Opinion: Society needs honesty, decency, political and economic democracy; justice for all
Our world is in multiple crises.
Our old ways of doing things are clearly not working, and there seems to be a pervasive feeling that we are just stumbling along in a defeatist mode. Recent articles in The Atlantic and The New York Times report a rising mental health crisis among American teens, reporting that from 2009 to 2021, the share of American high school students who say they felt “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” rose from 26% to 44%, with over 56% of girls so reporting. Newsweek magazine recently ran an extended report on how the basic elements of a stable middle-class: affordable housing, health care, and higher education, along with stable employment that covers the cost of these basics while allowing for the building of some savings, is disappearing for the rising generation. To me, this is like the proverbial canary in the coal mine. Our youth, our future, are in despair.
And no wonder. For two years and running, a virus that has killed nearing 1 million Americans has disrupted normal social and economic functioning while being turned into a political wedge issue. Our politics have become completely dysfunctional; poverty is rising and the middle class is destabilizing while a new class of the obscenely wealthy manipulates our society so as to generate more wealth for themselves. The entire world’s stability is threatened by climate change and Russia’s choice to start again the Cold War with a brutal war against Ukraine that threatens possible nuclear confrontation.
The internet, the youth’s common thread for constructing their sense of reality, has become a vehicle for fragmenting our society. We seem to be facing the collapse of any shared sense of truth among our citizenry while the various media platforms generate a cultural mythology of our modern civilization that is commercialized, sensationalized, lurid and mostly void of nobility of purpose. Our media, commerce, and politics seem to be colluding to spread a very debased, shallow, materialistic, and morally confusing view of life. And why? For wealth and power. This is what the great American experiment in political and economic freedom is becoming. No wonder the teens of this country are demoralized.
This youth generation which has greatly overcome the prejudices of former times is watching a retrenchment of racism, sexism, and homophobia directed by what had been fringe elements of right-wing religion and politics succeeding in taking over the Republican Party. Legislation that amounts to legalized hate, prejudice, and conservative religious dogma is being pushed through Republican-controlled branches of all levels of government, while issues that youth are greatly invested in, such as environmental stability, gun violence, and economic and political fairness cannot get a hearing. Our children see democracy being imperiled by these same forces, as truth and fact and democratic process are shredded in sophisticated propaganda campaigns and political tactics not unlike those used by dictatorships around the world.
Our two-party system appears to be devolving into mostly a right-wing cult on one side and ineffective bureaucrats in argument with progressive idealists on the other.
Republicans are pushing a hypocritical toxic everyone-for-themselves libertarianism that throws away community responsibility, yet puts their own moral narrow-mindedness into law. They insist on the right to defy science and community efforts at public and environmental protection while making unregulated gun ownership a sacred right and outlawing a woman’s control of her own reproductive choices or any recognition of non-traditional sexual orientation. They turn the idea of a “loyal opposition” party into a disloyal opposition to anything Democrats attempt to accomplish. Their only platform seems to be to disrupt government that originates with Democrats. Republicans advance no policy ideas that actually address the real problems facing America, yet they are successful because of their mastery of political deceit and emotional manipulation.
The answers are clear. We need to care about each other. We need to include and value everyone, and our political dialogue must be based in truth and honest intent to address real problems. Over selfishness, prejudice, and hate, of greed and materialism, of luridness and superficiality, what must rise is a call to moderation, decency and kindness, courage and selflessness,to responsible and capable government that addresses real problems.
A call for a deepened commitment to honesty, decency, political and economic democracy and justice for all must be made. We need our American society to be inspiring rather than discouraging and depressing, not just for our youth but for everyone. Who will take up the mantle?
Bill Walz is a retired psychologist and former adjunct teacher at UNCA.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Opinion: Society needs honesty, decency, democracy and justice for all
