Mona Charen has an interesting article about moral thought - or rather the lack thereof - in young Americans. Her high school sophomore son was reading a text book that basically trashed the white European colonists of the Americas and idealized the native populations, conveniently leaving out facts like the Aztecs ritually sacrificed 20,000 victims per year by cutting out their still-beating hearts, as shown in the movie Apocalypto with all the gory details. He knew he was reading a lot of bunk, but many young people in America today do not.
Charen says that:
"In 'Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood,' Christian Smith and his co-authors recount the results of their decade-long study of a representative sample of Americans aged 18-23. Through in-depth interviews, they examined their subjects' lives and concluded that an alarming percentage of young people are highly materialistic, commitment averse, disengaged from political and civic life, sexually irresponsible, often heavily intoxicated and morally confused. In fact, the authors contend, they lack even the vocabulary to think in moral terms."
Great. I am fortunate to know people in this age group that are possessed of great character and think and speak about moral issues clearly. If a majority of tomorrow's leaders, however, do not even have the vocabulary to think about moral issues, then America is going to be an interesting place to live. In an immoral or amoral culture, the advantage is always to the strong. So much for civility, protection of the weak, or any other mark of a truly civilized society. Rome - as in Nero's time - here we come!
townhall.com/columnists/monacharen/2011/11/04/moral_abdication
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