BENEATH THE SURAFACE with PAUL MURANO
By: Paul Murano – Jan. 2024
Do you ever wonder how things in our society got so bad? All of a sudden? Do you feel like you live in an age of insanity? What happened!?
This is a question that baffles all people of good will today, especially those of a certain age.
No era in human history has been without its own particular evils. However, there is a large segment of our population today that remembers when people were civil to each other, and when politics was about disputing how best to grow the economy rather than debating the nature of man or the meaning of woman.
Many people alive today remember when people waited for marriage to engage in sexual relations, and when children were seen as a gift from God rather than a burden to avoid. They remember when businesses were closed every Sunday and honored it as a day devoted to God and family.
This wasn’t too long ago.
Many people alive today also remember when one salary was sufficient for a family to raise children in a dignified manner, and when children were considered much more valuable than material things or vacation trips. Similarly, they remember being in the habit of leaving their house unlocked when going shopping or out to dinner. Today, many need house alarms and double-locks to feel safe and secure.
There are even people alive today who remember that TV shows would refrain from showing married couples sharing the same bed.
The Brady Bunch was the first to do so. Further, a young man had to go of his way to find a risqué magazine to see an image of a nude woman from the waist up (more nudity would have landed its producers in jail for obscenity).
There is a good chunk of the population today who still remembers a time when the three TV stations everyone had showed nothing but family programming. They recall when men weren’t ridiculed on every TV show and women weren’t pressured to choose between being sexually promiscuous or acting like a second-rate man; when leading women didn’t have to get naked in frivolous sex scenes, and when white heterosexual men were actually seen in TV commercials.
There was a time not long ago when even ‘tomboys’ weren’t confused about their so-called sexuality.
Everyone knew kids went through various stages and never once thought of mutilating them if they identified with something they were not. Many remember when the black family was intact and far better off than it is now, and when Democrats weren’t actively trying to divide people according to race, sex, ethnicity, and creed.
Most of us remember a time when there was no fear of communicating common sense, because virtually everyone accepted it. Insane asylums were the places you’d find people challenging the basic tenets of reality, not the media, universities, and woke corporations.
There was no fear of being cancelled for supporting what is true and good.
There are people alive today who remember when killing preborn children was unheard of, when pregnancy out of wedlock was extremely rare, and when extended families got together as an ongoing tradition on Sundays, birthdays, and holidays. They recall when the United States of America was a model of morality and prosperity, not a “racist-sexist” place to be hated.
Of course, there are good things happening today. Nonetheless, no one can deny the currently low happiness quotient, as evident by high suicide rates. People are much more depressed than in previous eras. So, how did we get from there to here in such a short period of time?
I will conclude not with an answer, but with a plug. I just published a book that deals directly with this question. It’s an easy-to-read dialogue that explores this mystery from a Catholic, and common sense, perspective – of how almost overnight we went from a civilization of life to a culture of death to an age of insanity.
It may offend those who have allowed themselves to be molded by the world of the past half-century, but will inspire those who have softer hearts and open minds.
It’s titled “The Devil-ution of Society” and can now be found on Amazon. For more information go to my website at www.Paulmurano.com.
Paul Murano is producer and host of Beneath the Surface podcast, and has taught college philosophy & theology over 15 years. Check out his website and youtube channel at www.Paulmurano.com and www.Youtube.com/Veritas3737, and e-mail Paul at PJDM@aol.com.