Sunday, October 24, 2010

American values have been declining and continue to decline


American values have been declining and continue to decline

As entertainers, corporations, and even the government pander to the lowest common denominator, American life becomes increasingly vicarious, prefabricated, and bereft of meaning. Let us examines contemporary American consciousness, considering the factors that have driven society toward gossip and sensationalism at the cost of substance and depth.

Celebrity news, video games, cookie-cutter schools, and shopping, shopping, shopping.
We should be concerned with the growing epidemic of acrimony, superficiality, attention deficit disorder, and complaints of ennui. We should ask for the reasons why American children have expressed their confused rage with deadly weapons, why a president boasts that he earned Cs in college, and why society has drifted into craving entertainment laced with violence and cheap thrills. This is a provocative subject for concerned citizens, as well as for scholars and researchers involved with contemporary American culture and society.

A lot of deep thinkers believe that Americans have come loose from their moral underpinnings, and that our basic institutions - government, neighborhoods, civic associations, schools, and, most important, our families -  are coming apart as a result.

Where on earth do these social scientists get the idea that things are going so wrong?

Well, in large part they get it from listening to Americans, 87 percent of whom in one recent poll said they fear there is something fundamentally wrong with America's moral condition.

And this is no short-term blip triggered by President Clinton's extramarital adventures. According to Daniel Yankelovich, an icon of American public opinion polling, huge majorities of Americans have for some time believed that the nation is ``in a long-term moral decline."

A widely held belief has emerged that this decline threatens democracy itself, since freedom without morality quickly deteriorates into a society filled with violence and perversion, which increasingly seems to be what we have.

The Civil Renewal council's Call called for making divorces harder to get, giving benefits to parents who stay home with their children, making it easier for  ``faith-based" organizations to provide social services, allowing tax credits  for donations to social service agencies, ending state-sponsored gambling,  providing more education about the arts and more choices for parents in  selecting schools, not to mention curtailing sex and violence on television.

There's much in what he says. The Call's argument that freedom without morality inevitably becomes merely the liberty to perpetrate evil is complex and subtle.

America was losing ``the habits  of the heart" that once protected the nation against the wretched excesses  democracy might normally entail, such as the atomization of society into  hedonistic individualism, or the tyranny of the majorities.

Our contention that today we may be forgetting those protective  habits fits a lot of available evidence of civic and social decline, such as the  drop in voter participation, the rise in divorce, and the surge in youth  violence.

Overall, we found that Americans were doing less of just about everything  together, and were, quite possibly as a result, becoming more distrustful of their government - and one another.

Former Judge Robert Bork takes perhaps the darkest view in Slouching Toward Gomorrah, contending that America's slide into the moral abyss is probably irreversible, and questioning the optimistic premise about the basic goodness of human beings on which the nation was founded.

All the indicators of social health continued to decline.  I looked back and saw that they had been declining for thirty years or more, no matter what the economy was doing or who was president.

1 comment:

  1. The deterioration of family values R2



    Since World War 2 when women were encouraged to join the work force en mass, to replace the men who went to war and keep the economy and the war effort going.



    There has been a trend where a mother was not home to take care of her children, monitor their behavior, help with the homework and discipline when and where necessary.



    The advancement in technology has harmed family values. The Media and Television has totally destroyed any comprehension of values in our society.



    The lack of discipline and total disregard for authority and respect is clear to anyone who has watched the past 50 years and seen our society’s values deteriorate.



    One example alone is that 50 years ago a teacher was happy to go to school to teach, a teacher was respected and looked up-to, a teacher could discipline. Today teachers fear for their lives they are petrified by their students.



    This scenario caries on to other social interactions of society today, and the situation is getting worse and worse every year.



    You will notice that many families who come from other countries have a very strong family values, good education, respect and the children excel in their studies. That is because they have not had the chance to be influenced by our society.



    The education of our children begins at home and continues in school – the parents and the school must take a proactive approach to teach our children values and respect.



    In today’s society a teacher is not permitted to discipline a student, the teachers will be sued, not to mention that teachers fears for their safety.



    Parents in today’s society are also restricted as to how to discipline their children; in many cases parents are getting sued. In many cases children would never dream of treating their parents with such disrespect 50 years ago. Today some parents are afraid of their own children.



    Abuse has been and will be with society to eternity that does not give society the right to prohibit discipline; a few acts of abuse should not cause society to prohibit proper discipline.



    When an individual or individuals utilize a vehicle to commit a crime cause the death of others, does society prohibit vehicles altogether, no, a vehicle is very important for our everyday life.



    Well, the discipline of our children by parents and teachers is extremely important for our society and the preservation of humanity.

    It seems that our society is so busy chasing the dollar, fame and glory, that anything goes all values goes out the window. We should be an example of honesty, integrity and respect to our children.



    YJ Draiman, Northridge, CA.



    PS



    Are Americans patriotic and proud enough to defend, protect and bring family values back to America? Is America ready to fight for honesty integrity and justice in our society, eliminate corruption and fraud, waste and self serving programs.

    Re-invigurate our economy and decrease our dependence on foreign economies and resources.

    Tell me and I will forget
    Show me and I may remember
    Involve me and I will understand.

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