Columns
Being nonjudgmental will end in chaos
BY DOMENICK MAGLIO, Traditional Realist
Published: March 22, 2013
Published: March 22, 2013
It is true, many people of our older generations have put people with different cultural values down without understanding them. The need to be superior to others has often been the motivation in shunning people with different values.
The modern “anything goes” attitude, which is really scoffing at traditional values, has severe consequences in our society. Today we are facing a more destructive behavior of not noticing a person who is being offensive or harmful to others. These obnoxious, belittling behaviors have lost their stigma and are becoming acceptable. A vulgar person might be cursing another in front of youngsters. An individual might be speaking loudly on his cellphone or watching a pornographic video in a public place or putting down his spouse or child for everyone to hear.
We often cowardly ignore any inappropriateness, even those behaviors we know are harmful to that individual. In our politically correct culture, we are being conditioned to keep our mouths shut so as not to offend someone who is publically offensive to those around him.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined the phrase “deviancy down” to highlight when a society begins to tolerate the intolerable. At this point, evil behavior explodes. He noted that the breakup of the family not only produced emotional scars for all of its members but also created a vacuum where moral values were no longer communicated from one generation to another.
Lowering our institutional standards in education, media, judiciary, military and religion has had disastrous effects. Grades are inflated in our schools to appease parents and to maintain students’ false high esteem. The progressive state-run media does not report the true news story but creates a narrative to push an ideological agenda. The courts, the Department of Justice and the military are not sending a clear message that there will be serious consequences for disobeying the law.
Even our churches are not teaching and stressing a clear moral code. Instead they are communicating a moral relativism that is weakening and undermining the conscience of our populace. Too many religious people have remained silent when members of the church have sexually molested children. It is unconscionable when a person representing the church takes sexual advantage of a child. When the people of the congregation are tolerant of any horrific act it makes them accomplices to the crime. This nonjudgmental silence of people in many institutions is making it an easier environment for “anything goes” immoral behavior to prevail.
The softening of our moral conscience by our institutions is making it that much tougher for God-fearing and loving families to keep high moral standards. Citizens are becoming demoralized with being punished for maintaining high standards while irresponsible parents and adults are seen as “cool.”
We are witnessing an epidemic of parents not motivated to fulfill their duty as parents by not commanding their children to stop inappropriate actions. The parent does not demand an end to the child’s shenanigans as it may appear abusive. Instead many “cool” parents go out of their way to assist their youngsters in illicit behaviors such as underage drinking, drugging and sex.
Often parents do not put their foot down because they do not want to alienate their spouses and suffer the consequences or feel the anger and resentment of their children. They choose to look the other way when the children do something inappropriate, so as not to harm the unnatural, phony friendship with their children. They do not want to be the bad guy as the head of the family.
Mature adults should realize that not stopping negative behavior is a lost opportunity to do one’s moral responsibility.
Maybe it is time we analyze what the nonjudgmental mentality is doing to the social fabric of our society. High standards based on moral values and expectations will bring about an upswing in wholesome and productive behaviors. These time-tested traditional moral values will reverse our decadence, returning us to peaceful, prosperous stability.
Dr. Maglio is an author and owner/director of Wider Horizons School, a college prep program. You can visit Dr. Maglio at www.drmaglio.blogspot.com.