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While the controversy surrounding Michael Vick continues to attract those who want to place blame on anyone and/or anything other than Michael Vick, a few stark realities present themselves all of which have an element of moral relativism. The sad fact of the matter is this; thuggery has seeped into every avenue of the American culture and our society is accepting it. That thuggery has been accepted in professional sports is a given. From the NBA to the NFL, the counter-culture, urban bad-boy image has been accepted as cool. One need only look at the offenses that professional athletes are being arrested for and charged with to understand the spectrum of the problem. From Michael Vicks guilty plea in the despicable dog fighting scandal to former Chicago Bear Tank Johnsons repeated weapons offenses, from Charles Barkleys assault charge for throwing a heckler through a window at a local bar to the Baltimore Ravens Ray Lewis skirting murder charges through a plea deal, the idea that professional sports figures should act as a role models for our nations youth has been discarded and their behavior deemed acceptable as long as it generates the almighty dollar. The urban counter-culture bad-boy image or gangsta image prevalent in most of todays professional sports and modern music cultures, preys on those susceptible to its superficial allure, its faade of machismo, using the most base of human instincts superiority through violence. Those who fall prey to the ghoulish magnetism of thuggery are not only proliferating this intellectually stunted societal ill but they are being used by the greed element in our society as well. Whether its the selling of the next gang symbol infused product to wannabe-punk suburban adolescents or the acceptance of collateral damage in the form of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent lives lost to the on-going and expanding epidemic of inner-city gang turf wars, thuggery is encroaching into the American mainstream at an alarming rate. Our society, through the ideological cancer that is moral relativism, has taken to rationalizing the cause of many a heinous act to any number of mitigating factors while excusing those who commit these acts like Michael Vick as victims instead of the self-centered, pampered elitists that they are. This rationalizing of purposely bad behavior facilitates a growing citizenry of conceited, entitlement-seeking malcontents who demand that they be seen, understood and accepted as correct on every issue and in every circumstance regardless of how the facts of the matter may present or what the rules and laws mandate. The result is a society that increasingly refuses to take responsibility for its actions. We not only see this epidemic on an individual level, we see it on an organizational level as well. When we look at political action groups like MoveOn.org and ACORN that mount politically aggressive and many times factually slanted and inaccurate campaigns, using nationally and sometimes internationally acquired funds, to target individually elected officials regardless of their political affiliation we are witnessing thuggery in the political arena. When we see the morning news shows of the mainstream alphabet media covering Democrat presidential candidates “nearly twice as much” as their Republican counterparts and framing the questions used during their interviews from a liberal perspective a majority of the time we are witnessing a form of thuggery in the informational and dare I say it intellectual realms. And when we see organizations like the ACLU and CAIR using the power of unlimited funds to perpetrate what amounts to a litigation jihad against those they oppose and disagree with we are seeing not only a bastardization of our judicial system but an example of legal thuggery. At the birth of our nation our uniquely American society had a very clear grasp of the concept of good and evil, of bad and good, of what was right and what was wrong. Individuals and organizations who transgressed the boundaries of the evil, the bad or the wrong were expected to pay a price for their misdeeds. Today, through the employment of the perverted and contorted logic of moral relativism anything can be rationalized and anyone even if they are the purveyors of evil can be a victim. All that our enlightened society expects from those who commit even the most monstrous of societal transgressions is an apology. The sad part about this reality is that because our society has become morally relativistic there is no threshold for how sincere that apology has to be. If you dont believe this to be true, just ask the dogs that Michael Vick and his thug friends killed…for fun and profit. |
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| Frank Salvato is the vice president and executive director of Basics Project a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(C)(3) research and education initiative. He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention. His organization, Basics Project, partnered with America’s Truth Forum in producing the first ever national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist terrorism with events taking place in Washington DC, Las Vegas, NV and scheduled to take place in additional locations across the country. Mr. Salvato has appeared on The O’Reilly Factor on FOX News Channel and is the host of the NMJ Radio show broadcast global on NetTalkWorld global talk radio and broadcast live on BlogTalk Radio. He is a regular guest on The Right Balance with Greg Allen on the Accent Radio Network, syndicated on over 25 stations nationally and on The Captain’s America Radio Show catering to the US Armed Forces around the world, as well as an occasional guests on radio programs across the country. His opinion-editorials are syndicated nationally and he is occasionally quoted in The Federalist. |
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S Baker said,
August 31, 2007 at 7:13 am
S Baker said,
August 31, 2007 at 7:16 am
GreatMRNI said,
August 31, 2007 at 9:43 am
Virtue said,
August 31, 2007 at 9:45 am
Artfldgr said,
August 31, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Artfldgr said,
Rap, and this thuggary got its start a while back… a combination of several modes of thought. One only needs to look at the work of Norman’s, of the franfurt school, to understand how keeping it real evolved. he was the one that wrote that being polite was disinengenuos, and eventually that came out to being rude is real, since you fake nice, but dont fake bad… ultimately in such a doctrine, murder becomes the highest form of honesty and truth.
but you would have to also read the work of anotehr frankfurt school man, adorno, who wrote about primitivization of music. almost as if he took a page from cs lewis (who came later), and copied screwtape letters. that promoting this kind of music, over the higher forms we were developing, would primitivise the culture. lyrics would not be listened to contextually, but in sound bites. and that it would be easier to basically pour ideas into it. those conservatives howling about rock and roll, knew and read adorno… but he is a dead white guy, and we dont read that, and so we dont realize that effect that he said it woudl have… it would make us more like uncultured natives (closer to eden utopia), and normans would make it real…
but what about rap? if you read the shills, you get stuff that says its authentic.. that it “sprang from the culture”. but the blacks have be de-cultured.. sad but true… and rap didnt spring up from that..
rap and its music, and normans stuff, was fomented on the black community by other blacks. specifically black natinoal socialists… all one has to do is know their history… just before king got killed, he made the mistake of including other groups with his movement to make a larger group. by doing so, he ligitimized the black national socialist (read black nazi communists), buy association.
when he died, a lot of cache went to the peopel that stood with him. well in this group was an interesting murderer… but the name of H “rap” brown… a lilting voice in the black superiority movemnet. “i see looting, and i see shooting. there is too much looting and not enough shooting” (paraphrased, since i dont remember the exact lines… Rap brown was known for making it ryme.
August 31, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Artfldgr said,
Rap, and this thuggary got its start a while back… a combination of several modes of thought. One only needs to look at the work of Norman’s, of the franfurt school, to understand how keeping it real evolved. he was the one that wrote that being polite was disinengenuos, and eventually that came out to being rude is real, since you fake nice, but dont fake bad… ultimately in such a doctrine, murder becomes the highest form of honesty and truth.
but you would have to also read the work of anotehr frankfurt school man, adorno, who wrote about primitivization of music. almost as if he took a page from cs lewis (who came later), and copied screwtape letters. that promoting this kind of music, over the higher forms we were developing, would primitivise the culture. lyrics would not be listened to contextually, but in sound bites. and that it would be easier to basically pour ideas into it. those conservatives howling about rock and roll, knew and read adorno… but he is a dead white guy, and we dont read that, and so we dont realize that effect that he said it woudl have… it would make us more like uncultured natives (closer to eden utopia), and normans would make it real…
but what about rap? if you read the shills, you get stuff that says its authentic.. that it “sprang from the culture”. but the blacks have be de-cultured.. sad but true… and rap didnt spring up from that..
rap and its music, and normans stuff, was fomented on the black community by other blacks. specifically black natinoal socialists… all one has to do is know their history… just before king got killed, he made the mistake of including other groups with his movement to make a larger group. by doing so, he ligitimized the black national socialist (read black nazi communists), buy association.
when he died, a lot of cache went to the peopel that stood with him. well in this group was an interesting murderer… but the name of H “rap” brown… a lilting voice in the black superiority movemnet. “i see looting, and i see shooting. there is too much looting and not enough shooting” (paraphrased, since i dont remember the exact lines… Rap brown was known for making it ryme.
August 31, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Artfldgr said,
if this keeps up… i will just go someplace else..
no reason to work, reasearch, compose, and such… to have it disappear..
August 31, 2007 at 2:18 pm
GreatMRNI said,
August 31, 2007 at 6:07 pm
Roger Knight said,
Understand that Tank Johnson played his college ball at the University of Wahsington in Seattle. In the State of Washington the number of firearms one who is without felony and domestic violence assault convictions on his record can lawfully own ranges from zero to infinity. And THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT TO REGISTER ANY SUCH WEAPONS WITH ANY GOVERNMENT AGENCY.
Makes the Mayor Nagin gun grabbing exercise after Hurricane Katrina impossible in Seattle and Spokane.
Of course, if a citizen has the right to keep and bear arms, he certainly has the right to transport them in his car!
At least in the State of Washington he does.
I think the Seahawks should hire Tank Johnson.
“And on the 9th game Coach Holmgren put Tank Johnson into the defense. And it was good.”
I like the idea of Tank in a Seahawk uniform putting the 49′ers quartback on the turf and two points on the board!
September 2, 2007 at 4:22 pm