The consequences of the motto...
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The consequences of the motto of the seventies has proven to be most costly in the eighties. We all should have been more critical of Frank Sinatra crooning, "I'll do it my way." It has become abundantly clear that we in America are paying a high price for our insistence upon personal rights without regard to ethical and moral considerations. Over and over again we hear quoted the complaints of the people who were subjects of the sociological study, Habits of the Heart. These people have indicated that their lives were empty in spite of the fact that they had enjoyed the freedom of pursuing their personal ambitions.
Allan Bloom's study about the failure of American education insists that we have educated people without teaching them how to live and to be concerned about others. We have trained people in individualism. The American electorate has suddenly become aware of the fact that the candidates for public office can no longer insist on doing their own thing. Public officials have to know they do live in glass houses and that their behavior is under the scrutiny of the public eye.
Allan Bloom's study about the failure of American education insists that we have educated people without teaching them how to live and to be concerned about others. We have trained people in individualism. The American electorate has suddenly become aware of the fact that the candidates for public office can no longer insist on doing their own thing. Public officials have to know they do live in glass houses and that their behavior is under the scrutiny of the public eye.
