In CH2 we talked about the erosion of American values among young adults under 30 and how education at primary, secondary & college is not what it used to be. In fact, its nothing like it used to be, focused more on societal mores, standards & political ideology and less on historical/contemporary reality, meaning real world facts and truths concerning our existence.
I believe this is happening because the youthful rebels/radicals of the 60’s/70’s are now the teachers, professors and administrators of our schools and they are unethically/deviously injecting their politics/progressivism into what should be a politically neutral curricula, effectively indoctrinating children/teens to their way of thinking, contaminating the body politic with wave after wave of young people.
This phenomenon combined with the uncontrolled influx of foreigners most of whom don’t speak English and come from cultures entirely different from our own is weakening/diluting our society into a polyglot, multicultural conglomeration filled with self-interest and an obvious ambivalence for the integrity and maintenance of our native-born American culture.
We’ve talked about controlling the flow of foreigners and we’re now citing the educational system as a contributing factor to the ongoing deterioration of our culture. Next come conditions in the average home in which children are raised. There is over a 50% divorce rate which, combined with children born into fatherless homes means something like 75%+ of kids are raised in single-mom/replacement-parent environments, meaning no dad or a step-dad. This creates unstable home environments, poor academic performance and lack of awareness on pride of country. Kids have far more important things to worry about than their heritage!
Next comes the lack of religious or spiritual guidance for young children. Its estimated less than 25% of kids under ten attend church or religious services regularly and schools are effectively taking God out of the classroom, eliminating any deity-centric influence. Many studies show a positive correlation between church-going at early ages & good-adjustment in young adulthood, meaning less social, physiological or psychological problems when God or deity has influenced/impacted childhood.
On a different note, I’ve long believed current home environments combined with lack of spirituality serve to create an atmosphere of anti-maleness and masculine disrespect. A woman raising children on her own successful/unsuccessful enjoys an aura of heroism in the minds of her kids and society, while the man who abandoned her is contemptible or weak. When single parenting and divorce rates were much lower this was a localized problem affecting mainly family and friends. But with these higher rates this attitude/perception has permeated its way into our culture and media such that men are being portrayed in stories, films and song as weak and unreliable while women are strong, determined and almost supernatural in both looks and ability.
Think about recent movies. Who made decisions, took action, even fought battles to win the day? Recent articles and white papers in fields like sociology, biology, psychology bear this out. When you add the trend towards androgeny or the growing confusion over natural-born gender assignment itself, one begins to see the problem.
Next come external factors bombarding and saturating youngsters psyches in their earliest stages of development, typically ages 5-12. Programming, real and animated, is suffused with violence, profanity, drugs, disrespect for police/institutions, promiscuity and rebellion. By the time a child becomes a teenager he/she has become inured to these images and will probably experiment/indulge personally in one or more counter-productive behaviors. This encourages anything-goes attitudes among young adults, weakening their concept of acceptable standards & behavior, promoting in them lack of responsibility.
The next element in the coarsening/corrupting of our culture is the news media, print & digital (TV/radio/internet/websites/ blogs, etc) affecting young/old, educated/ignorant, sophisticated/shallow, alert/apathetic. Major news outlets are controlled by corporate entities mostly aligned/engaged in a left-leaning, heavily biased agenda. This results in massive propagandization of the flow of news and information to the masses, influencing their perception of people/events, leading them to accept/believe/sympathize with this highly biased reporting. We have an almost total void of journalistic duty, professionalism, integrity.
To review, we’ve identified sociological elements/forces such as divorce rates, single-parenting, little/no spirituality, lionization of feminine, diminution of masculine, coarsening/corrupting of entertainment platforms & partisan propagandization of most news channels and outlets to help us understand more fully why American culture is changing/eroding to something less than it was which, in my view, contributes to the increasing level of gun violence and mayhem in our society.
What can we do? To start, we can once again discourage/stigmatize unwed pregnancy and make it more difficult to obtain a divorce when children are involved. We can do a better job tracking down derelict dads who shirk their responsibility. We can create an environment again where people think twice before having sex or marrying. We can tighten up on all government assistance to single moms, reducing benefits and/or holding them accountable for benefits given. In this we include dads who try to escape their duties. If a mom receives $250,000 of benefits over 20yrs, she should be held liable for $125,000 and dad the same. It appears on their credit history and makes their financial dealings harder throughout their life.
In certain circumstances we should criminalize an irresponsible dad’s behavior, letting him know that society does not tolerate deadbeat dads. Whether misdemeanor, felony or incarceration it should be addressed by our legal system in its determination to clean-up/reinvigorate our society’s overall health & stability.
On the positive side, we should encourage/incentivize a single mom to work, to not have more kids and to instruct as best she can in the divine, spiritual or supernatural aspects of life. This can be religious, nondenominational or even nondeterminative as to the nature of a deity or supernatural force. It must elevate and exemplify the idea as a good and necessary belief for man in his worldly dealings. Let’s never forget strong family units are the foundation of strong, healthy societies, and God or deity should be a fundamental part of that reality.
Regarding entertainment, parents need to be more watchful as to the programs and movies kids watch. This supervision/censorship should be enforced until age 13-15, assuming all other elements of a child’s upbringing have been solid and nurturing.
Their maturity in dealing with adult issues will vary but an involved parent can tell when they can police themselves or indulge cinematic impulses without affecting/poisoning their psyche. I think rating systems of NO ONE UNDER 12 & NONE UNDER 17 would work. Theaters must strictly enforce these rules or get severe licensing restrictions and/or loss of business privileges.
Rating procedures should be reviewed for appropriateness and panels should include non-artist professionals who deal with children’s issues and have little care for product profitability.
Consumers of entertainment should raise their expectations about what they’re willing to see and effectively use their wallets to boycott artists & products which are clearly exploitative.
News media should be put on notice that it must maintain an even-handed neutrality as to events of the day and people on the national scene. We should institute a mechanism whereby reportage, oral or print, gets automatically reviewed on content truthfulness. Multiple infractions cause a suspension or loss of licensing at the individual and/or corporate level. This information should be available to the general public who then exercise their natural right to watch who they trust, bringing economic pressure to bear on malefactors. More thoughts to come in the next installment.
You’ve Been Reading Shaneview
I’m Al Shane
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