“In almost every fight we are
involved in here, on Capitol Hill,
whether it’s an amendment vote
that I’ll take later on this
afternoon, or a big piece of policy
we’re putting through our Ways and
Means Committee, it is a fight that
usually comes down to one conflict:
individualism vs. collectivism.”
Rep. Paul Ryan

Last Friday was called Black Friday for being one of the biggest shopping days of the year; Saturday was small business Saturday to encourage people to shop locally; I am not sure what Sunday was except Next to Normal Sunday, today, Monday, was the day for online shopping and the news reported that tomorrow Tuesday is Giving Tuesday, for giving money to charities.

When will this buying and giving frenzy end? Perhaps it will end sometime after Christmas when stuff is returned and after Christmas sales end. We live in a time of rampant individualism and consumerism, two isms that together when taken to extreme are toxic. The air we breathe, the horror of paying for someone else’s welfare, the war driven economy, the crushing of human rights, the abuse of power can all be traced to overreach of these two isms, consumerism and individualism.

At least that is how I see it. As someone would say that is ‘my opinion’ and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It is like wrong or right, common values, ethics have been overridden by individualism and consumerism.

We have four prayer vigils for homicide victims scheduled this week and there are more that happened over the weekend that we will probably not get to. One youth was shot allegedly performing a robbery when one of the customers in the store pulled out his concealed gun and shot him. One young man was shot by a police officer when the officer was chasing him as a suspect and fearing for his life, he claimed, shot the young man. There was no gun from the suspect found at the scene.

Carrying a concealed gun, killing people in foreign countries by remote control with Killer Drones, the growth of war business with the decline of jobs and many of our ills can be traced back to extreme consumerism and individualism.

This is not a political ‘Democrat or Republican” issue but a human issue. History has taught us, as we ignore the lessons of history that an ‘empire’ built on isms like militarism, consumerism, and individualism will eventually fall.

The empire is falling but we are too busy, buying, killing and avoiding sacrifice that we do not even notice. God Bless America this Christmas seasoning and help us to wake up to slow down our consumerism and individualism.

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