The Rise of Moral Cynicism and the Decline of Altruism

 

 

Aggression in our country continues to increase at an alarming rate as moral behavior declines. Conscience, the psychological apparatus that regulates and differentiates good from bad and right from wrong develops as the result of the various identifications with significant models in one’s life space. However, if the models exhibit amoral, narcissistic, selfish and non-altruistic behaviors a sense of morality is challenge and impaired.  Moreover, with morality behaviors on the decline, we turn to those influential models as integral components contributing to this troubling dysfunction. One factor that contributes to the increase in amoral behavior are the presidents that model and reinforce wrong and the bad behaviors of exploitation, sadistic expression, greed, power and cruelty. Their behaviors contribute to our current state of moral decline and dysfunction.  This disquisition provides examples of presidents that model, thereby sanction and give permission for many in our society to exhibit amoral and non- altruistic interactions among and between its citizens. Our norms have changed for the worse.

We can now witness the  denial , lies and cheating attempts about who won the November 3^rd election, the presidential  assassination of unarmed black men by the police; the statistical increase in citizen deaths by weapons; the ability to openly carry assault rifles to rallies and protests; the legalization, in a few states  , of marijuana; the intended kidnapping of a governor for trial and assassination-Mitt Romney’s father George, as governor of Michigan was never kidnapped; “religious” leaders going to jail; parents indicted over college admissions for their children; the excessive intentional lying and disinformation on social media; the pandering  and enabling by  Senate Republicans ;  the threat to The Affordable Care Act and Social Security; and the despicable spreading of conspiracy by “guests” on so-called” news “stations. Let’s hear from Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw. Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite are turning over in their graves.

Our country’s history has been based on amorality despite having “In God we trust” printed on money; and by referring to our country as a Christian nation. I’m going to focus only on the past 50 year or so. I am also going to use the term “moral cynicism” coined by Robert Sampson. Moral cynicism refers to the notion that laws and informal rules aren’t really and truly binding; and as a nation we lost our sense of an altruistic moral purpose which is a collective will to do what is decent and right. Sampson believed that” we have been living in a state benumbed and a benumbed state in which nihilism prevails and corruption oozes from the very top. “Further, normalized selfishness has prevailed.

Altruism, means a number of things. One important meaning relates to how to treat others. The idea of caring for, and loving others can be found as a major principle in all religious foundations. In the 10 Commandments for example, the idea of loving and honoring another are clear. In essence we are talking about the behavior or behaviors related to how we interact and move toward others as opposed to moving against others. Black skinned people read the same Bible, worship and pray to the same God as white evangelicals. Yet, these evangelicals do not treat these fellow worshipers in an altruistic manner. However, if Jesus was alive today, he would condemn them to say the least.

In 1968, Richard Nixon ran for president. Also running for president was George Wallace, the governor of Alabama. Wallace was an unapologetic defender of segregation and he reportedly promised that he’d never be “out - nigguhed again.” He pledged “segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever.” Anyone who attacked Wallace was called a “nigguh-lover, a pinko or a communist.” The governor’s goal was to destroy democracy at its best. Wallace was going to pit the white race against the minorities in this country.  Wallace also told a group of police officers in Bethany, Oklahoma “there’s nothing wrong with this country that we couldn’t cure by turning it over to the police for a couple of years. You fellas would straighten that out.” “Folks are mad about law and order and about schools … Race mixing doesn’t work. Show me a place where it worked.” Wallace gathered 13% of the popular vote and carried five states in the Electoral College.

Wallace scared Nixon and as the campaign went on, he endorsed a more and more Wallace in his core campaign. In addition to Wallace’s positions on crime, Nixon spoke out against school busing, federal enforcement of school desegregation, antiwar activists and the federal judiciary. Despite a report of National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, which concluded that structural racism was the underlying cause of the terrible riots that affected Watts and Newark. “What white Americans have never fully understood-but what the Negro can never forget-is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto.” Otto Koerner and John V. Lindsay said “white institutions created it, white institutions maintain it and white society condones it.”

Nixon created “The War on Drugs.” Actually, it was a war against people that used drugs. Now, the government could incarcerate them and lock them up at will. This policy was aimed at discriminating against the black community. They were sentenced differently and more severely than whites and were incarcerated differently and more severely than whites. The white majority supported this policy. His presidency added to the turbulence and he’s a good example of amoral behavior by  a Pres. His lack of altruism supported, reinforced  and embraced the existence of moral cynicism. What happened to Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew? Nixon has not  followed  the  Beatitudes of Jesus : Blessed are the poor, Blessed are they who mourn, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the clean of heart, Blessed are the peacemakers , Blessed are they who are   persecuted for their sake of righteousness etc.

Ronald Reagan was “no ordinary political phenomena. He is, as Goldwater was, a symbol of the old values of God, Home and Country, his appeal was visceral.” “Reagan was for lean government, low taxes and flag wearing patriotism. He is against civil rights legislation, University radicals and expenditure of government funds in the ghetto.” Reagan was also for “The War on Drugs” or let’s make war against blacks.

The Congress did not go along with wanting to give Reagan funds to overthrow the government in Nicaragua. Reagan rationalized the reason for his dislike of their government. He claimed that they were communists. To make a long story short, Reagan’s national security advisor John Poindexter and Col. Oliver North secretly involved the CIA in providing weaponry for the rebels in order to overthrow the government. The CIA became buddies with the drug cartels and facilitated with American planes and American pilots bringing cocaine to Los Angeles and other communities. The distribution and selling of the drugs resulted in huge monies that purchased weaponry for the rebels. The rebels got their arms and the black community got their drugs and their addictions. Reagan was happy. He was attempting to amorally overthrow a government at the expense of addicting people, the citizens he was supposed to protect.

 The Tower Commission investigated Regan’s Iranian scandal. Reagan was found guilty and 10 officials in his administration were convicted and others forced to resign. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger was indicted for perjury. A War on Drugs? What a joke and once again the white public went along with the propaganda message as moral cynicism conveys the absence of altruism that was continued and reinforced. What a moral and altruistic leader?

Osama bin Laden had his fellow Saudi’s fly into the World Trade Center on 9/11. Bush did not want to attack our allies [they buy our weaponry] so he went along with the phony “Weapons of Mass Destruction” scheme. Saddam bought our weapons too, but he angered some by invading Kuwait.  So we supposedly, as told by propaganda, were bringing democracy to Iraq. Our country went along with the war propaganda and our revenge was justified. We punished Saddam and in the process created more terrorists. Again, moral cynicism continued to be reinforced. War, the killing of innocent children is morally good? Not much altruism present here.

This brings us to our current state of affairs. Trump, has normalized selfishness, greed, ineptness, racism, police brutality, bigotry, racial inequality, weakening the Constitution and  our Republic, trashing the presidential election, diminishing the news except on Fox,  exploiting scapegoats, sending unidentified “agents” with tear gas to break up peaceful protests, breaking the law etc., etc. Moral cynicism gets expressed by “we love him, and you may not like his personality, but he is good for the country.” However, he’s a loser regardless of his oppositional behavior.

Laila Lalami gives a few examples of not fitting in and moral cynicism in in her book “Conditional Citizens on Belonging in America.” She’s an American citizen, Moroccan by birth and came to the United States for graduate studies in linguistics. This educated woman “I thought, somewhat naïvely, I admit that I would be treated no different than other Americans.” It didn’t take her long to grasp the yawning gap between the ideal taught and civics lessons in the reality. She argues she is a “conditional citizen.” She adds that conditional citizens are not allowed to the question the choices of their government; if they do, they are viewed with suspicion and their allegiance to the new country questioned.

In her book, she points out that immigrants built this great country! We are a nation of immigrants! Immigrants bring disease, crime and rob us of our jobs! -and conditional citizens are regarded as America’s best hope and its greatest threat. Lalami described her first interaction with the federal government after she became a citizen. A border agent at Los Angeles Airport asked her husband “how many camels did you have to trade in for her?” After 9/11 “you’re either with us or you’re against us” were comments from her colleagues who treated her with suspicion when she voiced dissent about the country’s wars in the Middle East; and questioned US exceptionalism, Then her allegiance to America was attacked. When her and her husband moved to Manhattan Beach, California 24 years ago, the local cops stopped her three times in her first year for not signaling a left turn-something her German-American husband who has white hair fails to do but for which he has never been stopped. She stated, Trumps 2016 victory  was driven less by angst over losing jobs to immigrants than fear on the part of whites that their group dominance and privileges would slip away and they would became a more demographic minority. One survey found that the white working-class voters were 3 ½ times more likely to support Trump if they felt “like a stranger in their own land.”

Our “Christian” country began over 400 years ago when English pirates captured a Portuguese ship carrying African slaves. That certainly was an amoral act by the English and the Portuguese. Whenever we have aggression toward or against another that by definition is almost always amoral as well as an absence of altruism. American amorality and lack of altruism, by the Nixon, Reagan and Bush presidencies, continues today in greater overt proportions. Over 72 million citizens voted for the greatest amoral and non-altruistic president in our short history. This president, along with his father, has amorality and a lack of altruism a built into their character. It didn’t matter to him that the office of the presidency was held in high esteem. He trashed the Constitution and the government agencies. It was disturbing that so many of his followers in and out of the government exhibit moral cynicism and non-altruistic behavior by enabling him.

We have, thanks to the current president, the worst statistics on the Covid-19 pandemic in the world. Modeling not wearing a mask is certainly non-altruistic. Moreover, it’s a passive aggressive act as well. Believing that not wearing a mask is a right of a citizen is denial and rationalization. The health of society, as expressed by public health scientists, is related to mask wearing, social distancing, washing hands etc. Not wearing a mask, puts others and our health care system at risk. The behavior of not wearing a mask is bad and wrong from a health, moral and ethical standpoint. Potentially harming another is aggressive and passive at the same time. Underlying emotional aggression is exhibited passively by not taking personal responsibility for mask wearing with defenses of denial (it’s a hoax) and rationalization (I have no symptoms). No altruism present here but plenty of moral cynicism.

 Joe Biden, the President-elect, a man of religious ethics, will provide stability, altruistic behaviors, abiding by norms, and a different moral direction. Joe Biden’s behavior will model moral decency and altruism. Remember, wearing a mask and social distancing are his health, moral and altruistic behaviors to be embraced. More than 79,000,000 citizens agree that Trump should be gone with good riddance. References for this essay are found in the November 1, 2020 edition of The New York Times. They Include the following: 1968 and 2020: Two Perilous Years; One of Us; and Our Faith.