RULES

The Demon-Haunted World was published 23 years ago.

I understand from my years working as a clinician in psychiatric settings that psychosis or a personality disorder can make it nearly impossible for a disturbed person to follow simple rules. I get it. Voices in the head or compulsive need to be punished or whatever. I have seen it. I know it can be torturous for the mentally impaired. Constant trouble, financial failure, criminal record, etc..

What I am now observing all too regularly in my suburb outside of Boston is another thing. Petty criminality is rife. I have given up correcting customers ahead of me at self-checkouts for blatantly stealing. I used to point out the large items stashed on the lower shelf of a shopping cart which escapes the scanner above. I used to point out that the child in the shopping cart seat was playing with a snatched toy from one of the aisles as the mother tried to ignore it as she hustled to the door. 

My last foray into this policing occurred a few years ago when a psychopath whom I corrected for trying to steal something in a self-checkout tried to force me off the road with his SUV after following me out of the parking lot. I filed a police report with the locals and was treated as an annoyance by the officer who wrote the complaint. Sociopaths covering for psychopaths.

Now, I have no problem with the destitute, marked by emaciation and poor hygiene, when they whiz through a supermarket with a backpack for some basic nutrition or hydration. Hell, I'd even be willing to pay for the items if asked by the person. As it is, we are all paying for thievery, whether the people doing it are needy or not. It is considered part of the cost of retail. It is pumped into the prices we pay, especially the prices we pay for highly desirable and portable food items. 

What is the obvious source of this ethical breakdown? Parenting. Most of the petty thieves I observe in supermarkets are not destitute. And all too many of them are obese with obese children. It is not outlandish to speculate that adults who are petty thieves are the products of parents who were petty thieves. The disturbing realization that many of these adults have more than one child leads to speculation that this thieving will only become more commonplace. 

The radical Left, personified by the demented ANTIFA gangs, represent the rule-breaker trend as applied to social norms and politics. They flaunt sneaky anonymity, like masked burglars. They claim a right to violence based on their hatred for successful rule-following capitalists. They defy all rules of social manners and civility. Name-calling, scapegoating, hurling human waste ... these are more than tantrums by immature ideological minions. These are symptoms of a corrupted society, which is rapidly turning its back on the rules of Western civilization concerning law, order and free speech.  

We Americans are fortunate to live in a nation with defined legal ideals. Surviving and even succeeding to live a comfortable life in the U.S. is relatively easy, compared to most of the world. The rules, set out in legislation based in our Constitution, are the bedrock of that privilege, which is no longer White heterosexual privilege under the law.  

I understand the abandonment of dogmatic religions by an increasing number of young people in The West. Those 'faiths' have been exposed for their hypocrisy, sexual hangups and corruption. I do find it odd that some young people on The Left defend Islam vigorously while abandoning Judeo-Christian dogma. I chalk this up to abysmal ignorance of Islamic ideology, fostered by a collapsing education system which had origins in Christian schools and universities here and in Europe.

Dumbing down public and private education in the name of misguided social correction has been a disaster. Lack of foundation in the basic tools of understanding literature and science have created two generations of young people with limited ability to apply skeptical thought to their own lives. Common sense is lacking as well, because these young people have been protected from failure and direct criticism. They are not motivated to change themselves but rather resort to mobs to feel empowered to change the world to suit their weakness. To change all the rules they don't like.

This will not work for the human species. We have evolved through plague, war and disaster. We have evolved in better ways through rigorously debated philosophy and science.  Mother Nature does not hand a trophy to everyone. One of the ways we have reconciled with our fragile grip on mortality is to become socially civilized. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness represent the promise of a civilized, lawful society. Following the rules does not mean hiding who you wish to be. Following the rules for your own sake entails learning the rules and then learning how to be who you would like to be within society's boundaries.