I’m NOT Hypocritical

I, as a part of the human race, am prone to hypocrisy. I criticize the meat industry, yet I am often guilty partaker in the joys of eating fast food when it is offered to me. I proclaim the benefits of aerobic exercise, but I despise running. I preach the benefits of starting papers early to allow time for revision, but I am writing this opinion piece the day before it is due. I complain about not having free time, and then proceed to spend six hours making danishes. Hypocrisy is an ever present thistle in our individual lives, and it is even more exemplified in the larger purview of humanity. Groups, religions, and cultures all contain features in which the values and the actions are inconsistent. We cannot view of culture through black-and-white lens, either all good or all evil, because such a lens allows us to defend and dismiss the negative aspects of our own culture.

Across a wide range of different regions in the world, many cultural practices defy the values held by that same culture. Homosexuality is traditionally viewed as sinful by practicers of the Muslim faith. In the conservative Islam world, punishments for openly practicing homosexuality are very severe. Saudi Arabia and Iran have even instituted the death penalty for anyone who is proven guilty of sodomy. Yet, “gay life flourishes” in Saudi Arabia, the only country in the Middle East to claim the Islamic law as its sole legal code. It is much more culturally acceptable for two men to meet alone, than a man and women who are unmarried to one another. Yassar, a twenty-six year old gay artist who lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, explains,  “It’s a lot easier to be gay than straight here. If you go out with a girl, people will start to ask her questions. But if I have a date upstairs and my family is downstairs, they won’t even come up.” In trying to prevent premarital relations, the culture effectively condones same-sex relations, a much more severe offense.

Many priests within the Roman Catholic Church similarly fail to practice their teaching of purity within the clergy. Only celibate, unmarried men can be appointed to priesthood within the Catholic Church. This policy leaves little room for the natural sex drive present in humans, which was created by God according to the religion. Hundreds of Catholic priests have been accused of committing sexual abuse on children, especially young altar boys, in the past few years. The problem is so widespread within the Church that the New York Times even has a page dedicated to sex scandals within the Church. The combination of the limited transparency and the priests’ unfettered access to the boys in one-on-one sernerios has proved rampant breeding ground for abuse, and the Church has done little to change its current policies. By attempting to allow priests to “more easily remain close to Christ with an undivided heart” through celibacy, the Catholic Church has excused the unaccepted behavior of priests towards children, and scarred many victims for life.

Even in non-religious cultures, there is deviation between what is preached and what is practised. The United States may have once been dominated by Christianity, but American society is becoming more and more secular. Where homosexuality was once a crime in almost every state, it is now widely accepted and celebrated. Many Americans no longer attend Church every Sunday, instead sleeping longer or going on trips. However, the topic of sex is still taboo in our culture. The word is whispered, rather than discussed maturely, as if it were a point of shame not a healthy, natural process. Yet, the numbers show that the subject is not far from the minds of the American public. Every second, there are more than 28,000 users watching pornography, generating more than $3 million from internet pornography views. As a result, there are more than 200,000 Americans addicted to porn, and 40 million regular porn viewers. The porn industry is extremely detrimental to families. Forty percent of people addicted to pornography lose their spouses. Even more shockingly, “Pornography use increases the marital infidelity rate by more than 300%.” The list goes on, but the consensus between these statistics is that porn is harmful to society, and even if we can’t talk about it, America has a sex problem.

We must recognize these hypocrisies in the world around us. Failing to do so lends the danger of simply dismissing an immoral action because it is “part of a culture” or just “who they are.” As we need to held personally responsible for our actions so that we can be constantly improving, we need to hold cultures responsible for their actions. It’s almost always easier to accept and ignore imperfections, but it almost never yields better results. No one is perfect, and because cultures are comprised of people, no culture is perfect. Once we are ready to acknowledge this fact, we can begin to judge even imperfections by a more fair and understanding lens.

Rich and Famous: What Could Possibly be Better?

  This is a piece I wrote for English, and I thought I'd share it with all of you, whoever you are.

On this particular Saturday, I decided to drag myself out of bed just a bit earlier than normal so that we can get going on time. I made breakfast and packed the ski stuff before showering and finally sitting down for my first relaxing cup of coffee in over a month.

We’re heading up to the slopes for the day, and I want to make sure we get there in time for a full day of skiing. There’s nothing worse than getting to four and wishing we could keep going. Unfortunately, we live about two hours away. Not exactly ideal right now, but we couldn’t beat the quick hop, skip and a jump away from the grocery store and my sister. Not to mention the literal walk to my work and the school.

I am starting to hear my kids stir upstairs and my five-year-old twins come bounding down the stairs, effectively waking the whole house except my youngest, who is two and can sleep through literally anything. Alright, I think to myself. It’s time to get going. My husband is on travel this week with our non-profit so it’s up to me to make sure everything is in order. Thankfully, the kids are so excited and ready to go this morning! A veil of snow fell throughout the night, leaving a white wonderland behind at our house. The mountain’s going to have even more snow. This, I think. Is what life is all about.

This snapshot of my perfect future reveals more about my dreams and goals than any cliche American dream ever could. The “American Dream” that has informally existed for over a century is such an abstract and generalized idea that it cannot possibly apply to the diverse makeup of the current United States. According to Webster, living the “American Dream” entails working hard and becoming successful by having a good job, a nice house, two children, and, lots of money. But most importantly, the American Dream rests on the tenant that Americans will have the opportunities to lead a fulfilling life. We are not stovepiped from an early age into a fixed career, determined by our parents or our grades in school or even us.

Personally, my “American Dream” doesn’t center around a desire for great monetary wealth, or having an especially nice house. Rich people have their own set of problems with fulfillment and greed, and I definitely don’t possess a burning desire to put those burdens upon myself or the people I love. A nice house comes with challenges, as well. If the house is too big, then upkeep and cleaning is a significant amount of work. But if I hire someone to clean or maintain the house, then I’ll spoil myself and my children. While I don’t want my children to know hunger or pain, I also don’t want them to have everything handed to them on a golden platter. Creating a strong work ethic rather than a sense of entitlement will give them more of an idea of how to be successful and find fulfillment in their lives than any check, no matter how large, that I could ever write them.

Instead, my dream centers around building a life dedicated to aiding humanitarian causes that improve broken aspects of society and looking for personal success beyond the paycheck and fulfillment in experiences and relationships in my life. However, I do acknowledge that such a life is impossible without a certain degree of financial security. Sometimes it is necessary to hold a mundane job for the money. Above all else, I need to ensure that in chasing my dreams, I do not become reckless and irresponsible because the only thing irresponsibility would achieve is placing pressure on the relationships that I mentioned earlier are so important to me.

Placing important people in my life like my family, my future husband and kids, and my friends, at the center of my dream, allows me to divert my focus from myself and evaluate what I really want from life. Even though I would like to travel, my adventures would be meaningless if I had no one  to share them with. The same principle is true for my occupation. When looking towards a career in politics, it would be easy to simply focus on myself and my personal successes, but I am certain that my personal gains would be worthless if they did not contribute to the betterment of society as a whole. Politics is the perfect medium to both serve and abuse humankind, and while abuse would bring me fleeting gains, ultimately it would leave me empty and render my life meaningless. At the end of the day, I guess my dream is to lead a life that others can look at, and say, I want to be like her. And not just because I’m rich or famous, but because they genuinely enjoy being around me.