Is the U.S. morally in trouble?

AuthorRoche, George

I AM an inveterate list maker. I love making lists - of tools and gadgets to buy at the hardware store, grocery staples that need restocking, New Year's resolutions - of the little yet vitally important details of living of which I often need to be reminded. Many of the notes I write to myself, especially those on my own shortcomings, begin with the words, "I must remember to. . . "

So, it is not surprising that, when I was asked to reflect on our present culture and the general state of American society, my immediate response was to pick up a pen and pad. At the top of the first page, I wrote the heading: "America in the 1990s: Why We Are in So Much Trouble." The following list is the result, a compilation of what the nation has lost:

The loss of values. Values are the building blocks and mortar that keep our entire civilization together. Yet, we no longer seem to think our values are worth defending. "Political correctness" dominates the academy and the public square. This doctrine holds that all differences in ideas, values, and lifestyles are equally valid and that any attempt to prefer one over the other is an act of prejudice. Moreover, the differences between people - between blacks and whites, men and women, rich and poor, Westerners and non-Westerners - are more important than the qualities and values they share in common. According to PC advocates, questions of race, gender, class, and power are the only real issues that govern human events.

If you think this kind of thinking is confined to college campuses and our intellectual elites, just consider the Los Angeles riots, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, or any number of recent events that demonstrate how values have been destroyed by political correctness. Philosopher Jacques Barzun had it right when he said that political correctness does not legislate tolerance, it only organizes hatred.

The lose of truth. PC advocates claim that truth really isn't objective at all; it depends on our point of view. One person's truth is supposed to be just as good (or, more to the point, just as unreliable) as another's. What has been passed off as "truth" are merely the collective prejudices of the dominant ruling class and culture. We must be shown how to "deconstruct" what we think is true.

The only truth that political correctness will admit is that everything - every poem, book, historical event or person, emotion, attitude, belief, and action - must be viewed in a political context as an...

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