Fifty years, not long in the ebb and flow of human history, is a long time if you live it.  Whether the changes that have taken place in our society during that time are more or less remarkable than those of any other era is for someone older or wiser than I to fathom.  However, the trend in recent decades is all one-way.  The revolutionary period, the Civil War and Industrial Revolution, even the 20th century age of World Wars and the Cold War produced many examples of exemplary character and heroism in  American  society.  Where is the heroism now?

Of course, I know where it is.  It is in you and me, honest and hard-working stiffs who recognize and fulfill our obligations to family and society day in and day out.  And it was in the self-less actions of thousands of New Yorkers who rose to the occasion on Sept. 11, 2001 in a national crisis.  But that’s not preventing the larger American experience from looking cheaper and more discredited  - to us and to the world - by the day.  Sure, foreigners are said to “admire” and want to “emulate” us.  Wrong.  They want  our money; but they scoff at and in some quarters despise us for our ways.

In the last fifty years we have had to deal with a succession of severe challenges to our personal and national identity:  the Civil Rights turmoil; the corrosive Viet Nam war experience (worse than the Civil War in its effect on this country, in my opinion); the explosive drug culture and the closely related fixation on anything sexual;  the “death of God” and the debilitation of religion and Faith;   the criminality of the Nixon White House with its legacy of pervasive national cynicism;   the articulate, arrogant, and asinine demands of the ultra-liberals; the age of the “value-neutral” and of the “politically correct”, especially on our college campuses - the last communities that should be so infected;  the “Women’s Lib movement” - hijacked by irresponsible narcissists who abandoned their children and the concept of family; the breakdown of the nuclear family in the detritus of divorce; the devaluation of the child and of childhood -  beginning with the abomination of abortion and continuing with the many forms of child abuse; the fear of parents regarding teaching their children discipline and self-discipline; the multi-generational welfare state, the new plantation; the “greed is good” crowd - which, as we have recently seen, certainly did not die out with the 1980’s; the implosion of the public education system at the hands of the “educators”, the feudal system of governance in the schools, and  the teachers’ unions; the elusive quest for “self-image” without the understanding that it can only be earned....

It is true that “the only constant is change”.  But look at what these changes have produced: lies as the new “honor code”, whether by children and older students in class or by their parents and “role models “ at home and in society; substitution of the traditional Honor Code with concepts and practices of “snitch”, “blue wall of silence” of some police departments, “conspiracy of silence” of some medical professionals,  cover-ups and obfuscation by clergy leaders regarding criminal and immoral acts by their members;   the “lie, cheat and steal” ethos that has made “business ethics” an oxymoron;  the abondonment by many attorneys of their dual role as simultaneous zealous advocates of their clients and also as “officers of the Court” - charged with never misleading the Court....

What happened to concepts of fairness, duty, honor, personal integrity, fiduciary responsibility, personal individual responsibility, conscience, pride in doing the right thing, professionalism, character, sin, the Ten Commandments and the precepts of the Koran?  And where is the civility, the common courtesy, the reflexive trust that is the glue holding a society together, the trump card over narrow self-interest?  Where is common sense?  I am reminded of a line from the film “A Fish Called Wanda”: “Stupido! Stupido! Stupido!”

It has been said that the greatest freedom is the freedom to discipline oneself.  It is also crucial, in pursuing personal and societal development, to have the freedom - not only to succeed - but to fail... with consequences.

Where do we start in reversing this dismal decline?  We start with ourselves and with those around us: those for whom we are responsible and also  those with whom we interact on a daily basis.  This can only be a bottom - up effort of self-actuation and example.  Of course, we should also begin punishing - and not rewarding - the destructive trends noted above.  Public opinion has lost its clout for the present.  But using the tools of commerce certainly has gained power as a motivator.

We have rightly called the World War ll generation  “the Greatest Generation”.
Let us wake up in time, before we and the entire present society will have earned a nomination as the “Worst Generation”.

GS