The big three institutions of our societygovernment, business and religionhave been rocked recently by events that leave us wondering if the walls are indeed tumbling down. Trust in government has declined in proportion to its runaway growth. George Bushs effort to streamline the myriad of agencies and departments related to national domestic security only became a priority due to 9-11. We now know that over 170 departments related to internal security have been separately pursuing basically the same directive with little coordination. It is not a stretch for the citizens to see that if we streamline the hundreds of other bureaucratic strongholds in Washington, we will discover the same thing: mediocrity, incompetence, waste and arrogancean environment in which tolerance is translated as entitlement and pressure groups can manipulate policy to suit their agendas by taking advantage of the inefficient vastness of the government labyrinth. And what's left of public trust in big government may not survive Bushs overhaul. We already knew that emphasis in Washington on sensitivity training, ethnic agendas and massive affirmative action has rendered most government agencies ineffective, but we continued naively to think that these diversions away from the business of running the country couldn't apply to our security and safety. We were wrong.
Greedspan
The predominately high-tech IPOs of the 1990s fueled an amazing economic phenomenon that appeared to stretch far into the future. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was considered the Merlin of the new economy, donning his coned hat to sit before a rapturous Congress that virtually hung on every word he said. Merlin read his own tea leaves and saw no looming clouds of disaster on the horizon. The only hand wringing on Wall Street and Main Street was over what to do when the wizard retired. The dot.com bubble burst in 2000, but that was okay, Greenspan and the pundits said. The economy is still strong and recovery is right around the corner.
But they didn't foresee the Enron/Arthur Andersen scandal, the tip of a malevolent iceberg of greed and corruption in the business of Americabusiness. Investors have fled stocks as revelation after revelation is announced of unethical collusion among company management, investment bankers and accounting firms. The other shoe came down when it was discovered that the nations largest stock brokerage firm, Merrill Lynch, had been turning the other way as its analysts used their alleged independent integrity to tout risky stocks.
The investigations continue while small investors and big mutual funds, sensing the stain and shame of the betrayals on Wall Street, refuse to invest, stopping the recovery in its tracks. The huge $800 billion Fidelity Fund announced it will vote its shares in companies it owns against continuing excessive executive compensation, a hallmark of the scandals. The SEC and the District Attorney in New York City promise more investigations as blue chip companies re-jigger their annual reports after airbrushing out questionable accounting practices that have primed their stock price. Perhaps the probe will go back to the IPOs that started the stock market bubble and charges will be brought against the cabal of managers, investment bankers and brokers that colluded to take companies with little value to market, rewarding insiders and friends handsomely and leaving trusting investors holding the bag.
Vatican Blues
In the midst of the collapse of trust in the key secular institutions of society, humans turn to the spiritual dimension of existence and seek solace in the Church. Yet, just at the time of its greatest opportunity in modern times to re-establish its position in the scheme of life in the wake of the collapse of trust in government and business, the pillar of Christianity in the West, the Roman Catholic Church, has been hurled into a maelstrom of venality and scandal. The love that dares not speak its name just won't shut up.
The first reaction to the news that Catholic priests were buggering little boys was that's always gone on, or its because of the ridiculous requirement for priests to be celibate, or this is just the church hierarchy picking on open-minded and socially caring priests. As the magnitude of the charges and the cover-up by the dioceses began to emerge, the appalling truth became difficult to avoid. Predatory homosexual priests have openly established their own church within the Church, making a game out of hiding behind respect for the priesthood to seduce young boys.
The Society of Jesus, the order of Jesuit monks, dominates Catholic education in the U.S., including the top universities such as Georgetown. Known as the Soldiers of Christ from their founding by St. Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Jesuits were charged with the mission to take the Church to foreign lands. These educated and worldly priests exude dynamism and authority, much to the chagrin of the main bodies of the church. It is indicative of the depth of the current scandal that it is now known that approximately 50 percent of Jesuit priests under 50 in the U.S. are admitted or undecided homosexuals. Our sister publication Boston Magazine this year named the downtown Jesuit parish as the best place to meet a gay mate.
Protestant as well as Catholic parents, concerned with the failure of public schools, rely on Jesuit-run institutions to provide a solid education for their children. What are they to do now as the reality sinks in that the scandal goes far beyond parish priests, bishops, cardinals and the Pope straight to the classroom? The homosexual issue also is dividing Protestant churches that have seen their congregations, synods and assemblies torn apart over same-sex marriages and the ordination of gay priests.
Is the tolerance and cover-up in the Catholic Church only a harbinger of more revelations to come about homosexual predation in the Episcopal Church, the closest kin to Catholicism, or the Presbyterians who are at swords drawn over gay issues? Will fundamentalist Islam gain adherents in the wake of the scandals? It is instructive, and somehow misplaced in the mass media coverage of John Walker Lindh, the California man accused of treason for enlisting in violent Islamic sects, that he turned to Islam after his father left his mother for another man, humiliating the young John Walker into adopting his mothers maiden nameLindhand seeking out the Koran and its proscriptions against homosexuality.
Tapestry of Disaster
Tolerance of human behavior is a proud part of a free society. However, the institutionalization of minority views with special rights not enjoyed by the majority is quite another. Would government have failed if it were dedicated to our original guiding principles of service to the people as equal under the law with respect for the rights of the individual? Would respect for business be so low, risking our economic well being, if schools, in their zeal for multiculturalism, self-esteem and ethnic sensitivity, hadnt ignored the foundations of our civilization and abandoned the teaching of ethics in the classroom? Would the Catholic Church teeter on the verge of ruin if it enforced the morality historically expected of priests? Would the church scandal have happened if homosexuality remained a private sexual practice rather than being imposed on society and taught in the classroom as a desirable lifestyle with special protections under the law?
Are we actually living in our decline and fall as a nation?
Notes from La-La Land
The ceaseless torrent of environmental statistical distortions continues unabated. According to the New Republic, the left-leaning Washington political weekly, in the book The Ghost With Trembling Wings, author Scott Weidensaul claims that 30,000 species are rendered extinct per year, a figure quoted widely (including in the New York Times) by deep environmentalists to sell their agenda. It turns out the data are based on a theory by British ecologist Norman Myers that states, with no evidence provided, that the earth contains millions of unknown species and that they are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. Go figure. * * * Professional forest managers are watching with anger and dismay as fires burn out of control in Colorado due to the ridiculous regulations insisted upon by environmentalists that ban setting controlled fires to clear out the forest floor. Can we believe anything these nutty green zealots say or do anymore? * * * Disgraced author Stephen Ambrose is writing a book admitting the views he held as a young history professor were wrong. I want to correct all the mistakes I made when I told my history classes that dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was a crime, that the Mexican-American War was nothing but a land grab and that people like Henry Ford and J.D. Rockefeller got into philanthropy to buy their way into heaven. I want to tell all the things that are right about America. Too little too late? * * * The film Enigma, purporting to be a definitive drama about the greatest espionage achievement of World War II, the breaking of the German code by the beleaguered British who were standing alone against Hitler before the U.S. entered the war, is instead a shabby piece of socialist agitprop designed to denigrate the secret services, introduce lesbianism and class warfare into the gallant effort and rewrite history to suit the views of director Michael Apted and screenwriter Tom Stoppard. Avoid it at all costs. * * * The governor is correct that we are the hole in the doughnut of states surrounding North Carolina with lotteries that suck out millions annually from Tar Heel citizens who cross the border to take a flutter. When you add to that the money spent by state residents on Internet gambling and trips to Vegas, we look stupid not taking in that money here. The irony is that the lottery is the lowest form of gambling since there is no investment of knowledge in the decision or the outcome, as in sports betting (you check the team power ratings and record), casino games (you make a decisionblackjack, craps) or horse and dog racing (you study the data and consider the odds). What we need to do is stop arguing about the lottery and enact legislation to allow special zones for casino gambling and horseracing. An extra benefit is that senior citizens appreciate casinos: they are safe, provide dining and entertainment and the excitement of gambling with just one stop. Set my people free, please!