When postmodern American society dies, everyone will rush to write the autopsy.
Journalists will focus on whatever was going on right before the end. Historians will frame the story in light of the decades before. Economists will talk about income inequality or GDP or national debt. Sociologists might talk about groups they saw as oppressive. Theologians might say we lost faith in God.
There will be some truth in many of those things — and many others — but I suspect the core truth will be found by something they’ll all overlook.
Individuals became so selfish that they were no longer willing to treat strangers with respect and decency.
Something has changed about how people treat each other today. We’re not as polite. We’ve lost the sort of manners that used to be expected among strangers in middle-class society. We believe that only suckers are honest if cheating will bring an advantage.
No society has ever been perfect about any of these things, but fewer and fewer people in postmodern America stick to the “social script” that used to allow us to feel a sense of community.
We’ve lost our way — our values — and unless those things radically change, our society will fail.
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