“Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! Let nothing be lost upon you. Be always searching for new sensations. Be afraid of nothing.” 

-Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

That quote is really all there is to say about this day and age. Many people have chosen to live by this creed and, with it, have spiraled further and further into hedonism and, in many cases, outright moral madness.

The Grammys were an excellent point of reference here. While I absolutely love that both Lorde and Daft Punk got the recognition they deserved, it really hurt to see the performances, the “entertainment” that was provided to the public. You may not believe in Evil walking among us, but at the very least, the Grammys should have made you stop and ponder the question.

You see, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, the title character ends up traveling down a dark and twisted path to sin and degradation. He never ages. His sins are never made bare. He remains young, beautiful and thoroughly enraptured by life’s pleasures. Not once does he stop and think that something is wrong. He follows temptation down every rabbit hole he can find. And it ultimately proves to be his undoing.

Dorian Gray is a lot like many in today’s society. There is a calling to do what feels good to the body. What once was deviancy is now made normal. Sex, drugs, and media have all taken their toll on our culture. A woman is Texas who believes that no matter how much it make look like a human, a “fetus” from 20-40 weeks is not a person, but a parasite that can get in the way of a woman’s rights to go out and create another expendable parasite.

The media will not tell you that. They will only tell you that this woman, who they love and want to be the next governor of Texas, fought for women’s health.

There is a calling to legalize marijuana. Its effects on the human mind and our culture are widely known, but no one stops to think about that. Instead, it’s being treated as a right we should have. We have too many people in prison because of the criminalization of pot. It’s unfair to them to keep them in prison for such a lame offense. We deserve to be able to get high without fear of arrest

The media will not tell you the bad effects of drugs on our culture. They will only tell you about how many are in prison for an awful reason.

There is the push to eradicate the traditional family. I am a squish on the issue of gay marriage, but this extends far beyond that. This is the subject of a two-parent household, active involvement in children’s schooling, and the realization that children do, in fact, do better in life when they have these things.

The media will not tell you that. They will only tell you that the poor are struggling and need more taxpayer money to survive. Always a band-aid, never a cure.

We’ve lost our fear, as the quote above commands we do. We have lost the fear of evil, the fear of death, and, worst of all, the fear of God. We have nothing we are afraid of, anymore, and when that happens, we slip further and further into madness. There is a certain rabidness of the people who advocated for abortion, drug legalization and a new family dynamic, but there is no dedication to fix the cultural problems that these issues create. A new issue pops up and, naturally, we’ll find a government band-aid to put on it for a little while.

When we talk about politics and culture, many people would love to see them separate, but we have reached a point where they simply are not.

I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. Only one mortal has ever been perfect. But we lose sight of him, and that will doom us all.