Hey you.
If you are reading this, I expect this isn’t the first time you’ve picked up a Technician and opened it up to peruse the page of harebrained opinions.
So, I’d like you to take a look at the Viewpoint section from a slightly different perspective today. Have you ever thought about what happens when a writer’s mother reads his stuff?
I’m totally serious. Most of my columns involve some form of underage irresponsibility or worse. My stories are true; I’m really just trying to provide an entertaining perspective on college life, stick up for the every day man and maybe get a few good laughs out of the disgruntled students who frequent the Viewpoint section.
My mother isn’t my audience, but she still reads my stuff, and hopefully enjoys it. Every other week I have to explain my exploits: a difficult task that is only compounded by my utter inability to lie to my folks. Oh well, if you can’t be honest with the ‘rents, who can you be honest with?
The truth is, I’m a pretty poor liar in general — a deficiency that I am thankful for every day. I might be a lazy, irresponsible bum of a college student, but at least I have my health, most of my sanity and I can be honest about my life.
I think we can all agree that honesty is an essential descriptor of any profile of morality. I’ll further assert that most of us pretty much ignore or are ignorant of its importance, because I think honesty has all but disappeared in America.
For how many of us is honesty nothing more than a character trait of the month we had to write a paragraph about in elementary school? The pattern of dishonesty starts young in our society: kids are preached to about the importance of honesty and then see their role models and authority figures lie and cheat each other. It is quite an effective introduction to both deceit and hypocrisy.
People lie to themselves and each other, our government lies to its citizens and to other countries; the worst part is that everybody takes this dishonesty for granted.
I’m sorry for being preachy. I really am. I just feel like honesty is something that I need to address.
I hear complaints of how immoral our society is, how we live in a culture of death and materialism. I propose that every moral issue we have with our society is caused by the dishonesty of millions of individuals. Likewise, the only resolution to these issues will be found not in the truth — which is a relative idea that everybody already knows — but in the practiced honesty of people.
We are killing inmates based on a racist death-row policy and letting young mothers kill their babies in the womb. Alcohol enforcement is hypocritical; our drug enforcement policy is corrupt and ineffective. Students cheat academically and take advantage of our University; all while some University departments take advantage of students, faculty and staff. Our military is invading other countries for no apparent reason, killing innocent people in the crossfire of our hawkish policy. All the while, ‘religious’ people are too busy persecuting homosexuals and unwed mothers to do anything about real moral issues.
Whether you agree with me, you have to admit that there are some problems with our way of life in America, and we would all be better off if they were rectified. The solution lies in the honesty of the individual.
People chalk our moral problems up to the leadership in our government and vote politicians into office who claim to be honest and morally upstanding. They cast a moral vote; they pat themselves on the back and go on lying to themselves and their fellow man.
Success, money and even morality are social goals that have upstaged honesty in America. It is important to be successful and to appear morally straight; if you have to lie and cheat your way to this status, well, whatever. Most people just don’t lead simple, honest lives and think for themselves.
I’m not perfect; nobody is. But I try to be honest with myself about my flaws and misadventures, only then can I make myself a better person. I would encourage others to do the same thing.
Tell Kenneth how you really feel about him at [email protected].