The Culture of Irresponsibility

If you want to see why I am convinced that American culture is in a tailspin and heading towards collapse, here's a classic example:

Ex-NFL star Brian Holloway may be sued by parents of teens who allegedly trashed his upstate NY home

The facts of the case are what is interesting here:

- According to the press, the the home is located in Stephentown, NY, in a middle-class, predominantly White community not terribly far from New York City.

- The graffiti and vandalism is not by poor kids, but rather well-dressed (by today's standards) and well-groomed suburban scions.  

- Rather than exhibiting some sense of shame and decency, a number of the parents are threatening to sue the owner of the house for repeating their own children's advertisements of their depravity.

Congratulations!  You can now rest assured that moving to the countryside will guarantee that your kid will be surrounded by the same immoral, hedonistic lot that you left behind in the inner city!  You would expect that such behavior would be the norm in the ghetto, not in the well-heeled suburbs.

But, when you look at the behavior of the parents, you realize that they are the bigger problem: rather than teaching their kids to own up and make amends, they are exploring ways to make the victim 'pay' for having the temerity to point out that these kids are morally bankrupt.

Oh, sure, there's no evidence of rape or murder, but look at how they casually break into someone's home and destroy it.  Then, they post pictures.  They are not ashamed.  They are just 'having a good time.'

This culture of irresponsibility is the result of the destruction of the family.  Parents no longer feel it necessary to teach children morality that even they themselves have a tenuous hold on, because the modern social construct says that 'professionals' are supposed to teach your kids and solve your problems.  The reason the parents are finding some other 'professionals' (read lawyers) should tell us everything: their children are more of a liability than humans in need of correction.

The victim is right: these kids are indeed in need of a great deal of help, and their parents are largely the problem.  They themselves have not grown up.  They are not taking responsibility and are rather trying to limit their own culpability by threatening court action.

The fact that these kids are learning that such reckless behavior is 'kid-tested, mother-approved' means that they will continue to indulge in it and the underlying assumption that having fun means abandoning your sense of dignity and self-responsibility because, after all, it is so hard being a kid in the suburbs and you need to let off a little steam once in a while. 

This self-indulgence without consequences leaves them more and more vulnerable to addiction because, when life gets tough, they do not have the basic skills of self-preservation and self-control necessary to protect themselves from self-harm.  After all, 'teens' can't be held responsible for their actions.  And the parents sure as heck aren't going to let junior's escapades endanger the family's continued membership in 'respectable' (read employable) society.

There's a lot of this weak parenting in the Church these days, which is why Orthodox kids get in a lot of the same trouble their peers get into.  We have all terminated our parental responsibilities in favor of public schools, colleges, Sunday school, and the media.  They define what our children do and think.  Not us parents.

Breaking the bonds of parenthood, modern society has left us alienated and alone.  There are no absolute moral authority figures.  There are no role models except for the 'celebutards' who proudly march about displaying their exemption for decency and even common sense.  Following these people does not help us learn how to handle our deepest emotional crises.

This is why we are getting addicted at ever-increasing rates... and our society is crumbling.