If we are in cultural decline, which I believe we are, it cannot be solely blamed on current events. Nor can it be blamed on one person, such as the President. The truth is that current events are the result of cultural decline, not its cause. The frantic pace of new technologies has only served to accelerate the decline. In any case, when we lose our moral values we are not only on the road to cultural decline, we will eventually lose our liberty.
“No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffusd and Virtue is preservd. On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.” —Samuel Adams (1775)
The beginnings of the cultural decline can be traced back to different points in our history. It is not my intention to draw a comprehensive connection to the historical reasons for our decline, but some events in our history can be seen as turning points. Too often these historical events have resulted in a negative impact on our society. Negative events that, altogether combined, have led us to the state of today’s culture in America.
So how can we, as citizens of The United States of America, help begin to reverse our cultural decay? How can we begin the healing process? We must first of all keep in mind that, in order to allow for healing, the decay must be stanched or even totally eradicated from the body.
We can begin by learning from history. We must be able to recognize those signs that foretell the end of culture, and act to eradicate those things that harm cultural values. History is replete with examples of cultures that were destroyed because people saw these signs but failed to take action to counteract them. We have no excuse once we recognize the signs. Sitting on our hands, or throwing them up in frustration will only lead to a further decline. We must not resign ourselves to the feeling it is too late to regain our values. G. K. Chesterton wrote, “I do not believe in a fate that falls on men however they act; but I do believe in a fate that falls on them unless they act.”
To reverse the decay of our culture we might first want to look at how our cultural decay began. In the United States of America we can trace cultural decline to the loss of the basic foundations of our social and governmental design. Those basics center around the moral and ethical tenants found in the Bible. Those who wish to rewrite our history will claim that what we may perceive to be the tenets of our basic foundations are, in actuality, simply a construct developed in an effort to claim a nonexistent base of belief in God, and in the moral basis of our culture. In other words, they make every effort to show that religion had little, if anything, to do with the founding of our nation.
But if we look at our history at the dawn of our great nation we find that in fact religion, in particular the belief in its necessity toward the success of this new nation, was indispensable. In his farewell address George Washington spoke directly to this belief:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable support, . . .Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.”
And it is this loss of belief in our moral foundations that is ultimately the beginning of cultural decay.
Columnist Star Parker reminds us that “former Vice President Joe Biden once said that American values are being ‘shredded’ by President Donald Trump.” But our American values had been placed in the shredder long before Donald Trump became President. When we began to disregard the truths that were the basis for the forming of our exceptional style of government the shedder was turned on. Abandoning these basic truths has caused this “shredding” of American values. And that is exactly what Democrats have done and want to continue to do. Parker directly correlates the loss of basic truths to the Kavanaugh hearing:
“Washington said that we should never buy into the illusion that we can have a lawful society that protects life, liberty and property if our laws are not rooted in immutable eternal principles. This was on grand display during the confirmation hearings of Judge Brett Kavanaugh, where Democrats were so driven to destroy his nomination that they had no reservations in destroying the man or his family along with it. A society without objective truth is a society with no respect for facts. So it would make sense that a man could be convicted by allegation, by uncorroborated claims, as Democrats tried to do to Kavanaugh.” (Star Parker)