“…’til the sun and the whiskey went down.”
J♣
It’s funny watching the changes that have swept through the ‘sphere over the past decade.
It’s almost unrecognizable when seen side by side with its origins.
Then, it was men trying to score notches on their bedposts, get a long-term girlfriend or just get more women to show more interest in them.
Now it seems to be comprised of an increasing number of crusaders of various cuts for myriad causes.
Truth be told, I’ve no grievance with that significant alteration.
Lord knows the world needs men to fight the rot.
However, something about it all has irritated me like a burr in the saddle-blanket.
Sure, causes need soldiers to champion them.
But I wonder how many of these guys fight the day to day battles that come with no glory but heaps of heartache.
How many of these militant would-be-world-changers forgo tipping the waitress who gave awful service?
Or silence people that are causing a disturbance in the library or movie theater?
Or chastise a contractor that failed to do the job for which he was payed or did it to sub-standard quality?
Realize, letting those things slide isn’t “being nice”.
It’s setting the next person up for trouble.
(Since those scoundrels got away with it, why would they change?)
It’s punishing the folks that perform the tasks mentioned well.
(They behaved or worked hard yet got no reward for doing so.)
It’s hiding cowardice behind kindness.
Understand, “turn the other cheek” and “judge not lest ye be judged” aren’t about being nice.
They’re about forgoing pettiness and avoiding hypocrisy, respectively.
Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Maybe that’s why I’ll take a good, old Western any day over the modern “save the universe” film fare that the masses gobble up by the bushel.
Gluttonously devoured since it’s easy to ignore the daily evil that surrounds us if we focus on the largest, most unachievable good we can see.
Yet, I’m of the mind that, if every town ran the sons of bitches causing trouble out:
The world wouldn’t need saving.
J♣
80-Proof Oinomancy 
March 12, 2019 at 5:11 am
So glad you combine plain talk of biblical concept with a lesson. Would love to see more.
As for your post two things immediately are apparent to me.
1) It’s actually very easy to make to world a better place
2) That fact that so many find it hard, including myself, horrifies me
What a world we live in eh?
A prison of our own making.
Recall you and I agree that indecision is a much a decision with effects as making one. So this world was made as much by inaction as action – and maintained that way as well.
Wald
March 19, 2019 at 5:04 am
Wald,
“Recall you and I agree that indecision is a much a decision with effects as making one. So this world was made as much by inaction as action – and maintained that way as well.”
Well said, man.
Well said, indeed.
Warmest regards,
A♠
March 18, 2019 at 5:15 pm
A♠,
“Yet, I’m of the mind that, if every town ran the sons of bitches causing trouble out: The world wouldn’t need saving.”
I think in a world of mass media and massive national governments, which have such decentralized yet pervasive reach, a majour problem is that the sons of bitches don’t live in anybody’s town.
But that said, it makes your point even more valid – moral degradation, collapsing community standards and delinquency will have to be dealt with at the local level, not another ‘War on (X)’.
JD
March 19, 2019 at 5:05 am
JD,
Excellent points all ’round.
Sincerest thanks,
A♠
April 25, 2019 at 8:53 am
“…focus on the largest, most unachievable good we can see” – UNACHIEVABLE, in my mind, is the key word here. There’s no shame (people think) in being incapable of doing the impossible, so what better battle to fight than the one you can’t be blamed for losing? Because if you know for a fact that you’ll lose, you don’t really have to try all that hard, do you? – it’s not even your fault.
(See: modern-day Marxists, eco-warriors, etc. – I’d include many of the people ostensibly on “our” side of the culture wars, tackling the Big Important Issues(TM) of the day rather than the small, actually impactful day-to-day stuff)