What’s The BIG DEAL With All The Immorality?

I had a debate recently with regards to the perhaps not so apparent decline in morality in the U.S., and globally. I’m not big on morals per say, but I can at least recognize when something has truly gone awry. One of the individuals involved in the debate said – and I’m paraphrasing here – what is the difference between what is happening now and what happened when we were growing up? I remember my parents listening to songs about cheating, committing adultery, or engaging in casual sex. The older generations always complain that the generations behind them are morally deficient, sending the world too hell in a hand basket. When in fact, they’re no different than they were.

Here was my response: The difference, if I might speak on it, is that these songs were not played in the public classrooms, at school events, sporting events, or on the radio without using the *beeps* within the music to attempt to mask what were thought to be inappropriate lyrics for younger ears. Also, kids couldn’t download (free of charge) and have access to complete albums containing explicit lyrics, popping them into their ipods and constantly streaming and embedding these song’s messages into their unconscious psyche through tiny, privatized ear buds. What we take into our conscious mind largely shapes the way we view the world around us; this input molds our perceptions and the way we come to define things and experiences. Children trend to look up to these famous images that are presented to them via multi-media sources. Reality T.V. today is also a huge culprit for deteriorating our moral boundaries and gauges. Life truly does imitate art, and what we are experiencing in our world today is a reflection of the art that media is giving the masses, not excluding social media and the ability it allows to share and spread immorality like a disease.

Those old school songs were played, yes, but as a young boy I wasn’t fully aware of what they were talking about until I was much older. You mentioned rapper Ice Tea’s “F**k the Police” song, implying that it was during our era and was very controversial. Yes it was, but that song was actually released at the end of what most consider true hip-hop, and at the commencement of gangster rap and the cultivation of black on black violence by the “War on Drugs” that was launched against the black community by the United States federal government ing the early-mid 1980s. That particular song, like many others that preceded it, expressed the frustration of black people being oppressed and mistreated by law enforcement – this time in the Los Angeles, CA. area. This bold expression was warranted at the time, and had a necessary purpose of refuting such horrible treatment from police officers toward humans. The song wasn’t using derogatory terms about our women just for the hell of it, as gangster rap – and rap music in general – would eventually come into doing.

We could debate this all night long, but what it really boils down to is how YOU wish to see our kids grow up, what kind of future world YOU want them to grow up in – either one of high values, dignity, and integrity, striving to live in their highest state of consciousness, or one that doesn’t respect you, your kids/family, your life, our planet, or life in general. If you desire the former, then what are YOU willing to do to bring it to fruition? YOU choose.

I don’t beat up on kids, for by and large they are a product of their environments – we all are to great degree. But we can all change. I do inspirational speaking to kids, and my goal is to encourage them to re-evaluate their own world views, and challenge them to create the kind of world they want to live in, and to be leaders in bringing that world into existence, guiding the generations that will follow them.

It is a personal choice – if YOU as an adult are cool with the world going in the direction that it is, you are certainly free to say or do nothing…just let it ride. For me, on the other hand, that just isn’t good enough. So you’ll see me in the trenches!

LOVE,

20 Bradford Spoke 14

Bradford Speaks is a Life Architect, Coach & Youth Speaker, who desires to wake up the world to see one that it could exist in if only it could employ more love and less hate and war. He seeks to speak to and inspire our youth to live at a higher level of consciousness, to see themselves as their brother’s keeper. He is also an author and self proclaimed philosopher. You may visit his company’s site, Bradford Speaks Life Management, LLC to learn more about his work, and to schedule individual sessions or book him to speak to your youth organization.