It's not hard to see what's wrong with this picture, is it?  It's depicts America,  or more specifically, the people of the United States as viewing themselves as the center of our world.

I fear it is all too true.  Even more specifically, people in the United States more and more sees themselves individually as the center of the universe. 

We are a people whose favorite word is "I"--"I'm right; you're wrong!"; "I want sex, now;" ; "I'm going to do and say what I want; and anyone who challenges me is denying my freedom of speech!"

"I'm not going to exercise self control. I'm going to scream at that referee; I'm going to rape that girl; I'm going to grab the mike from that winner because I think someone else should have won; I'm going to cheat on that exam; I'm going to forget about hurting that person and never apologize or try to make it right. I'm the ONE who counts! "In short, it's all about me! " I am the most important person in this universe, so I am entitled to do whatever gives me pleasure." 

I feel somewhat qualified to speak on this because I have experienced personally the "I" syndrome as well as having seen it here on another site . However, I am open to challenges because I am not perfect and I have been wrong many times.

Which  leads me to my topic  of this post--Gandhi's second  blunder--"pleasure without consequences."

We are going to assume that Gandhi was NOT referring to the simple, innocuous pleasures of life but rather to those pleasures that are the dangerous ones.

One can sleep with all the prostitutes he wants so long as he has not made a commitment to someone. Morally, he is still at fault; but the only person he will hurt may be himself.  

However, when he puts his pleasure above all else, including the pain, embarrassment, and humiliation it will cause someone to whom he has pledged his love and his fidelity, he demonstrates that he believes he is entitled to that pleasure with no consequences. 

And when he lies and tries to justify his actions, he demonstrates all over again just how little regard he had then for anyone other than himself--he built his world around what" I want" and rationalized away his culpability.

If he believes in a hereafter, his immortal soul is in jeopardy as well.  

That's the moral side of "pleasure without consequence"  There is also a civil side. Those who justify criticizing President Obama every time he signs a piece of paper or tries to improve the human condition because "I don't like the man!" are indulging themselves in their personal pleasure. 

When they disrupt a town meeting with their screams and jeers, they are not exercising free speech; they are denying free speech to others.  They have no entitlement to such rude behavior.  But they are convinced they do because "I don't want people to hear what the speaker might say."

They feel entitled to poke fun at Obama, to try to destroy his credibility, and to harass not only him but those who believe in his sincerity.  Why?  Because those who follow him are just a bunch of libs who don't matter anyway. " What I think matters! What they think doesn't because I am the center of the universe, which makes me omniscient and omnipotent."

I submit to you that there is no pleasure without consequence. We must go back and right our wrongs.  Going forward and not repeating them is not enough.  The two hardest words for so many to say also start with "I"--"I'm sorry!"

Until we can become a people who love one another in spite of our faults, who can look one another in the eye, and say "I was wrong this time and you were right!"; until we can have the love and compassion for one another that Jesus had (whether you believe in Christianity or not); until we awaken to the fact that we have much more in common than we dissagree on; until we can control our baser instincts, we are a nation doomed to destroy ourselves.