Postmodernism says that there are no absolutes. That makes for a very disfunctional society. Some things have to be either right or wrong all the time or chaos erupts.
For example, murder is always wrong. Approving it at any point means no one is safe. Stealing is always wrong. Approving it means that no one will trust each other. Business cannot operate without trust.
Many tv programs reflect our societies erosion of absolute wrongs. There are programs in which people steal from others and give the stolen loot to people who were cheated. It seems okay if the one being stolen from is the cheat. There are those who murder people who have murdered others. Again, we have a sense of right when the person apparently gets what he deserves.
The conscience is our own system of right and wrong. It bothers us when it is violated. It provides moral absolutes. America agreed that 9/11 was morally wrong. There was an absolute everyone could agree on.
The sense of right and wrong is eroded when these the right and wrong is violated. In other words, the more you do something the more right it becomes. The conscience will no longer bother you. However, the lack of a conscience that bothers you does not make whatever you are doing right.
A person seeks a means of justifying the violation of their right and wrong. Adultery can be committed when a person says that his wife doesn't treat him right or that he has needs that she isn't meeting. Stealing becomes right when a person believes he deserves better. He wants what others have and stealing becomes a legitimate way of receiving it. Even murder can be justified if a person can give himself sufficient reason.
Can you see that a country without moral absolutes invites chaos? You cannot be properly related to others around you without previously agreed moral absolutes. A conscience is a necessity for keeping us compliant with these absolutes. The numbing of the conscience invites chaos.
America believes that the current recession is the greatest problem that she has. I don't think so. I think it is in the loss of a conscience. A conscience would have kept America from falling into the recession in the first place. Greed was the number one reason for the recession. Everyone wanted to make money fast. They lent it out fast and they hedged it and leveraged it and came up with creative ways of making money. The banks finally failed, the commercial paper supply dried up and few companies can do business like they did before.
America must get her conscience back. If not, we should build a statue of Bernie Madoff. He will be the new symbol of what America has become.
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