Americans Brought Down to the Level of Slovaks
There was a time in which you could walk through the streets of Slovakia and know for sure who was a Slovak because they were using a durable grocery store bag as a briefcase or gym bag.
They would not just carry groceries in it, they would use it for all manner of things. After all, they paid 25 cents for it, why not make the most of it.
I thought little of it. My Slovak students found it incredibly tacky to see this trend in Slovakia, in which people would use grocery bags as their bags for everyday use.
How Mundane Tackiness Can Displace High Standards
Eventually, I found their concerns valid. This, after all, was a people who would not wear sweatpants to the grocery store. They would not wear hair curlers to run an errand. They would not wear flip-flops to run down to the corner store. If they had a reason to go out of the house, they would look elegant when they left the house. That meant heels, makeup, and dressed to kill. Young or old, that was how you looked as a woman. Men were expected to follow a commensurate standard of protocol in their dress, too. Society demanded those standards of elegance. A grocery store bag reused for the 63rd time did not scream elegance.
It screamed tackiness.
The low standards of the West were creeping into Slovak society. In this particular instance, it was the low standards of Western Europe creeping in, a Western Europe in a state of managed decline under the leadership of ninnies who had fallen for the swan song of environmentalism. Marxism is Marxism. Statism is statism. Totalitarianism is totalitarianism. Those things are bad. However, if you call any of those awful policies “environmentally friendly,” suddenly they are welcomed back.
The Carefree, Free Market Solution That A Simple Grocery Bag Represents
When I lived in Slovakia, I liked going back home to the United States and again seeing our chintzy, little American single-use-only grocery bags that made for great kitchen scrap bags before going to the garbage dump. Then, after a time, they were made biodegradable. After that, they were not even good for kitchen scrap bags anymore. They really did then turn into single-use-only.
Today, in some places in the United States, you need to pay for a bag by law, and it is a durable one like the bags that Slovak grandmothers have used for years and which will not biodegrade. It is another tax on life. And perhaps more importantly, it is also another attack on the quality of life.
Americans now walk around like impoverished Slovak grandmothers, reusing their grocery bags 63 times, as if it were a fine Coach handbag. Men do this rather than buying a briefcase or a gym bag.
It is tacky. It is a diminution of standards. It is not the worst, but in the context of the major societal shifts taking place, it is telling of how things are going. It is supposed to be the poor country that gets richer and learns to emulate the higher standards of the richer country. Instead, it is now the richer country that is getting poorer and is being told it must emulate the standards of the poorer country.
In Your Own Life Is Where You Are Responsible
In your own life, you need to hold the line. You need to care for yourself well. You need to dress well. You need to eat food of high quality. You need to keep your home in order. You need to keep things to a certain high standard. You need to keep lies far from you: the lie of face masks included.
How The Face Mask & Grocery Bag Trends Are Related To Each Other
Much like the grocery bag, the face mask represents such a diminution of standards, except the face mask is so much worse. When you wear one, you tell yourself, your family, and the world around you that you are willing to buy into a lie. You tell yourself, your family, and the world around you that you will fall for all manner of cons. You tell yourself, your family, and the world around you that you will do whatever it takes to avoid the discomfort that comes with not complying.
That is pure evil.
And in that scenario, it is not a mandate that is the problem. It is not society that is the problem. It is you that is the problem. And you, your home, and your community deserve better.
Entropy Surrounds Us, Will You Be The Endurant One?
Everything around us is in a state of entropy and decay. You may not be able to change the world overnight, but it is your job to keep that decay from corrupting your circle of influence. In saying that, I mean that it is your job to pro
Article from LewRockwell
