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Human Rights  » American Morality - A Glimmer of Hope on the Horizon

American Morality - A Glimmer of Hope on the Horizon

Has the United States lost it's basic principle of morality? Has

the United States moved away from the guiding principles that

this country was founded on? A single line from the Declaration

of Independence describes these basic principles, and it is the

meaning of these words which provided the foundation for the

formation of the United States:

"We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are

created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with

certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty,

and the pursuit of happiness." - Thomas Jefferson

All Americans are created equal and life, liberty, and the

pursuit of happiness is a right granted to every citizen of the

United States. Our founding fathers acquired these principles

from their religious beliefs, and regardless of what people may

think, the United States was founded on Biblical principles. Our

founding fathers did not use certain aspects of the Bible just

to satisfy what they wanted in a country. They used the Bible as

a whole in order to create an understanding of what the basic

rights are for an individual. They concluded that these rights

are from God and are given to all individuals.

One of the unalienable rights given by our creator is the right

to live our lives. Our creator placed each individual on this

earth for a reason. Is it not true that other people in the

world have that same unalienable right to live and fulfill God's

purpose? So, if this is a founding principle for our country,

does it not follow that we as a country should help others less

fortunate then us? Should not others, who were born in

underdeveloped countries, have the same right to life? In this

article, I will address some of these questions, with the hope

that by examining these issues, we can as a society, move in a

direction our founding fathers had envisioned. Americans have

lost site of the fact that excess without giving is not really

what our founding fathers had in mind. Lets examine some

examples which are symbolic of this immorality that currently

exists within the American society.

Before presenting this first example, we need to have a clear

definition of what morality is. From WordNet, a lexical database

for the English language, developed at the Cognitive Science

Library at Princeton University, morality is concern with the

distinction between good and evil or right and wrong. This first

example of immorality may be considered by many as one that does

not have anything to do with morality, but if you give it more

then cursory thought, you would most likely consider it a

morality issue.

This first example has to do with Americans and their

relationship with their automobiles. Yes, immorality can be seen

at such a insignificant level. More importantly, this example

shows the pervasiveness of immorality within the American

society. Most Americans, if typical, need an automobile for

basic functioning within most areas of the United States. The

automobile has become a perfunctory status symbol. Many people

within the United States can barely pay their rent or mortgage,

but they will shovel out money per month on an automobile they

really can not afford. They spend money per month in the form of

a car payment or lease, just to have a "nice" car.

The American obsession with the sport utility vehicle is one I

still do not understand. One basic argument of the SUV owner is

that by driving a SUV, they feel safer. If your driving skill is

so poor that you can not avoid poor drivers, try working on your

driving skill. This to me makes more sense then driving a tank

(SUV) which consumes large quantities of fuel and concomitantly

contributes to an increase in fuel demand. This increase in fuel

demand drives fuel prices upward. With Americans so reliant upon

their automobiles, higher fuel prices mean less extra money in

their pocket. Money that could be used to help feed those dying

from starvation throughout the world.

The American car companies for many years pushed the SUV on the

American public, and now these car companies are suffering the

consequences. The thinking as to why these companies offered

these vehicles to the American public was that they thought

Americans would continue in their mind set that excess is

better. The American car companies today are doing poorly as a

business. They have continually laid off workers in order to

maintain a level of viability. They have been very slow to

innovate and the federal government has had to mandate fuel

efficiency. Because of their sluggish response to the need for

fuel efficient vehicles, American car companies are now

suffering the consequences.

On the other hand, Toyota and Honda, companies which have put

fuel efficient hybrids out into the market place, are now doing

very well. Toyota is now the number one car seller in the world.

Toyota and Honda have always placed fuel efficiency as a higher

priority. A glimmer of hope lies in the fact that Americans are

starting to create the mind set that excess is not good, and

frugality is the way of the future. Simply put, driving SUVs is

not intelligent.

Driving an SUV when it really is not necessary is an example of

overindulgence in the United States. Granted, there are

situations where an individual needs a SUV such as Alaska or any

area of the country where road conditions are poor or winters

are severe. Or, there are occasions where material needs to be

transported in a SUV because of it's increase carrying capacity.

In these cases, there is a legitimate reason to own a SUV

because of it's utilitarian value. But the majority of SUV

owners are not in these situations or extreme conditions

frequently enough to warrant owning such a fuel wasting vehicle.

Driving a hybrid is an example of intelligent frugality. In

order to buy a Toyota or Honda hybrid, you will have to be put

on a long waiting list. This is a good sign that Americans are

starting to develop the mind set that having less is better and

frugality is the way of the future.

Our society has been through a period of excess and

overindulgence but changes, hopefully, are on the horizon.

Morality in the form of giving needs to be reincorporated back

into our society. It makes more sense to drive a more fuel

efficient vehicle, and use some of the saved money to contribute

to the world hunger problem. For most morally conscious

individuals, this type of sustained and continual activity leads

to greater long term happiness.

Giving does not have to be monetary, it can be in other forms,

such as giving time or knowledge. This brings us to our next

example of morality reduction that has been in existence in the

United States. Many parents today are not giving enough time to

their children. Children need to be nurtured. A parents wisdom,

gained through a life time of experiences, needs to be imparted

to their children. Parents need to impart to their children the

value of giving and a feeling of concern for others . When I was

a child growing up, school shootings where kids are killing

teachers and fellow students, was virtually unheard of. Today,

school shootings are occurring at an alarming frequency. To me,

part of the problem is due to parents not spending enough time

with their children. Again it comes down to giving. In this

case, it comes down to giving time and knowledge. Parents not

giving enough time to their children is another example of

morality reduction within our society.

Another example of the immorality prevalent within our society

is displayed by the films which come out of Hollywood today. I

am sorry to say that most of these films really are to put it

bluntly, garbage. Most of these films lack the cerebral quality

of the earlier films. From a technical perspective i.e. special

effects, they are excellent, but from a cerebral perspective,

they are lacking. Most of today's films rely heavily on special

effects in order to appeal to the audience. The common theme for

today's films almost always involves action sequences, sex, and

violence. They are always trying to appeal to the dark side of

human nature with very little thinking required of the audience.

Therefore, most of today's films are lacking in moral quality.

They are produced only to make money for those who are producing

them, without any understanding to the implications they may

have on society, especially younger people.

Creativity is basically gone from Hollywood and many of the

movies coming out today are remakes of successful earlier films.

Once and a while a good film will be presented to the American

public, but generally speaking most are junk. Most of today's

actors are not really household names. They come and go fairly

quickly and lack the staying power of a John Wayne, Jimmy

Stewart, or Humphrey Bogart. These actors displayed a level of

integrity and they new about the personification they were

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displaying to the American public. They were not perfect, but

they did display a higher level of morality.

Is our society spiraling downward into the oblivion of lost

hope? I believe not. More and more we are seeing examples which

display the positive value of giving. A case in point. Time

Magazine finally got it right when they named rock star Bono,

and Bill and Melinda Gates as the Persons of the Year for 2005.

They were named persons of the year not because of anything that

happened at Microsoft and not because Bono is a rock star, they

were named persons of the year for their charitable work and

activism aimed at reducing global poverty and improving world

health. Finally a media organization is recognizing the value of

giving.

Another sign of hope that Americans may be moving away from the

mind set of excess and non-giving, can be seen in the enormous

outpouring of giving monetarily in the wake of the worst

hurricane season the United States has had on record. Americans

have also given monetarily to the tsunami relief effort.

Americans have not been giving readily to the current starving

in Africa. In December 2005, the UN's Food and Agriculture

Organization issued a warning that nearly 12 million Africans

face the immediate threat of famine. Americans have not been

giving to the Pakistani earthquake relief efforts.

This lack of giving is not really due to Americans not willing

to give, but rather due to the lack of media exposure. CNN would

rather spend hours talking about whether President Bush broke

the law by wire tapping potential terrorists in the United

States, then talk about the important world issues such as the

thousands that are dying in the wake of the Pakistan earthquake

or the starving in Africa. It is very important that the media

expose these type of stories. You can not give if you do not

know about the need.

The point is this. Giving on a continuous basis, produces

feelings of long term happiness. For this country to get back to

it's moral principles, giving to others in need is one way to

move in that direction. Which brings me back to my original

point. Americans need to fully get back to the mind set that

giving and having less is of greater value then having more. We

must move away from trying to produce short term happiness via

artificial means.

Artificial symbols such as what type of car you drive, how fancy

your clothing is, or how many vacation homes you can acquire

should be of less importance to any one who has some substance

to them. The next time you find yourself propagating one of

these excesses, think of the 24,000 people per day that are

dying of hunger. Think about the six million children under the

age of five which will die of hunger each year. Think about the

downtrodden, the abused, and the tortured. When you think about

these things, giving makes more sense. Give what you can and

when you can.

Albert Einstein once said " the value of a man resides in what

he gives and not in what he is capable of receiving." What many

people do not realize is that Albert Einstein was a deeply

religious man. He knew that only a God could produce such a

complex universe, and that such complexity could not have been

produced by random chaotic events. He saw the order in the

universe and the relation of the universe with God. He simply

did not wear his religion on his sleeve. He also had insights

beyond physics in that he realized what truly gives a man a

sense of happiness and inner peace.

Einstein had it right in that happiness does not come from what

you hold, but really from what you give. No matter what your

religious belief, a life time of giving to those less fortunate

then yourself, will result in long term happiness. Give it a

try. You might be surprised at the feeling it produces. A

glimmer of hope is on the horizon. The United States can move

back to it's Biblical principles. But we must all do our part.

About the author:

Thomas Sullivan, the author of this article, is a Search Engine

Optimizer, Webmaster, and activist for world hunger elimination.

He currently manages the website Hunger

Relief Organizations - World Hunger Statistics. He also

maintains the blog World Hunger

News.