Straight talk

What this culture needs is straight talk rather than euphemistic gobbledygook about the perils of prom time (and moral behavior in general). Some politically correct radio guest spoke about "different impressionistic events" involving young people. I’m clueless as to the direct message here. Youth, he said, should "dress more affirmative" at a "stylistic event." He emphasized the "positively impressionistic" as he tried to "get a little historical about the problem we have." Oh, give me a break! Were these words about prom time? Don’t drink; don’t screw should be the frank message to teens at prom time or any other time. Our culture is now based upon obfuscation and equivocation. Our society pressures people to excuse every crime. In an ideal, vintage era of sin, such meaningless nonsense would not have been tolerated. As early as 1939, George Orwell noted that, "We have sunk to such a depth that the restatement of the obvious has become the first duty of intelligent men."

Where today do we find intelligent men and women? Or who now can identify the ‘obvious’? I’m obviously depressed over the state of ‘affairs." But it does me no good to rile myself or succumb to justifiable anger. Anger against self is one definition of depression. I’ve been there and done that with depression, but with age flows enough wisdom to confront the obvious without losing optimism.

We’re out here yet, we holdouts for straight talk and direct teaching about good and evil, about the advisable and inadvisable, about respect and the damage of the diss.