The US, in making massive technical progress, has lost much of what made it unique and successful.
I hate to repeat analogies, but sometimes there is little choice. If the anchor of a 4 X 400 meter relay crosses the line in first place but has forgotten to take the baton from his predecessor, his “victory” is meaningless, and the fellow crossing the line after him will represent the winning relay team. Getting to the finish first only matters if you do it the right way.
I was reminded of this simple fact when I once again saw a large group of youth “wilding” in Chicago. They terrorized stores, drivers, and pedestrians. They are not opposed to sacking a store of interest or beating up some passers-by. This is by no means the first time that such an event has been recorded in the city where I was born. Chicago had many nicknames: Second City, the City of the Big Shoulders, The Windy City, and The City That Works. Today, it is a crime-ridden dump, led by a clueless mayor who has half of the police department as his personal protection unit. His predecessor was no better, and one can only remind oneself that the people of the formerly great city voted in these clowns and get what they deserve.
Historically, post-war Europeans looked down on American morality. Gary Hart’s political implosion from the picture of him with his mistress on the “Monkey Business” would make no sense in Europe—it might actually have increased his popularity. The French are okay with a president who has another woman on the side; their current pathetic leader is married to his former teacher. In the US, a week does not go by without a story of a teacher going to jail for having improper interactions with underage students. In France, it’s a road to the Elysée Palace. While the Europeans laughed at Bill Clinton’s affair having been a big deal, this was not always the case. De Tocqueville noted that “America was great because she was good.” He then presciently warned that should she stop being morally good, she would also stop being great. America’s moral compass has been the driver for her keeping the world’s shipping lanes open and being the first one to reach a foreign disaster zone with aid. The American ethos of helping others underlies many of the country’s efforts to assist the poor and unfortunate around the world. I was once hooked up to an IV at a local hospital, and plastered on the device was a sticker reading USAID.
Let’s look at all of the failures behind Chicago’s recent teen attack. The most responsible are the kids themselves. If a young man or woman steals from a store, he or she is legally responsible and should be held accountable. There is no place to blame society or the economy: the ultimate American value is taking responsibility for oneself. To paraphrase the movie, Platoon, “Excuses are like derrieres: everyone’s got one.” So, those involved should be arrested, prosecuted, and punished. And that takes us to the others involved in this recurring fiasco.
Where are the parents? Did they know what their kids were up to? What values did they pass on to their progeny that make beating up people and robbing stores okay? Many, no doubt, come from broken homes, but that does not excuse the parents. If you don’t want to or cannot bring up children, don’t bring them into the world. The police and correctional services are not remedial parenting services. Maybe one kid out of a couple of hundred acted out of character—he got caught up with his friends. But the others behaved as anyone around them would have expected. After the parents, one can add a large roll call of American failures in big cities:
- The schools. It is not their job to be the moral compass of kids brought up wrong. But maybe they should drop all of the remedial courses they teach and give classes in criminal justice only—with periodic visits to local jails to either scare the kids or give them a chance to get used to their future homes.
- The police and DA. Much of American policing checked out after white officers were prosecuted and persecuted for black crime. The policeman who shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, was investigated by the locals and the DoJ. Everything he did was in accordance with procedure. He still had to change his name and move away to protect his family and his life. DAs, especially the Soros variety, let hardened criminals back on the street to engage in crime again. How many times have we heard the expression, “So-and-so had been arrested 432 times previously…” Wow, what a surprise that he pushed the World War II vet onto the train tracks. The guy is a gold medalist crime Olympian. The police are oftentimes afraid to police, and the DAs think that their job is to fix some social failures that led to the criminal being a criminal. In the end, good people suffer from their failures.
- The Courts. How often have we heard that the murderer was released by a certain judge just a few days earlier? I don’t know how you fix the judging problem in the US. Sure, there are legal remedies like impeachment—but with the numbers in Congress, impeaching a federal judge is less likely than milking a cow and getting chocolate milk from the udder. Many judges at all levels of the judiciary have decided that being a judge has nothing to do with enforcing existing laws and saving the innocent from the criminal. No, they see their chamber as their college dorm where they can pontificate on Marx and fairness over equality. How much time and effort have been wasted over district judges trying to stop the Trump administration, only to have the Supreme Court bat down their batty theories that make them the toast of the liberal party circuit. How many favor illegals over Americans?
Chicago was a beautiful city that was once a commercial dynamo. The lovely houses on Lake Michigan to the north of the city, or in Evanston, were often owned by wealthy business families who tried to move away from the smell of the massive meatpacking operations farther south in the city. Chicago was a leader in manufacturing and used its extensive rail and Lake Michigan access to receive raw materials and ship finished products. I remember visiting the Schwinn bike factory on a field trip. If I wanted to reprise the event, I should buy tickets to China. Chicago and other big cities have no future without some form of moral revival. University theories of justice leave dead bodies; old concepts of crime and punishment led to better outcomes for both the citizenry and the criminals themselves. People go on about the US having too many people in jail; as long as citizens are pushed in front of trains or stabbed on the streets, then the country does not have enough people in jail.
America cannot outrun its moral component. The country is becoming like my serious cycling friends, with massive legs and skinny, skinny arms. The US is a powerhouse of technology, from AI to weapons to medical. But if doctors think that they can mutilate children in the name of good medicine, or AI thinks that DEI gives better outcomes than meritocracy, then all of the engineering and technical power will be worthless. A moral people with a strong economy and tech sector are unbeatable. Another Europe with no values and no religion will be clueless about how to properly use its great wealth.