America Is Rapidly Losing Its Moral Compass

Toward a Nation of Morons

Dumbing Down by Immigration; “Queen of Daytime” Enters Fray on Frey, Defends Her Protégé's Lies

SCOTTSDALE, Jan 23 - Nearly nine years ago, I noted in a column written for the Washington Times that a process of “Dumbing Down of America” was under way. 

“The desecration of America the Beautiful is not a spontaneous event… nor is a deliberate dumbing down of our nation. It is a multi-pronged process carried out by the Wall Street elites and their vassals in government, education, media and the entertainment industry.

"It doesn't take very long to dumb down a nation," agreed a former publishing company CEO, a long-time advocate of better quality education in America. "After only two or three generations, you can easily produce a nation of morons".”

Why would the elites preach better education but implement policies that lead toward a nation of morons? 

“Because such a stupefied population is easier to subjugate by the elites' financial shackles than would be a free-spirited, free-thinking, patriotic, enterprising Americans who had made this country the envy of the world,” I answered in the above column.

So how have done as a nation since August 1997?  Terribly.  The elites are winning.  We are dumber than ever. 

Rampant Immigration

Take the rampant immigration, for example.  The last five years have produced the biggest influx of uneducated immigrants in America’s history, according to the just-released report by the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies. 

“The 35 million immigrants (legal and illegal) living in the country as of March 2005 is the highest number ever recorded -- two and a half times the 13.5 million during the peak of the last great immigration wave in 1910,” the CIS study noted.  “Of adult immigrants, 31% have not completed high school, three-and-a-half times the rate for natives. Since 1990, immigration has increased the number of such workers by 25%, while increasing the supply of all other (higher skilled) workers by 6%.”

The low educational attainment of many immigrants and resulting low wages are the primary reasons so many live in poverty, use welfare programs, or lack health insurance, not their legal status or an unwillingness to work, the CIS study found.  The proportion of immigrant-headed households using at least one major welfare program is 29%, compared to 18% for native households.

So the elites are importing low-skilled immigrant workers while exporting American jobs to China, India and other low-labor cost countries.  And you don’t think that’s accelerating the dumbing down of America?

For the elites, of course, this is a win-win deal.  A flood of immigrants helps lower the labor costs at home, while low-cost foreign labor takes over the work Americans used to do.  Topping off a seemingly clever scheme, the American taxpayers pay for the immigrants on welfare.

But there is a catch.  As this writer pointed out in his 1996 Washington Times column, "When Cultures Collide...", the short-term business gain from immigration may be laying the seeds for ethnic strife in America in the decades ahead.  Just as Britain, Spain or France are now wishing they had not allowed rampant immigration that imported terrorism into their countries, future generations of Americans may be cursing our current leaders' greed and shortsightedness as well.

California, New York, Texas, Florida and New Jersey, the top five states in terms of immigration, both in absolute terms and as percentage of the population, are the most vulnerable.  Or don't we know that already after 9/11?

America Is Losing Its Moral Compass

Just as worrisome, however, is the dumbing down process of the native population.  That’s done not just through education, but also by way of media and entertainment industries that the elites control. 

As a result, America is rapidly losing its moral compass.  We can no longer tell a lie from the truth.  Worse, we don’t even seem to care that we don’t.  And that’s tragic.  For, there is only one place where people like that end up – at the bottom of the heap in the dustbin of history. 

If in doubt just consider what happened to the ancient Romans who were also fed the “panem et circences” (“bread and games”) stupefying philosophy by their leaders on their way to oblivion. 

How can we tell we are losing our moral compass?

The war in Iraq is certainly one obvious answer.  It was started on false pretenses and lies, and it is being fought for all the wrong reasons.  But “the truth is the first casualty of war,” is an ancient saw.  The Bush administration certainly cannot claim originality in its deceptive tactics.

“I did not have sex with that woman,” was a discredited line by a proven liar who occupied the Oval Office at the time he uttered it.  And what happened to him?  Nothing.  He served out both of his terms in full.  Yet just a quarter of a century earlier, another, more moral America, got rid of another liar through a painful impeachment process.  “Slick Willie” got away with it. “Tricky Dicky” did not.

“Small Lies” in Private Lives: Corruption of the Soul

More troubling to this writer, however, are the so-called “small lies” that are becoming acceptable in, and have pervaded our everyday lives.  Wars and presidents come and go, but corruption of the soul remains.  And that’s what all those “small lies” are adding up to. 

People lie about their ages.  “Everybody does it, especially the women,” a female psychologist shrugged when he pointed out some examples that grated against his moral compass.  “That’s no big deal.”  

It should be.

People lie on their job applications and even in public statements.  Every so often a news story breaks about some prominent person claiming a degree or a medal or an award that he or she never got.

We shrug.  Even when someone commits suicide, such as Admiral Boorda, for example. (Are you asking, "who is Admiral Boorda?"  If so, thank you for helping me make my point.)

People lie to their spouses.  “I made a mistake of telling my husband something that had happened in my previous marriage,” another professional woman told this writer.  “That was a mistake.  Total honesty is for the birds.”  

"Small lies are for the birds," this writer thought.  Especially between spouses.

People lie in writing, brazenly, even with perverted pride.  That’s no biggie, either, anymore; not in a nation of morons.

Brazen Public Lies Are Rewarded (updated Feb 1, 2006)

"The Queen of Daytime" at first spoke out in support of  “A Million Little Pieces” author James Frey, whose memoir of addiction she helped to promote into a bestseller by selecting it for her book club, calling allegations that the author lied in the memoir ‘irrelevant’,” the news media reported on Jan 13. 

If lying is okay, as Oprah said initially, and if the end justifies the means, as millions of private "small everyday lies" attest, can excusing theft or murder be far behind?

Well, viewers of Stephen Spielberg’s hit movie “Munich,” for example, are being led to conclude that murder can be also justified.

“America is rapidly becoming a nation of mutts,” I also wrote nine years ago. “Our country's traditional character is being systematically destroyed by nihilistic ‘liberals,’ the New World Order's centurions whose only God is the Almighty Dollar (also see "The Nothing Philosophy," 1996). 

Of course, we have seen many other examples, especially in the media, where public deception and manipulation was practiced with impunity (e.g., “Shattered Glass,” “Capote,” Jayson Blair, former New York Times reporter, etc.).  If a cheating reporter or author got caught red-handed, he got fired, just as Tricky Dicky was impeached. But some, like Frey, have gone on to make a lot of money on bestsellers based on lies. 

Frey stands to make even more money in Hollywood from his deception and distortion.  Tinseltown media have dubbed Frey "Hollywood's favorite new liar."

Hm… And what does the nation think of rewarding the liars and the cheats with big movie contracts?  Nothing. Shrug. That’s no biggie, either, anymore.  Ten days later, the fray about Frey has frayed away.  After all, the Superbowl XL is coming up.

“Panem et circenses.”  

P.S. "XL" - what number is that in Roman numerals?  Or is it an acronym for excelling?  Or a spreadsheet? J

---

Bob Djurdjevic is a Scottsdale, Arizona-based writer and public speaker.  His columns on geopolitical and social issues have appeared in many of the nation’s leading newspapers as well as in international media.  A selection is available at the Truth in Media web site.

Also, clickhere for an Index of 911-related articles ... and for others, such as… "Plutocrats of the World Unite,"  "Bush League All-Stars,"  “Enronizing Pretzelitis:” New Alzheimer Strain Strikes Potus Potatus Primus ,  Censorship Comes to America,  Grotesque and Pathetic War,   Clash of Greens,  End of Folly, Not of World,  Collateral Damage Hits Home.  

--- ----------

Feedback:    Home:    Search:

Also, check out... Djurdjevic's CHRONICLES magazine columns: "ON THE BRINK OF MADNESS",  "A BEAR IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING",  "WALL STREET BOOM, MAIN STREET DOOM",  "PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL COMMERCE",  "WIPING OUT THE MIDDLE CLASS",  "WALL STREET'S FINANCIAL TERRORISM"

Or Djurdjevic's WASHINGTON TIMES columns:  "Christianity Under Siege," "Silence Over Persecuted Christians", "Chinese Dragon Wagging Macedonian Tail,"  "An Ugly Double Standard in Kosovo Conflict?", "NATO's Bullyboys", "Kosovo: Why Are We Involved?", and "Ginning Up Another Crisis"

Or Djurdjevic's NEW DAWN (Australia) magazine columns: "Macedonia: Another Farcical American Oil War,"  "Anti-Christian Crusades,"  "Blood for Oil, Drugs for Arms", "Washington's Crisis Factory,"  and "New Iron Curtain Over Europe"