- Dan Shea, EGL 2
Civilized societies begin to erode when an amoral minority persuades ordinary citizens to imitate their speech, lifestyle and fashions. Its downfall is at hand when the masses adopt their opinions, vocabulary and actions. Theologian Thomas C. Oden aptly wrote, “The modern love affair with relativism and permissiveness has made it easier to blur lines than draw lines.” Americans cannot underestimate this threat to society by allowing the prophetic wisdom of the past to be stifled by the popular culture.
Reminiscent of Lucifer and his minions, modern man has sent God a message, I will not serve. Stating I will do what I want and not be restrained by outdated prudish mores. Today among prurient adolescents there is a heady individualism, which compels them to fixate on material and sexual excess. These excesses filter through into adulthood and often leave young adults unprincipled. Regrettably, reforms are hindered by society’s disdain for any righteous ideologies.
Those seeking liberation by formulating their own concept of right and wrong always experience unanticipated consequences. Still, many seek to escape the labyrinth of civilized behaviors through the perception of some psychic empowerment. Time and again, unilateral morality rapidly develops into a rather blithely licentious immorality.
Fr. George Rutler observed, “The very concept of modernity is a noticeably arrogant form of self-contradiction: claiming to be the final judge of a vast wisdom and the highest court of appeal, for the ages, while being younger and more sprightly than any other age.” This allows younger generations to subsist for a time on a rather thin broth of egotism and audacity.
Searching for meaningful existence through material comforts and shameless behavior solely for an individual’s gratification is devoid of communal benefits and leads to the Italian idiom, "Where God is missing, there's chaos." It is Christian truth that is the basis of knowledge and wisdom. It simplifies life and is more satisfying than the ignominy of hedonism. Universaltruth is not established by a democratic majority or minority, but rather by Truth Himself.
Unfortunately, truth is often filtered by time and place. Syndicated columnist Thomas Sowell asserts, “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.‘’ This fomented a modern non-judgmental mentality, which was the prescription to dismantle the conventions of civilized society.
Most Americans embrace traditional values. Although, many citizens are immune to any moral suasion and no longer confront the profane or defend the revered. Fulton Sheen believed, “Broadmindedness, which sacrifices principles to whims, dissolves entities into environment, and reduces truth to opinion, is an unmistakable sign of the decay of the logical faculty.” Christians must be unswerving and not recoil from their defense of the faith in the public arena.
Those who agitated for lifestyle experimentation sent a message of expectation for an easier and less rigid life as the reason to dismantle established attitudes towards work, family, morality and civility. This was done at the cost of subordinating the pursuit of excellence and focusing on mediocrity as a standard sufficient to the task. Coupled with lowered standards was the willingness to endorse deviance as an acceptable form of behavior.
Then educators were pressured to lower standards to raise failing students’ self-esteem. They failed to recognize self-confidence comes from committing to a particular endeavor; self-esteem is derived by its accomplishment. In contrast, a quality education with high expectations affords the opportunity to raise all students’ self-respect. Unfortunately, progressive education, pack pedagogy andethnically correct studies have excluded high expectations as a means to attain better results. These actions in essenceimplied the high road as a path too difficult to follow. What was forgotten was that sheer determination can be distilled into pure competence.
This major change was disassembling the longstanding view of human nature, the sanctity of life and personal responsibility. The moral consensus that previously conditioned Americans’ attitudes towards morality, ethics and integrity were reduced to just so much blather. This being accomplished, it altered the people’s view of each other and the world in which they live.
The noble mind knows what determines proper behavior. It is not emotion, hormones or political agendas, but reason and common sense, which promote the welfare of society as a whole. These factors are indispensable to sustaining cultural values and reaffirming moral ties that bind a nation. The important determinant of behavior is the willingness to accept and enforce reasoned standards as the social norms in society.
The lack of such norms has brought turmoil to the American educational system and the culture. America must recapture what it has lost by the revitalizing of the founders’ vision for this nation. With humility, prayer and trust in the Almighty it can be done in a cogent, non-rhetorical, and nonpartisan manner.
America stands on the brink of total moral decay. When a culture abandons its time-honored responsibility of transferring its collective wisdom and moral heritage to the next generation liberty wanes and fades away. The quality of freedom in any democracy depends on understanding of the source of that freedom. By acknowledging freedom that is a precious gift of God, society is compelled by His laws and must function for the betterment of all mankind. Failure to act on this conclusion fulfills Alexis de Tocqueville’s prophecy: “If the light by which we are guided is ever extinguished, it will dwindle by degrees and expire of itself.”
Christians must sound a clarion call to defend the faltering, yet enduring, principle, on which America is based—all are created equal and all are equally valuable and vulnerable under the nation’s system of justice. The acceptance of license is fatal to liberty. Deviance for the Hell of it, may indeed, be a self-fulfilling prophecy.