Robert Pratt
When children and adolescents come to mom and pop with the idea that they need something such as a newer smart phone, car, videogame, etc. with a prime argument being that such is necessary to them because others have similar, a good, decent and wise parent generally derides the suggestion and teaches that wanting things because others have such is not only insufficient reasoning but, is based in the sin of envy.
Sadly we all know that some are cursed with parents who indulge immediately because they too live lives of trying to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. Those who seek happiness in having what others do, or by having the social approval of others who share their weakness of character, generally live unfulfilled lives.
This childish “I need it because they have it” idea is often deployed in politics too. Take for example this headline and sub-head from Lubbock’s Mudslide Media: “Dog Parks: Amarillo vs. Lubbock; Amarillo has four dog parks.”
Amarillo is named Amarillo too, should Lubbock change its name? Amarillo does not have Texas Tech, should Lubbock kick it out? You get the point.
If citizens in Lubbock have such little morality that they believe it right to compel the vast majority of their neighbors who will never use a dog park to pay to build them one, then no doubt such will happen because of a local desire. But remember this: No significant number of people left Lubbock to live in Amarillo because it has dog parks. This comparison stuff is worthless – unless you’re one of those grown-ups, in age only, who still live a life thinking you’re somehow less of a person, school, community, etc. until you have what you’ve noticed others have.
