The age of irreverence

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Sept, 1995 by Wayne M. Barrett

American society has broken down, triggered by discourtesy, vulgarity, malaise, toughness, off-color entertainment, a lack of civility and decorum, and a penchant for sensationalism and vituperation.

NOTHING soils the soul of belief like hypocrisy. If Americans appear to be waLking around these days with a collective chip on their shoulders, spewing doubt and disobedience, who can blame them? No one respects anyone or anything anymore because there are no one and nothing left to be held in high regard. Like the spilling of blood in shark-infested waters, the feeding frenzy of frustration proves ravenous and insatiable. Society's senses have been bludgeoned beyond repair. Each of us is scheming, lying, and/or cheating to grab, or desperately hold onto, our little piece of the stale pie. It's my right, my share, damn it. I've go it coming to me and if the rest of the country doesn't like it, well . . . you know the rest.

Decency has been dethroned. Like the Johnny Rocco character in the 1948 film, "Key Largo," the only thing we want is more. No matter how much the corrupt politicians, scheming businessmen, welfare cheats, gun-toting teenage hoodlums, power-hungry military, entitlement-laden white middle class, two-faced religious leaders, bungling bureaucrats, and featherbedding unionists get, it's nowhere near enough.

Respect is passe. All the venerable institutions are crumbling and rotting. We have become nothing more than a nation of selfish, whining complainers, and every time we open our mouths, the cavities are there for all to see. We are all conniving to get ahead in the Age of Irreverence, a time in which respect is breaking down on all levels of society. Vulgarity, malaise, off-color entertainment, lack of civility and decorum, and a penchant for sensationalism are all typical of this modem age. Its calling card may as well be an upraised middle finger, the last symbol of contempt for humanity.

This may sound cynical, but where is there room to doubt that this is the New Age gospel? Point fingers at Generation X, if it makes you feel better, but this is a top-to-bottom, bottom-to-top phenomenon, and with each passing day, it gets worse. "Just like a house divided can not stand, a society without values can not survive," says USA Toy publisher Stanley Lehrer, who coined the phrase, the Age of Irreverence. America's new mantra is: In defeat, malice; in victory, revenge.

A good place to start is at the top. The President of the United States is supposed to command respect. He's the man running the country, our Commander-in-Chief. Yet, as comedian Dennis Miller points out, how do you respect a baby boomer, especially when he was the guy who always tapped the keg at fraternity parties? It would be easy--too easy, really--to unleash a stream of invective at our current leader in the Oval Office. Lord knows that Bill Clinton certainly gives us more than enough material. Is it any wonder that the White House is treated with disrespect by the American public?

Can anyone name the last administration that wasn't racked by scandal and indictments? You may want to shrug these off as politics as usual, but it's not that simple. The President, as the nation's leader, is supposed to show the way. Instead, too many in recent decades have demonstrated to the American people how to lie, cheat, and deceive.

Isn't it ironic that so many who have occupied the highest office in the land are prone to decry the decline of morality in America, yet fail to live up to the standards they maintain the public should adhere to? Over the past half-century, revelations of sexual impropriety have besmirched the reputations of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton. Corruption has reared its ugly head in the administrations of Harry S. Truman, Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, and Ronald Reagan. In the latter case, the savings and loan debacle still haunts the nation. Jimmy Carter and George Bush are regarded more as bumblers than statesmen. Of course, the prime example of irreverence at the top is Richard Nixon, the only American president ever forced to resign under threat of indictment.

Simply put, the American people no longer revere the Office of the Presidency because its occupants have revealed their own feet of clay. Seemingly, the rules of society don't apply to them. Their arrogance reflects the old adage. "Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Even when caught in the act, there are no consequences. Thanks to the imposition of executive privilege or months or years of interminable hearings laden down with obfuscation and stonewalling, nothing ever results except reams of newspaper headlines and countless media bewailings of the situation. If all else fails, there's always presidential pardon to tidy up the mess.

Of course, in these politically correct times, we're not allowed to say that politicians are corrupt; they are "ethically challenged." We,d feel a lot better about the Republicans, highly touted Contract With America if we didn't know that all the money saved from cutting social programs probably was going to end up in the military budget or be rechanneled into pork barrel projects.