Over the past several decades we have enshrined tolerance and acceptance as the most desirable of all individual traits. To judge another is actually, according to our thought leaders in politics, academia and the media, a form of personal violence, so we must all strive to smile and nod, regardless of the behavior or attitudes of others, because every variant of the human experience is both understandable and excusable if one is truly and completely enlightened.
It should, therefore, be little surprise that so many are mute when confronted with that which must be neither tolerated nor accepted.
The cringe-inducing apologists for the recent barbaric attacks on Israeli civilians, many of whom either teach at or attend our nation’s leading universities, are a symptom of a problem that is the inevitable outcome of blithely excusing evil with bland and misleading attributions of victimization that attempt to wash away both guilt and accountability. Our inability to state that some behaviors and beliefs are simply wrong and worthy of our condemnation has tied our intelligentsia into knots and revealed, for all to witness, the startling moral rot at the center of their supposed tolerance.
The riots that engulfed American cities in 2020, a carnival of unprecedented death and destruction, should have been a blindingly obvious clue that our nation’s major institutions and their leaders are incapable of moral clarity. The assertions by so many of our leading political figures and educators that the arson and looting were a reasonable response to the tragic death of George Floyd was an abrogation of the most basic principles of civil society, and the carnage was presented as a sign of an elevated and admirable sense of right and wrong—which is easy enough to do if you cling to the mistaken belief that ever judging the actions of others is unacceptable.
It has long been fashionable to shrug of the norms of behavior that have governed humanity for millennia, and traditional religious beliefs have been subjected to particular disdain because they are believed to be tools of oppression. Given that any sense of personal restraint is now deemed undesirable, it is little surprise that what was once pornography is mainstream entertainment, crime and violence are rampant, and despair now has become the default mood for so many. Lives lived without a moral compass are often a series of bad decisions leading to disaster for us all, so the suffering we now see in so many families and communities is both an expected outcome and disturbing consequence of the moral relativism that now rules our society.
Leadership without moral principles inevitably leads to catastrophe. The situational ethics and refusal to recognize official malfeasance that today too often govern our nation’s conversations have both weakened our resolve and allowed the most immoral among us to gain disturbing power and influence, which explains many of the issues facing our country today. A keen sense of what is demonstrably right and what is unambiguously wrong is an immutable requirement for effective leadership, so it is no surprise that the moral midgets in charge today are continuously slipping and sliding from one catastrophe to another—and dragging us along for the ride.
The flailing and failing that today are the most prominent features of our nation’s political, educational, and cultural elites dismays us, but we cannot take any steps toward improvements until we recognize that the disease of mindless and unreasonable tolerance for that which must not ever be tolerated is the root cause of our many problems. Unfortunately, the proponents of moral relativism are now thoroughly entrenched in government, academia, and our corporate suites, singing their siren song of limitless acceptance of evil and a limited tolerance for those who call it by its name. As a result, changing our nation’s current trajectory toward financial and moral bankruptcy will not be easy, but it must be done—and soon.
Every single day we can make choices that amplify the power of our voices. We can change America by speaking up and defending our right to be heard, by refusing to ignore that which we know is wrong, by insisting on personal accountability from those privileged to work in our government and classrooms, by refusing to comply with the edicts of fools, and by making thoughtful decisions about whom we will support with our time and money.
Change will not come easily, but it will come if we are diligent citizens of our nation.