Commentary
The United States currently appears to be suffering from a sort of moral decay that threatens to quite literally rip the country apart.
This decay must be addressed if the United States is to be saved. But before addressing it, we must first get our definitions in order.
Moral decay is a slippery term, extremely difficult to define. But for the sake of simplicity, let’s agree that it involves the abandonment of previously held beliefs and values. Decay, decline, degeneration—call it what you will—this type of moral rot involves the devolution of society, in which we drift from a higher to a lower level of morality.
Closely tied to decadence, moral decay favors solipsism and nihilistic notions.
To be clear, the United States, at its very core, is still a fantastic country. Nevertheless, to deny a widespread decay is to deny reality. Cities such as Los Angeles and New York have become shadows of themselves. The Big Apple is fast becoming a rotten one, with shootings and murders on the rise. LA now resembles the Wild West, with thieves running riot. Looting is now a recreational activity.
But instead of focusing on crime, which is a symptom of decay, perhaps it’s best to focus on education, the place where the seeds of our future selves are very much sown.
As the Greek philosopher Aristotle once said, “Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man.”
The importance of education can’t be emphasized enough. If one wishes to graduate with a college degree, then he or she (or whatever one of the 78 gender pronouns you prefer to use) must be prepared to dedicate 25 percent of their time on Earth to the education system.
In other words, one must be willing to invest considerable time and money in the education system, not to mention trust. For a society to function, trust is key. Do you really trust the educators of today to train the minds of tomorrow? For every excellent educator—and there many—there appears to be at least one of questionable merit.
By the age of 7, psychologists believe that the vast majority of our patterns of behavior, as well as our beliefs and our habits, are formed. Not all, of course. But the foundation for our future selves appears to be very much set at an early age. This is what makes the education system so dangerous right now.
Who are the people laying the foundation?
American society finds itself plagued by a host of bad ideas, and many of these bad ideas can be traced back to classrooms across the country from preschools to university lecture halls. Of all the 50 states, California appears to be the mother lode of bad ideas.
Chinese parents in California rally against Assembly Bill 101, which would make ethnic studies a high school graduation requirement, in Los Angeles, on April 26, 2020. Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times
Last year, California’s Instructional Quality Commission put forward a rather controversial proposal to change the way math is taught in state-run schools. According to the authors, the notion of giftedness has “led to considerable inequities in mathematics education.” The new framework attempts to “address” inequities by decelerating the math curriculum, essentially penalizing students who excel at math. Other educators appear to harbor similar sentiments toward math, accusing it of being a tool favored by racists.
Last year also saw Oregon’s Gov. Kate Brown sign a bill into effect that ensured high school students would no longer be required to demonstrate proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics to graduate. The bill, we’re assured, was (and one assumes, still is) intended to benefit “Oregon’s Black, Latino, Latina, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian, Pacific Islander, Tribal, and students of color.”
In reality, no one benefits from the dumbing down of education.
Portland State University in Oregon now offers a “culturally responsive” curriculum that strives to recognize “racial and cultural diversity in learning” and to teach “to and through the strengths” of each student. Actual learning, it seems, has been replaced by heavy servings of jargon.
According to the philosopher Peter Boghossian, a former employee at Portland State, “There’s a particularly powerful mind virus ... there’s a suite of beliefs within an ideology, and those beliefs literally exist to rip down Western civilization.” This might sound hyperbolic to some, but Boghossian has a point.
According to the former professor, educational institutions across the country are “being attacked from the inside on multiple levels” by people who have been “indoctrinated within the academies and indoctrinated to beliefs that are completely untethered to reality.”
The rot within the U.S. education system must be stopped. The only way to defeat bad ideas is with better ones. An increasing number of parents have woken up to the indoctrination that is occurring in classrooms across the country. In places like Virginia and NYC, we see parents fighting back against the pernicious beliefs being foisted on their children.
This matters on so many levels. Education is now a top priority among voters. It’s especially important for parents. Addressing the United States’ moral decay requires fundamental changes in the education system. That is, after all, where foundations are set and where the minds of tomorrow’s leaders are molded.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
