My, how things have changed! - decline of modern society - Column - Brief Article

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Nov, 1997 by Gerald F. Kreyche

THE FRENCH have a saying that "The more things change, the more they remain the same." Yet, in our personal and everyday world, things do change--some for the best, some for the worse. For example, aging is irreversible and brings with it the illnesses waiting in the wings, but benefits often attend this phenomenon as well. Generally, we become more understanding and patient.

Then, too, as the saying goes, if you aren't a liberal by the age of 21, there is something wrong with your heart. However, if you aren't a conservative by the age of 30, there is something wrong with your head.

Many popular songs of an era ago virtually have been put under lock and key. Much of this repression was caused by political correctness, an increase in crime, or feminist sensitivities. A once popular dance song, "My Wild Irish Rose," is passe as its lyrics express the desire to "take the bloom off my Wild Irish Rose." The Rosemary Clooney rendition of "C'monna My House" is another example, as she sings of bribing someone (a child?) by saying, "I'm gonna give you candy . . . and I love your hair." Nowadays, this might be regarded as an invitation to introducing one to crack or suggesting pedophiliac intentions. For obvious reasons, Arthur Godfrey's "I Don't Want Her, You Can Have Her, She's Too Fat for Me" would be hard-pressed to be accepted today. The same would apply to "Mr. Five by Five" in our diet-conscious society.

Somehow, though, despite the protest of sensitivity violation in such songs, gangsta rap, which can extol cop killing or women beatings or rape, continues to capture a significant share of the music market. A knock-down discussion about this among former director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy William Bennett and issue ally C. DeLores Tucker, chairwoman of the National Political Congress of Black Women, and executives from the Time-Warner music companies was published in the June 12, 1995, issue of The New Yorker. The latter appealed to the right of free speech and piously affirmed that they had no right to serve as censors when it came to offensive lyrics. Bennett and Tucker charged that such music promoted violence, especially in society's young people. Gangsta rap continues, apparently thriving on the publicity.

On a less earth-shaking topic, it used to be that the waiting room in a doctor's office had a picture of a capped and uniformed nurse holding her finger to pursed lips. The message intended was that quiet should prevail. It was a good idea. If one spoke at all, it was in muted whispers. Today, however, most waiting rooms have a blaring TV soap opera on, making it impossible to read a

Dr. Kreyche, American Thought Editor of USA Today, is emeritus professor of philosophy DePaul University, Chicago, Ill. medical article or book or even make up a grocery list.

Moreover, one rarely sees capped nurses, a hard-earned badge of honor. If we wonder why authority has eroded, we can start by looking at such instances, small though they may be. Priests continue to shuck their Roman collars and nuns their order's garb.

No one is asking for the return of the Fred Harvey girls, but fewer and fewer eating establishments are staffing waiters and waitresses in uniforms. For some reason, one finds more of them in fast-food establishments than formal restaurants! Few of the servers are taught which side of the plate the fork, knife, and spoon are to be placed. It is not unusual for them to stand in one place and pour coffee exclusively from there. The patrons are expected to set up a fire-bucket brigade, a risk to all as the hot beverage changes hands a number of times. Near the end of the meal, the customer may be asked to hand the dirty plates to the waiter or waitress, who remains at the earlier chosen stationary position.

As a retired professor, I remember the time when teachers addressed students by their first names. Now it is the students who call faculty members by their first names.

A generation ago, mothers put notes in their children's lunch boxes. Modern-day youngsters put notes in their working mothers' lunches or on their car seats.

There is a lot of hullabaloo about gender roles today. The issue is reflected in the masculinization of women--e.g., wearing slacks with a fly in front, boyish hairstyles, Jockey shorts for her, etc. One sees it, too, in the feminization of men. Recently, openly gay men danced traditional ballerinas' roles in an English production of "Swan Lake."

Self-esteem, once earned, currently seems to be given freely by proclamation of the government, teachers, and counselors. Funeral liturgies used to mourn death and employed black vestments. Now they celebrate life in the beyond using the color white, but the sting of death still is there, despite the change of trappings. The tears still are tears of sadness, not tears of joy.

Patriotism appears to have gone the way of the dodo bird. I don't mean the wrapping up of oneself in the flag as did Oliver North at the Iran-contra Congressional hearings. I mean, rather, a sense of pride in one's country, now ridiculed as chauvinism, and a respect for government and those who sacrifice themselves by serving it--especially at the lower echelon. The flag, once respected as a symbol, is desecrated and burned while jeering people praising the action protest over who knows what is current today.