Wrapping up some of the recent posts:
We are all products of our environment. When you work in a certain place you are very vulnerable to the influence of your co-workers, very often subconsciously so you won't realize how their attitudes have filtered into your psyche. That doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with going to work. Working is a GREAT idea, particularly if you are one of those homo sapiens who needs food and shelter. [It is only free until about age 22 upon which we are thrust into the world and told that we must make it on our own. I miss the good ol' days but there are benefits to adulthood - like writing this at 2am, far past my bedtime growing up....]
Where I live - if a man would be seen so much as shaking hands with a married women, it would be the biggest scandal since Watergate. But those who live and work in the outside world see this countless times. It gets one used to thinking that "....it ain't so bad". Where I live, a car is almost never seen on Shabbos nor is there any other type of chilul Shabbos, so seeing chilul Shabbos becomes a shock. But in most places it is the norm which accustoms one to believing that it isn't so terrible, And the list goes on and on.
Then there are ideas that are currently popular that are considered axiomatic. This creates serious confusion. Homosexuality, pre-marital sex, abortion etc. etc. are so ubiquitous and accepted to the point that those who maintain traditional viewpoints are seen as fanatical at best and fascistic or the like, at worst.
What we have to do is constantly ask ourselves if our beliefs are coherent and cohesive. It is also critical that our non-work friends solidify us religiously and not the opposite. It also helps a great deal when we try to be the one who influences others, as the kashrus rule goes איידי דטריד למפלט - לא בלע - When a utensil is expelling it doesn't absorb. If we are busying GIVING ruchniyus and values to others, we are less prone to absorbing the negative and corrosive influences.
There is so much more to say - ישמע חכם ויוסף לקח!
