Moral Decay - Getting Past the Tropes and the Hype

In a recent speech at the University of Notre Dame, Trump’s Attorney General William Barr decried the relentless attacks by ‘secularism’ on the world’s religious heritage.  He portrayed the last 50 years as a moral decline due primarily to the rise of secularism and its nefarious side effects.

This speech is a reflection of one of the basic tenets at the heart of the current culture wars.  Many in the U.S. believe that we are in a pitched battle between the forces of good – i.e. the Christians – and the forces of evil – i.e. the agnostics, atheists, Muslims, socialists, communists, progressives, etc.

The catalog of ills that are supposedly the result of having our religious institutions ‘under attack’ and losing our Judeo-Christian morality includes abortion, illegitimate children, birth control, promiscuous sexual behavior, drug abuse, suicide, same-sex marriages and violence to name a few.  

Barr makes the argument that the march of civilization is due primarily to the influence of religious institutions in concert with our divinely-inspired embrace of liberty and freedom, and that the rise of humanist or secular thought and moral relativism is eroding the moral fiber of our nation.

The first response to Barr’s diatribe is a healthy skepticism about the data.  Drug and alcohol abuse, suicides, illegitimacy, euthanasia and other ills have long histories and cannot be laid at the feet of the so-called attack of secularism on moral principles.  According to WHO statistics, the suicide rate in the U.S. along with most countries has been more or less flat since 1950 when it was first collected.  Teenage pregnancy has declined by 70% in the past 20 years.  Barr's Trump-like portrait of a nation in moral free-fall is simply a dark self-delusion.

In fact, the last 50-70 years have brought in a period of relative peace, prosperity and happiness that is unique in human history.  Many of the current tragedies of opioid deaths, depression and loss of purpose are more directly attributable to changes in our economy, social media and a looming sense that we are at war with one another than any loss of moral compass.  Barr and his hyper-religious associates are contributing to this discord, not helping it.

If indeed our purported moral decline is due to a lack of religious affiliation and influence, then perhaps we need to look for inspiration to a period when religion was supreme.  How about the Middle Ages?  That was certainly a period of intense religious fervor and allegiance. Everyone was a Christian – no agnostics or atheists lurking around in those days!  And what a tremendous moral example that era is!  Witch burnings, heretic burnings, wholesale slaughter of innocents by warring monarchs, many of which were sanctioned if not directly initiated by the same Catholic church that Barr so loyally lauds today. 

It was also a time when the great majority of people were enslaved as serfs and women had absolutely no rights.  Was that part of the absolute morality to which Barr wishes to return?  If religious institutions had not been forced to adapt to humanist and progressive ideals over the last two hundred years, then women would still be virtual slaves and not enjoying the rights and opportunities that they have today.

Barr is also convinced that the Founders' religious spirit has been lost and that we would be wise to emulate their moral rectitude.  He might want to sound out a few Native Americans and some African Americans about the Founders' morality before he gets too sentimental.  Interestingly, many of the Founders were Deists and steeped in the questioning spirit of the Enlightenment, unlikely to agree with Barr on many doctrinal points.

And if secularism is indeed accelerating the decline of western civilization, then certainly Europe must be in the most advanced stage of decline, as secularism is almost universal there and churches are more or less empty.  But wait, Europe has far less violence, less people in prison, similar suicide rates, less drug abuse and more social harmony than the U.S. by almost any measure.  What’s going on?

I understand the disorientation that Barr and his fellow travelers feel in today’s culture.  Sexual mores have changed dramatically, gay people have come out of the closet and been given the right to marry, birth control (gasp!) is being used by an ever-increasing percent of the population, making pre-marital sex commonplace.  Movies, the Internet and TV have mature themes with lots of profanity, sex and violence.  Abortion is legal and, though declining rapidly due to increased availability of birth control (no thanks to the Catholic church!), fairly commonplace.  Drug use is rampant, alcoholism still ruins many lives and families, and suicide continues to be a disturbingly frequent escape for many people.

Some of these cultural phenomena are disturbing, some are simply the way human society is evolving.  Is there an absolute morality we can apply to any of these trends?  Hasn’t morality always been, to some extent, relative?  The commandment says do not kill or murder, yet we bombed civilian targets in every war in the last century on the basis of the ‘relative’ morality of the just war theory. 

Is sex immoral outside of marriage?  Can anyone reasonably argue that sexual conduct can be dictated by some absolute moral principle or set of rules?  Sexual behavior can hurt people and we draw the line clearly at rape and child pornography, but as in so many things, it is the spirit of kindness and respect that must guide our sexual behavior, not some relic of a religious doctrine that once justified slavery and stoning of adulterers.

Mr. Barr and his fellow religious fundamentalists (who, by the way, only represent a minority of religious thought - there are many Christians who think very differently) are not comfortable with ambiguity.  They need rigid structures in their belief system as a bulwark against doubt and insecurity.  But alas, life is not so simply categorized and legislated.

Is there really any substantive difference between the moral and ethical guidance that comes from religious education and a secular or humanist one?  I have many relatives and friends who were brought up in totally non-religious homes and they are incredibly well-balanced, ethical human beings.  They may have much more tolerant views of sexuality (including gay marriage) and abortion, but are these really the issues that determine the moral course of human history?  Isn’t the morality of social justice, peacemaking, generosity and environmental sustainability more relevant to our hopes for the future than the personal moral issues that Barr and the religious right seem obsessed with?

The practices of faith and spirituality are important aspects of human experience.  The mystery of our origins, existence and purpose, and the anxieties over our mortality, will always have a powerful effect on our lives and our beliefs.  Even with the move away from structured religion, most people still believe there is something more to life than our material selves.  This sense of spirit or significance informs our passion for human rights and the associated morality and ethics. 

But the march of time has also caused us to question and ultimately reject many of the outmoded doctrines and rules of our ancestors, just as we have adjusted our understanding of science and every other human enterprise.  This, Mr. Barr, is progressive, secular thinking.  It does not wish to prevent you from clinging to your good old religion.  Rather it would ask you to take the best of that religion – for example the great bulk of Jesus’s teachings – and adapt it to the ever-changing world that is a simple fact that every one of us must face.

The Unalterable Absurdities of Consumerism

It has always struck me as one of the great ironies of history, or perhaps a cosmic practical joke, that one of the most powerful forces in the last 100 years is a company that sells sugared water – Coca Cola.  With a current market cap of about $250 billion and an empire that spans the globe, Coke is indeed the real thing if we are to believe that wealth and power are the real thing.

Living in Atlanta, one meets a lot of Coke employees.  There is almost a cult-like loyalty that is nurtured in the more senior executives.  Visiting the Coke museum is fascinating, as it somehow convinces one that Coke truly has some kind of proud spiritual element, that it has changed the world for the better. 

Well, it has certainly changed it in one way – it has made countless millions obese and diabetic!

We are a consuming world.  Materialism may sometimes get a bad rap in our folk songs and our church services, but that is mostly a smokescreen of self-deceptive lip service.  We love to consume.  We baby boomers spent a few years rebelling against it, but we quickly abandoned that affectation and went all in on consumerism.  Indeed, we consume far more than our depression-era parents ever did and we no longer even pretend to subscribe to any higher principles that might limit our consumption.

Consumption is the basis of our economy, right?  More consuming means a healthier economy and lots of jobs.  It seems almost disloyal or unpatriotic to avoid spending up to the very edge of our income.  And it appears that many in our culture go well beyond their income, as credit card debt and home equity loans climb to staggering heights.

But we don’t need to do any deep contemplation or rationalization about the topic, because we are brainwashed on a daily basis and expertly manipulated and coaxed to each new purchase.  Guess where the biggest two juggernauts of the modern tech area get their revenue – advertising!  Facebook and Google may offer social media and search services, but their business is advertising.  Constant, subliminal, creepily personalized and relentless advertising.  Every service and technological marvel they offer is wrapped in an inescapable package of ads.

And the other, even larger leviathan of our modern consumer economy is Amazon.  Every wish fulfilled and to your doorstep in a day or two!  Give us our daily Amazon delivery and allow us to fully indulge our sins, and lead us into every temptation, for thine is the power and the glory!

We bemoan the materialism of our world, or at least some of us do, but the great majority of us keeps on buying.  We find no substitute for the pleasure of acquiring new toys or spending freely to seek out new experiences.

The life of an ascetic has a certain cerebral appeal.  We know deep down that we would benefit in many ways from a less acquisitive lifestyle.  But our friends and family are beckoning for us to join them at that expensive restaurant or on that next trip.  And we do really look much more fashionable in that new outfit!  How can we take up that new hobby unless we invest in the appropriate accoutrement?  How can we stay fit without a health club membership and a few nice exercise machines at home?

Let’s face it, we are indentured servants to our culture and its mantra of ‘SPEND’.  It will take more than a few years of counterculture posturing to move the needle in any significant way.  But maybe the earth itself will rein in our out-of-control consumerism?  Perhaps it will demand immediate payment on the debt we have run up in natural resources and pollution and insist that we balance the ecological budget.  Mother Nature has been a very forgiving banker up to now, but we may have tested her patience beyond its limits.

The Drug War Debacle

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.  – George Santayana

This aphorism can be applied to so many human follies, but it is particularly relevant to our disastrous approach to drugs.  The lessons of the alcohol prohibition in the 20’s seem pretty clear, but somehow they have failed to inform our societal response to the problem of drug abuse.  Almost everyone, - politicians, policymakers, law enforcement and social scientists – agrees that the so-called war on drugs has been an abject failure, but much like our other endless, nightmare wars – Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan – it goes on and on and on.

Let’s look at some facts: 

• It is estimated that we have spent over a trillion dollars fighting the drug war since it was declared by Richard Nixon in 1971.  The annual spend is estimated at around $47 billion.  This includes DEA and other enforcement agencies, judicial and court costs, and incarceration.
• If drugs were legalized and taxed at similar rates to alcohol and cigarettes, the incoming revenue would be around $58 billion.
• This means that over $100 billion dollars would be available to combat drug addiction as a social rather than a criminal problem.
• The proliferation of illegal weapons due to drug crime is astronomical
• Between 25 and 30% of property crime is drug-related.
• About 1/5 of all incarcerations are drug-related.
• It has exacerbated our racial conflict - black drug users are 6 times more likely to be incarcerated than white users and serve much longer sentences.
• Blacks and latinos make up 60% of those serving time for drug offenses but are less than 32% of the population.
• Our illegal drug trade has had catastrophic effects on Mexico, most of Central America and several countries in South America, and is a major factor in increased illegal/undocumented immigration and the breakdown of those societies.

The use of drugs by Americans is summarized in this graph:

Despite massive efforts to interdict drugs coming into the U.S. and the incarceration of vast numbers of drug users and sellers, the number of people using illicit drugs on a monthly basis has not changed much over the last 50 years.  This graph shows the trend from 2002 to 2013:

Ever so slowly, there is recognition in our political realm that the war on drugs is a total failure and that steps must be taken to change the status quo.  There are some significant efforts underway.  The first is the use of alternative sentencing programs that focus more on rehabilitation for drug users.  The second is the legalization of recreational marijuana, which has now occurred in 11 states.  An additional 22 have made medical marijuana legal.

I just read a book, Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari, that makes a very strong, data-driven argument for de-criminalizing all drugs.  This may seem like a radical proposition that would result in much higher drug usage and societal problems, but the data Hari presents and the programs he surveys in various countries argue that the exact opposite would occur.

Understanding the nature of drug use and addiction is critical to minimizing it.  Trauma, depression, hopelessness, poverty, unemployment, sickness and other factors play a large role.  These are not easy problems to solve, but putting people who use drugs in prison and making their addiction a Russian roulette of costly drug acquisition and overdose risks only makes these problems worse.

Like so many other problems we face, the time has come to search for solutions in a methodical, bi-partisan manner.  Drug legalization is not as clearly partisan as one might think.  Many conservatives and libertarians have proposed marijuana legalization in the past, and one has the impression that conservatives would be open to allowing research and studies on various treatment options.  It is time to jettison the war on drugs and focus our resources and attention on managing the social problem of drug abuse just as we did 90 years ago when we repealed prohibition and found ways to live with alcohol.