Moral Bankruptcy

According to Webster’s New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, moral bankruptcy is “the state of being devoid of morality and ethics, used especially for business and political entities.”  Most have heard of the controversy behind violent video games, and at one time violent television shows.  In fact, on May 9, 1961 Newton Minow had this to say to the National Association of Broadcasters:

“Is there no room on television to teach, to inform, to uplift, to stretch, to enlarge the capacities of our children?  Is there no room for programs deepening their understanding of children in other lands?  Is there no room for a children's news show explaining something to them about the world at their level of understanding?  Is there no room for reading the great literature of the past, for teaching them the great traditions of freedom?  There are some fine children's shows, but they are drowned out in the massive doses of cartoons, violence, and more violence.  Must these be your trademarks?  Search your consciences and see if you cannot offer more to your young beneficiaries whose future you guide so many hours each and every day.”

Minow saw in the broadcasting of television a serious lack of important shows.  The television of 1961 contained a miniscule amount of actual channels depending on where the receiver was set.  Now, in the present time, channels go into the hundreds ranging from similar to bizarre.  Television is now a part of life, people watching one sports game simply to see the commercials that show during it.

           

Also in today’s mediums of entertainment contain violence of any sort, usually set apart by no-blood, blood, blood and gore, and the apex called ultra-violent.  Of course, that is not the end of depravity, there is also sexual themes, sexual images, and sexual instances.  In the Beijing Olympics in 2008, table tennis players wore clothing with “curves” in order to attract people into the stands.  People were not coming to the events, so they had to make players more “attractive.”  Then of course, one has to look at that particular instance of Leryn Franco, a javelin thrower for Paraguay.  Over the Internet, she was a “star” not because she won an event, but because she looked good.  The purpose of the Olympics is to show athletic talent across nations, not a beauty pageant (which is in of itself a form of demeaning activity).

           

We have in a sense, decreased the moral standard over a period of few decades.  To some, it is progress, others, a retreat from a foundation of values.  Whichever it may be, people should be careful of what is taken in, because regardless if you see what effects it may have, the generations after can and will.  Society says women should work, why should they not have the choice?  It is difficult to understand why someone should pay for the raising of their own child if they wish to raise it themselves. Equality is not separating the things you can and cannot do; it is giving you the opportunity to choose.  That is what the founding fathers had based this nation on, the right to choose.  Our purpose on this earth is unknown, and often, one must question it.  Especially when one loses someone close before what seems his or her appointed time. 

Everything we do is dangerous in some way, and it is inevitable for us to pass, that is our mortal curse, but it is not that we might die; it is what we do with what we have.  I know I have spoken on this before, and said so many times, but it is true, and bears repeating.  Awake and alive, more than just words, but a modus operandi, to admit failure, but never let failure submit you.