Okay, so I’m feeling curmudgeonly today.
I’ve got a lot of things floating around in my head and can’t get a grip on any of them. For instance, I recently heard a sports psychologist talk about the growing trend in anxiety disorders among the younger generation of young players. He attributes it to the players not being prepared for exposure to greater pressure because they have been raised in an environment where everyone is a winner. Everyone gets a trophy. They have not been allowed to fail miserably and when they are faced with the possibility of this they can’t cope.
Makes sense.
Then I hear a story about Bernie Madoff and his being sentenced to 150 years in prison for his scam. I find myself feeling bad because I am more incensed by his crime and his evident lack of remorse than I often am for more violent, horrible crimes. I think it must be his attitude that seems to lack all compassion for his victims. I can understand passionate rage and violence but his cold-blooded willingness to steal the future from people he often called friends is just beyond me. There’s something about about this betrayal of faith that seems worse than some of the most violent crimes. And for what? A bigger private plane? Solid gold shoe stretchers for his platinum shoes? This was a wealthy successful man before the scam started. So was it simply greed? Or was it just some inner malevolence, the same sort that is at the root of all evil human deeds? I know that watching him over the past several months, I got the same feelings one might get from watching a true war criminal, one who done the unspeakable but has rationalized it within the framework of their mind. Calm and cold. Unrepentant.
Doesn’t make sense.
And then I hear a tidbit from the Michael jackson saga, that he weighed something like 112 pounds at the time of his death. Talk of drug cocktails and his own Dr. Nick character. Further evidence of a mind trapped in a downward spiral. A sad end to a sad story.
Senseless.
Okay, so I’m feeling curmudgeonly today…
Redtree Times 