As someone who loves his country very much, I am often hypercritical of the changes I see within its culture, its government and its citizens. I sometimes jealously resent "newfangled" modifications in our behavior, our language (for example, never ask me "Where you at?" as I might just hang up the phone), our values and what we seem to perceive as important subjects for public discourse. For instance, my reply to the omnipresent "Who do you think will win on AI?" often elicits a reply that is off-putting if not downright rude.

As I frequently tell my patients, "I yell because I care!". It is just so with my nation. I rant and rave because I am so grateful to my forefathers and my land for all that it has allowed me to do and enjoy as one of its citizens. But, as an unabashed Chicken Little, I cannot help but feel, with increasing frequency, that the sky really is falling. And it sickens and enrages me when I suspect that most of my fellow citizens are as Nero in Rome, fiddling while all around us - the things that once made us the envy of the world - is decaying and crumbling. Then again, maybe it is just that I am rapidly becoming an old man and just do as many such men do, complain about the loss of "the good old days". I hope that is all it is that haunts me dreams and darkens my days. But, then again...

As a simplistic example, allow me to ask you the following: How would you best characterize America today? Which is to ask: Which set of values or "virtues" do you think America, manifested by a majority of its citizens, exhibits with more regularity:

1. Justice, discretion, moderation, bravery, faith, hope and charity, OR

2. Pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and laziness

Though the phrases have been slightly altered (not to protect the innocent but for clarity), the first set of virtues comes from two ancient sources. Plato declared the first four as the chief virtues of a good citizen of Greece. These were, in the mind of Plato (and his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle) essential to a strong nation. Saint Paul added the last three "theological" virtues. While they have little to do with good citizenship, they clearly are core values for those seeking the Kingdom that lay in the hereafter.

The second listing is, again with a few synonyms substituted for the actual more archaic words, are generally attributed to Pope Gregory I (circa 590 AD) but were immortalized in Dante’s The Divine Comedy.(in three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso) which details the author’s journey through Hell and, eventually, Paradise. The so-called "seven deadly sins" were popularized in cinematic form for the contemporary mob in "Se7en", which starred Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman and a young Brad Pitt. I would venture to say that more American citizens are familiar with the movie than Dante’s classic work. But that is a story for another time.

To return to the point, I think most (at least those not floating down that famous river in Egypt ("de-Nile") and who have not buried their heads, ostrich-like, in the sand) would say that the second list of traits best describe American culture in our time. There is nothing, to my mind, that suggests that America remains a nation with a workable justice system, values discretion or strives for moderation in any (much less all) things. We still have a shrinking cadre of brave men and women in our military and thank heaven for that. But, truly, the majority of the Great Unwashed have substituted shallow bravado for true courage - two distinctly different things. As for faith, hope and charity, to my mind, we are not far from the faithless, carpe diem-driven, self-interested crowd of the days of Caligula, Attila the Hun and Bernard Madoff. (Wait! Madoff is a contemporary! Need I say more?)

And what of the second list, the "seven deadly sins" attributes? Gentle reader, if there were ever seven attributes that could be applied (in one degree of another) to a majority of my fellow citizens (and I am surely not exempt), it is these ignominious traits. Look around, in any venue you choose, and you will see them - pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy and laziness - one or all, paving our nation’s decline to Avernus. In the eyes of the world, we are the poster children for each and every one of these attributes. And while I am not one of those who generally cares what the world thinks of America or its people, in this particular instance, I cannot avoid the uneasy feeling that their viewpoint is spot on. Such is our national shame, our scarlet letter and, what I fear most, our final legacy. Is this, truly, how all Republics must end? Was Edward Gibbon right? (1) Do Republics fall from within?

Lest you dismiss me, as many will (and possibly should), for simply howling at the dark because it is easier than lighting a candle, I still, in my daily life, persist in trying to see the good that still exists around me. I am not, contrary to public opinion, a bitter naysayer. I smile often and laugh regularly though I must admit that the best laughs are at the craziness all around me. The human comedy in which I live is priceless if not, at times, tragic. Furthermore, I do not think America will disintegrate into chaos in my lifetime and I have no bunker in Montana to weather what I perceive as imminent days of anarchy.

But, in this particular instance, the facts speak for themselves. The dream of "a shining city on a hill" has died and we have descended, for the most part, into the morass of a faithless, self-interested, greedy, comfort-driven mob. Force and legal restraints still keep the majority at bay and prevent all but society’s brutes from pursuing their inner drives. But the chains have become dangerously strained. To whit, I offer this revealing recent news item:

"The Josephson Institute, a Los Angeles-based ethics institute, surveyed 29,760 students at 100 randomly selected high schools nationwide, both public and private. All students in the selected schools were given the survey in class; their anonymity was assured."

Some of the relevant findings were:

"Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse. Sixty-four percent of students cheated on a test in the past year and 38 percent did so two or more times, up from 60 percent and 35 percent in a 2006 survey.

"The survey found that 35 percent of boys and 26 percent of girls - 30 percent overall — acknowledged stealing from a store within the past year. One-fifth said they stole something from a friend; 23 percent said they stole something from a parent or other relative."

Now, on its face, none of this surprises me. What does befuddle me is the following, also derived from the survey:

"Despite such responses, 93 percent of the students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character, and 77 percent affirmed that "when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know." [Emphasis mine]

Well.

Does any reader now believe that we remain a nation of virtue? Does anyone think that America’s youth (and by extension, their parents) even know what "ethics and character" actually means?

Causation is easy enough to determine. The exposure that our youth have to the elastic ethics and popular culture’s sense of "morality" typified nightly by the broadcast media (in this, I include television, cinema, music and the Internet) can produce nothing less than the adoption of "situational ethics" measured in this survey. We no longer have hard, irrefutable truths or limits of behavior; we have rule-bending to fit whatever opportunities that might present themselves. Steal when you feel the need, cheat when you can get away with it and, still, through it all, you can (somehow) manage to look in the mirror and tell yourself you are "satisfied with your ethics and character". After all, didn’t you see the same things you did today on "___________" (pick any television show you watch) and they surely are "good" people. In point of fact, they are our role models!

Once upon a time in the fantasy land of television, we actually did have fictional characters that displayed the ancient virtues of Plato and Saitn Paul that has seen mankind through the millennia. The Cartrights ("Bonanza") were paragons of strength of character and a strong sense of doing the hard things when short cuts were easier. Hugh O’Brian’s "Wyatt Earp" was "brave, courageous and strong" (as the theme song testified). Later, there were actually honest cops ("Hill Street Blues"), ethical lawyers ("Perry Mason", "Matlock") and doctors who cared more about patients than their co-pays ("Marcus Welby", "Dr. Kildare", "Ben Casey").

Things began to change, as so many things did, in the 1960s and 1970s. Families were shown, driven by greed rather than kinship ("Knot’s Landing", "Dallas"), police staggered along the line between corruption and the law ("NYPD Blue") and lawyers were cutting deals rather than defending the innocent ("The Practice", "LA Law"). What was "ethical" became a matter of what was expedient, profitable or, in the final tally, easier. It was the birth of situational ethics and, ultimately, the mantra of contemporary American virtue: "What’s in it for me?"

And here we stand today, ethically vacuous, isolated and anchor-less beetles on a great dunghill. Socrates believed virtue could be taught and was synonymous with wisdom; Aristophanes believed that it is not taught but cultivated by family and culture, what we would call one’s "peer group". Sadly, I lean toward Aristophanes (though it is always hard to refute Socrates). For many men and women of great wisdom often have the darkest of souls. I lament the sagacity of the ancient Aristophanes because today’s culture is unlikely to instill anything resembling virtue and, well, the family-as-teacher is in full retreat. As a result, our society is undeniably in a headlong plunge toward a tragic atomistic existence.

As Thomas Malthus observed: "In a state, therefore, of great equality and virtue, where pure and simple manners prevailed, the increase of the human species [in the sense of social advancement, not numbers] would evidently be much greater than any increase that has been hitherto known."

We, in America, have little to fear of this.

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(1) From WikiPedia: "According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. They had become weak, outsourcing their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become effeminate, unwilling to live a tougher, "manly" military lifestyle. He further blames the degeneracy of the Roman army and the Praetorian guards."