after all.<\/p>\n
The focus is almost always on local groups of good hearted people working to correct what appears to be the failure of our culture and of our economy to help people. (It is notable the stories are about effort, but not much about outcomes.)<\/p>\n
And the list of help organizations simply amazes me. It seems nothing gets done unless it gets done by a group, and it seems if you want to get something done, first you have to join one, or organize a group yourself.<\/p>\n
However, I have a nagging suspicion the emphasis on “group” is slowly eroding the old American value of the stand-alone, rugged individual. Without that standard, I’m seeing a growing number of young adults who can’t or don’t want to stand on their own. They mouth the words “life-work balance,” and then go crying to their parents for money to pay the rent, while employers are begging for people who want to work. I wonder if the term self-reliance is simply an anachronism of the past, dead in this age of overly organized life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rod<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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