At 52 years old, I don't see myself as old, but I am old enough to have witnessed enough cultural trends to know that patterns come out of them. Whatever is considered “normal” today, will be built upon and become an exception for a time, but eventually the exception will become the new normal. For example, when my parents were young, television shows rarely showed a couple in the bedroom and when they did, they were in separate beds. By the next generation, Mike and Carol Brady were seen in bed together but the producers still left enough room between them for Jesus. Today, a generation later, prime time television comes very close to allowing what was considered soft inappropriate content just a couple of decades ago. It is now “normal” to see a young woman in a bra and panties on a television commercial.
But cultural trends don't limit themselves to the Brady Bunch or what today is considered acceptable on television. Back in the mid-1800's in Germany, there was a growing hatred for the Jewish people. As each decade passed, the hatred grew and the German children were raised in a culture that held the Jewish people in disdain. That became the “normal” for the German people and when WW1 ended, the Jews were blamed for not only being the cause for the war being lost, but they were also blamed for the economic upheaval that followed the war. By the time Hitler and the Nazi regime took control in the 1930's, the hatred for the Jewish people was at such a fever pitch, that when they built upon their normal, the result was the Holocaust. An argument could be made that the Holocaust actually began a couple of generations before WW2!
So that causes me to ask a question, “what is normal today?” Because I know based on history, that what is normal today will be built upon and whatever comes out of that creation, will become the new normal. While I can answer my own question a number of different ways, there is something happening today where we see building upon the normal right before our eyes.
Recently, the state of NY passed a bill that allows for an abortion to be performed all the way up to and through, the day of birth. In the last week, a number of states have followed suit. Other states, to my surprise, have never had limitations on late term abortions but never saw a need to make a law out of something they already deemed legal. So now, for pretty much any reason, we have a large number of states that allow an abortion all the way up until the baby's head comes out and he takes in his first breath of air. What was the exception, is about to become a normal in our society. Again, late term abortions are about to become the normal in our society.
Long before my children are my age, this new normal will also be built upon. What will that look like? Will a mother be able to say, “I can't handle the financial burden of my two year old any longer,” and then we legally have him euthanized? How about somebody's 95 year old mother who needs constant attention and who places a financial and psychological burden on her family? Will it become the new normal to just put her to sleep? Don't dismiss what I am asking as extremism or alarmism because history has very clearly showed us that pure hatred was built upon until it became the holocaust. If our new normal allows a baby to be killed at a point where there is no debate at all that it is a fully developed small human being, then what difference does little more time make? If two years after the birth, the mother decides she just can't handle it, that her “health” is being diminished because of this child, what is to say that euthanization at that point won't become an exception that leads a generation later to a new normal? If hated was a normal that grew into 6 million deaths, what will our new normal be not long from now when our new normal is so grounded in death already?
So I ask again, what else is becoming today's normal? A disdain for Christians and Jews? A mocking of the bible and it's standards? A complete degrading of conservative values? The desire to rewrite the American Constitution? God Himself demoted into an antiquated old geezer who is out of touch with today's reality (if He exists at all)? A fully developed human being having it's brain sucked out by a large needle? That and much more is becoming our new normal. And where are you with all this? Where is your voice? Are you opposed to the current cultural trends? Do you see a scary new normal being thrust upon a society that is half asleep? If so, I suggest you speak now or forever hold your peace. For one day, soon, if left unabated, this disregard for human life will evolve into a place where those who are “in the way” of societal growth will face their own Auschwitz. History always repeats itself.
But cultural trends don't limit themselves to the Brady Bunch or what today is considered acceptable on television. Back in the mid-1800's in Germany, there was a growing hatred for the Jewish people. As each decade passed, the hatred grew and the German children were raised in a culture that held the Jewish people in disdain. That became the “normal” for the German people and when WW1 ended, the Jews were blamed for not only being the cause for the war being lost, but they were also blamed for the economic upheaval that followed the war. By the time Hitler and the Nazi regime took control in the 1930's, the hatred for the Jewish people was at such a fever pitch, that when they built upon their normal, the result was the Holocaust. An argument could be made that the Holocaust actually began a couple of generations before WW2!
So that causes me to ask a question, “what is normal today?” Because I know based on history, that what is normal today will be built upon and whatever comes out of that creation, will become the new normal. While I can answer my own question a number of different ways, there is something happening today where we see building upon the normal right before our eyes.
Recently, the state of NY passed a bill that allows for an abortion to be performed all the way up to and through, the day of birth. In the last week, a number of states have followed suit. Other states, to my surprise, have never had limitations on late term abortions but never saw a need to make a law out of something they already deemed legal. So now, for pretty much any reason, we have a large number of states that allow an abortion all the way up until the baby's head comes out and he takes in his first breath of air. What was the exception, is about to become a normal in our society. Again, late term abortions are about to become the normal in our society.
Long before my children are my age, this new normal will also be built upon. What will that look like? Will a mother be able to say, “I can't handle the financial burden of my two year old any longer,” and then we legally have him euthanized? How about somebody's 95 year old mother who needs constant attention and who places a financial and psychological burden on her family? Will it become the new normal to just put her to sleep? Don't dismiss what I am asking as extremism or alarmism because history has very clearly showed us that pure hatred was built upon until it became the holocaust. If our new normal allows a baby to be killed at a point where there is no debate at all that it is a fully developed small human being, then what difference does little more time make? If two years after the birth, the mother decides she just can't handle it, that her “health” is being diminished because of this child, what is to say that euthanization at that point won't become an exception that leads a generation later to a new normal? If hated was a normal that grew into 6 million deaths, what will our new normal be not long from now when our new normal is so grounded in death already?
So I ask again, what else is becoming today's normal? A disdain for Christians and Jews? A mocking of the bible and it's standards? A complete degrading of conservative values? The desire to rewrite the American Constitution? God Himself demoted into an antiquated old geezer who is out of touch with today's reality (if He exists at all)? A fully developed human being having it's brain sucked out by a large needle? That and much more is becoming our new normal. And where are you with all this? Where is your voice? Are you opposed to the current cultural trends? Do you see a scary new normal being thrust upon a society that is half asleep? If so, I suggest you speak now or forever hold your peace. For one day, soon, if left unabated, this disregard for human life will evolve into a place where those who are “in the way” of societal growth will face their own Auschwitz. History always repeats itself.
