What Does America Truly Value Today?

By Robert Kimball Shinkoskey Photos: Wikimedia Commons What truly has value in America today? Is it education, or is it entertainment? Is it football Saturday, or hard work Monday? Is it whatever the big boys and girls say it is, or do ordinary people have the right to be heard? It is clear enough that compassion, honesty, marriage, democracy, and law have given way to brutality, lies, hookups, autocracy, and lawlessness. We only seem to care about what our corporate advertisers want us to care about, which is products and services that meet our own private needs rather than the public needs of others. A Massachusetts mother killing her children has become of less intellectual interest to us than a referee’s do-over call for the last play of a college football game in Michigan. Planet earth has lots of room for exploration, discovery, and sharing of the truth. But the American mind has dried out after all the heat of violent disputes or has been drowned out by all the floods of civic ignorance. Do we really care about anything other than our own paychecks, our next meals, and our kids making it safely through another day? Our ancestors had ambition to make democracy work and ambition to learn what they didn’t yet know. They had ambition to love their neighbors as themselves. These things seem to have largely disappeared from our society today. Commentators are obsessed with debating which candidates can win in the midterm election in places like Michigan and Texas. Lots of good ‘ol American drama there. But who can win is not really the question. The question is who among those who finally do win are educable. Unfortunately, popular candidates in the various wings of the two parties know virtually nothing about the history of democracy. Because of that lack of knowledge, they do not truly understand what is happening in current events in this country and whether those events are good or bad. And because of all the fame, money, and power being thrown around in the election, even if they had a historical framework to view events, they just might not care. There is way too much propaganda being bandied about, too much money dangled in front of candidate faces, and too much deceit and corruption in candidate personalities for there to be a truly happy outcome in this election. True, if non-MAGA candidates swing a few seats in the House or Senate, the country will probably not go downhill as fast in the next two years as the past two years. However, candidates on both sides of the aisle see themselves as influencers for the glory of their own personalities rather than teachers of fundamental political values for a nation in dire need of such teaching. Somebody please open up a book on ancient democratic Rome or Athens, Anglo-Saxon England, the Dutch Republic, or the history of the American presidency. That is the kind of learning that candidates and public officials need to be doing today. Commentators today point to young people as the hope for straightening out this country. However, employers today can’t find workers who can come to work every day on time, take initiative, and accept constructive criticism. In short, they lack maturity for their age. (“America’s massive labor crisis started in the classroom,” Fox News, 9-7-26) The reason for this is that schools have failed to build character through what used to be called “public virtue.” Too many schools stopped teaching personal responsibility and perseverance. The idea that a child’s feelings matter more than his performance became the cornerstone of the “child-centered classroom.” Educators could not bring themselves to give failing grades, to provide honest criticism or to enforce meaningful consequences. Participation trophies replaced accomplishment trophies. Inflated grades replaced real, measurable excellence. Protecting self-esteem became more important than preparing students for working conditions on the job. Eliminating homework and lowering standards likely lower stress, but pressure, deadlines, and good old-fashioned competition often move students ahead faster than constant compliments. Robert Kimball Shinkoskey is the author of books and editorials on democracy, religion, and the American presidency.