When one ponders how major institutions in our society such as government, education, business and culture have evolved in the last 200 years, it seems clear that they have negatively affected our national principles, particularly the principles that govern how we respond to contemporary social problems.
Look at government. The clear, inexorable drift of the political process has been toward increasing government intrusion. In 1982, when the Grace Commission issued its landmark report on government spending, the national debt stood at roughly $1 trillion. The Commission predicted that, without a change in political will, the debt would grow to some $4 trillion by 1992 and to $14 trillion by the year 2000. That forecast is chillingly accurate so far. Today’s national debt stands at over $4 trillion. Since the early 1960s, annual outlays for “entitlements,” i.e., mandatory government spending programs, have grown from about $30 billion to about $700 billion. And we have increasingly looked off shore to finance this policy. Foreign sources now hold about 12 percent of our national debt. If this trend continues, we run the risk of losing control of our domestic policy, which might not be such a bad idea, but is hardly an impressive problem-solving technique.
What about the social impact of this massive public investment on the nation’s poor, the group it was primarily designed to help? Statistics indicate that poor Americans are actually better housed (38 percent own their own home), better fed, and own more personal property (some 62 percent, for example, own their own car) than average U.S. citizens throughout most of this century. But a spiritual and cultural impoverishment has emerged that outweighs the economic progress we have achieved.
For example, 86 percent of poor families are headed by adults who don’t work full time, suggesting a pattern of dependency. Sixty percent, moreover, are headed by single women, many of whom are encouraged by unintended government financial incentives to dissolve family unity. The illegitimate birthrate has soared 65 percent in our nation’s capital alone. Crime, particularly violent crime driven by substance abuse, has exploded and has disproportionately savaged poor families. The national principles that undergird a functional, productive life seem to be fast disappearing, notwithstanding this flood of federal and state assistance.
Education, like government, appears to have hurt more than helped. It has not only failed to impart basic academic skills (SAT scores have plummeted since 1965), but it seems to teach students that their “self esteem” is more important than their skills, and that situational ethics and moral relativism are required in dealing with life’s dilemmas.
It’s no surprise that in a recent nationwide poll of nearly 7,000 students, 61 percent of those in high school and 31 percent of those in college admitted to cheating on one or more exams. And, after completing the written survey, about 35 percent of the students also confessed that they did not answer all the questions truthfully! Nor is it a surprise that according to the National School Safety Center, nearly three million violent crimes and thefts occur on school campuses annually, 12 percent involving a weapon. Substance abuse and sexual promiscuity have skyrocketed. Since 1970, unwed pregnancies are up 87 percent among 18 and 19-year-olds.
How does business fit into this ethical equation? The free enterprise system has produced the largest, most powerful economic engine that the world has ever known. It has consistently, although cyclically, created increasing wealth and, in so doing, lifted the standard of living for all the nation’s citizens. Success has been fashioned out of risk, capital, innovation, energy, intelligence, and national principles like hard work, responsibility, and simple fairness.
But, unfortunately, not all businesses subscribe to these principles. In the last year, two major publicly-held corporations have been financially decimated by disclosures that their senior managers grossly overstated inventories. And the country is still suffering from the near collapse of the savings and loan industry, which will ultimately cost taxpayers more than $100 billion.
How about the entertainment industry? Detroit News writer George Cantor had an extraordinarily insightful column recently on this topic. He was describing how Barbra Streisand sang about children, parents and values at the inauguration festivities for President Clinton. Cantor wrote, “But it is a little unnerving hearing this lesson being preached by a member of the entertainment community. It would be hard to cite another segment of American life that has been more corrosive in values, more undermining of parental authority, than show business. In its virtual non-stop celebration of sex without love, violent behavior, contempt for religion, hatred of country, adultery—the industry stands alone as a source of concern for parents who care about what their children listen to and see.”
He concluded by advising the show biz crowd to clean up its own act before lecturing the rest of the country: “Children will listen, children will see.” He was right. In an era when the incidence of sexually transmitted disease, teenage pregnancy, violence, greed, fraud, and countless other forms of self-indulgence are rapidly growing, it is disappointing in the extreme to watch them continuously and relentlessly extolled by the entertainment industry.
What does the church have to say? The signals are diverse, but an increasing chorus calls for the redistribution of national wealth. Those with problems, like the poor, are regarded as blameless victims who must be cared for by government. They lack responsibility for their actions, so there is no question of guilt or accountability.
Less focus seems to be placed on living a virtuous life. Church leaders are particularly important in defining these principles. The great French observer of the American scene, Alexis de Tocqueville, in summing up America’s strength once said, “I searched for America’s greatness in her matchless Constitution, and it was not there. I searched for America’s greatness in her halls of Congress, and it was not there. I searched for America’s greatness in her rich and fertile fields and teeming potential, and it was not there. It was not until I went into the heartlands of America and into her churches and met the American people that I discovered what it is that makes America great. America is great because America is good; and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
The ultimate challenge is to recover our national principles, as we continue to participate in our major institutions. Each is subject in some way to our influence—the government by voters, schools by parents, business and entertainment by consumers, and churches by their congregations. We should support and encourage the fundamental goodness among our people that is the linchpin of all institutions. In particular, the more we promote voluntary action, the more this goodness flourishes.
Here’s a specific list of ways to start this recovery, and, of course, it means starting with ourselves:
Each of us should write a script for our life. As we do so, we should answer the question, “What purpose will I pursue in my life?”
Once the script is written, we should live it. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” The same is doubly true for character. We should be a powerful example for the people around us, for, as the Bible says, “We are the light of the world.”
We should aggressively participate in articulating the principles and agendas of the major institutions of our country. Concepts like responsibility, integrity, honesty, fairness, empathy, commitment, self-control, love, and generosity should be embedded in these.
We should seek leadership that embraces these principles; we should abandon leadership that doesn’t. We should hold leaders to standards in their personal lives as well as their public lives.
As we move into our own leadership roles, we should surround ourselves with those who share these principles and encourage them to articulate and “export” them.
