The Real-Time Collapse of American Society

American Thinker 

During the past 50-plus years, there has been a decline in the formality of workplace office attire, an increase in little children calling adult neighbors and relatives by their first names, and an increase of “sloppy Joe” or “sloppy Jane” clothing on our college campuses.  In our largest city — New York — fare evasions on buses and subways are at an all-time high.  The misbehavior in our public schools has reached intolerable levels.  All sectors of everyday life are in decline.

Bus drivers in NYC are not as likely as in past years to insist that passengers pay their fares in order to ride the bus.  And in the NYC subways, as in the years before Rudy Giuliani became mayor, more and more riders are jumping turnstiles and, after jumping the turnstile, opening one of the locked gates for a minute to allow friends or strangers to enter without paying.

Office attire is more “casual” than ever.  Now, in midtown Manhattan where there are thousands of business offices, we find fewer and fewer men wearing ties and jackets.  The women are also casually dressed.  There is an assault on what is now being called “formal attire.”  This reflects a deep-seated sense that hierarchies of competence are deemed less important.  Even years after COVID, many are still working from home in their pajamas or torn jeans, and this is perceived by many as an improvement over forced compliance to “office subcultures.”  

In addition to the above-noted “informality,” we are seeing the fruit of 50 years of feminism.  Gloria Steinem came into the limelight in the 1970s.  Since then, marriages are down, births are down, and depression medications are being prescribed at high levels.

Also, college admissions over the decades after the 1960s would no longer be based mainly upon SAT or ACT scores, high school grades, and extra-curricular participation.  Rather, ethnicity and a family’s income would be factored in.  DIE under the pre-DIE rubric of affirmative action began in earnest in the 1970s.  Black students who were deemed victims of racial prejudice because they had graduated from low-performing high schools (which, presumably existed and which they were forced to attend because of institutional discrimination) had their admission requirements for colleges adjusted downward to compensate for their historical victim status.

This writer taught writing at Penn State in the 1970s, and the two lowest performing students in a class of 70 were black American affirmative action admissions.  At that time, I was all for this discriminatory admissions policy and called it “just” and “fair,” failing to consider the rights and education of the two deserving students who had been excluded so these two could be admitted.  Was it right for the higher education system to be merit-based for many, but ethnically based for others?  

In an excellent article, William Brangham says, “Math and reading scores have dropped to their lowest levels in more than two decades among high school seniors.”  Brangham interviews a couple of experts, and they emphasize the increase in absenteeism from schools and the presence of cell phones producing lower results.  However, this writer would emphasize as well the lackadaisical, undisciplined psychological and moral climate of our society.

With the lack of emphasis on authority, on discipline (not just discipline of cell phone use while in school), on religious and moral values such as laid out in the Ten Commandments, on obedience and cooperation, on extensive reading and writing assignments, and on tests that from an early age require considerable memorization — in short, the education values of the 18th century through the 1970s (although Jewish and Christian biblical moral values such as prayer and Bible reading were mistakenly outlawed in the early 1960s and should be reinstated) — we see the decline of educational achievement and competencies.

In one high school where I was a full-time teacher, on my first day of teaching, a 9th-grade female student stood at the back of the class and threatened me by saying, “We got rid of the other three teachers, and we’re going to get rid of you, too.”

On another day, in a course that covered the Middle Ages and feudalism, I asked, “What was the feudal manor?”  One of the twin sisters who were in the class raised her hand, and when I called on her, she answered, “Those are nice shoes and socks you’re wearing.”

In another class, a student was chasing a girl around the classroom as I was beginning the day’s lesson.  When I told him to resume his seat, he became so angry that he began attempting to remove the laminate on his desk with his fingernails.  When I spoke to him, I told him he did not have to be angry and that he would have plenty of time to be with Tawana after the class, and that he could not destroy his desk.  There was no need for him to be so angry.  But when he re-entered the class, he continued to destroy the top of his desk, and security had to be called to remove him.

On yet another occasion, a girl student in my sophomore class refused to take her assigned seat and said, “I sit wherever I want to sit.”  Although she was a sophomore, she was 19 years old, and one day stood by the window and was trying to raise it.  I called out to her that Board of Education rules said that windows could not be opened more than six inches, but she quickly lifted the sash of the window and jumped out.  Fortunately, it was “only” a drop of eight feet; she had strong legs and did not get injured.

The above behaviors are only an abbreviated list of what this teacher faced every day, all day, for five-plus years in a high school that had eighteen security guards and two full-time policemen assigned to it, as well as metal detectors where students entered the building.  This was more than thirty years ago.  But the anti-social behavior had been in place years before I even began there.

The disruptive atmosphere in the school is an out-picturing of a wave of disruption, dislocation, and breakdown of our institutions that many believe shows tolerance for differences — but it represents a collapse of order, ethics, and decency that afflicts most of our institutions.

There is a collapse of order, obedience, skills, institutional structure, respect for authority, and public decency throughout society.  The moral foundations are in a state of near collapse, and we are near collapse, but the denial continues.