Dr. Dennis Cuddy -- Hypocrisy and Contradictions in American Society Today

HYPOCRISY AND CONTRADICTIONS IN AMERICAN SOCIETY TODAY

By Dennis L. Cuddy, Ph.D.
October 14, 2013
NewsWithViews.com

Although a great number of people will say that they believe in the Biblical teaching, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," the fact of the matter is that hypocrisy and contradictions are rampant in American society today. For example, many liberals support racial balance busing, which purports to defend the civil rights of minorities, yet by mathematical definition it discriminates against them by requring that they be bused in inverse proportion to the majority race.

Not too many years ago, those on the left were expressing their regret at the loss of life at Tienanmen Square in China, but their outrage is nothing compared to what it has been when right-wing dictators have gone on killing rampages. Some years ago, liberals demanded Noriega's ouster in Panama, but the activities of left-wing dictators such as Ortega in Nicaragua and Castro in Cuba did not similarly bestir them. More recently, supporters of President Obama did not demand swift justice for the Libyan rebels who massacred blacks there who hadn't even been proven to have fought for Gaddhafi.

Violence, whether foreign or domestic, is bemoaned by network news anchors, yet the same networks in their "soaps" and prime time programming offer a steady diet of violence as well as illicit sex, interrupted at times only by the hyper-reality of ads that mimic drug videos. If one objects to such viewing fare, he or she is righteously accused of censorship by those on the left, who consider themselves the guardians of our First Amendment right of free speech. That is, of course, unless one is talking about voluntary school prayer or requiring the scientific evidence against evolution to be included in school texts (try to find in your local public schools the fact that there are no transitional life forms in the fossil record). Then the left shouts "separation of church and state," but they have not similarly vociferated when the text THIS SIDE UP advocated Hindu chanting to get "high."

These hypocrisies and contradictions are unfortunately pervasive in American life, including business, politics, social issues and education. Many companies owe their success to what the United States has provided them, yet in the May 21, 1989 edition of THE NEW YORK TIMES, the chief financial officer at Cogate-Palmolive was quoted as saying: "The United States does not have an automatic call on our resources. There is no mindset that puts this country first." The extent to which the mindset of some corporations is laughably contradictory may be found in the book CORPORATE NETWORKING (1986), in which one finds a double contradiction in the following single sentence: "Our world's greatest problems are the boundless constraints of our expanding limitations" (the number of constraints may be boundless, but the constraints themseles are not, and the same is true about limitations).

In politics, many on both sides of the aisle make promises they do not keep, but the liberal side is especially guilty of deploring "litmus tests" by conservatives, but hypocritically applying their own "litmus tests" to conservative nominees for Cabinet and judicial appointments.

Concerning social issues such as abortion, those on the left who argue that the right to abortion is a private matter in which government should not intervene and not "impose morality" then hypocritically ask government to impose their morality upon all taxpayers by requiring them to fund this deadliest form of child abuse. When I spoke to an honors class at a local university on the subject of abortion, I was told by more than one student that these aborted children were "unwanted," and I wondered if they realized this was the same mindset Hitler used to kill first the handicapped and then the Jews.

Of course,, those on the left always claim they are advocates for the poor, but this advocacy does not usually interfere with their own pursuit of self-fulfillment and sexual license. They also have expressed their abhorence of a rising crime rate, but not sufficiently enough to abandon their slogan, "Don't impose a particular morality." A NEW YORK TIMES headline some time ago read: "Ethics Classes Avoid Teaching Right and Wrong," so don't be surprised if one day a youth accused of shoplifting, for example, appears in court and tells a judge he has been taught in school to make his own decisions regarding all matters based upon the individual situations, and no one should impose any particular morality upon him!

In the textbook, CONTEMPORARY LIVING, subjects such as shoplifting and buying drugs illegally have been covered in a chapter titled, "It's Your Decision," and elsewhere in the same textbook students have been advised that "If you follow the guidance of your parents, you might risk the criticism of your peers. The best approach is to try to combine family and peer influences...." All parents, though, are not innocent of hypocrisy either, for how many parents have told their children to obey the laws and then turned around and exceeded speed limits, "permanently borrowed" supplies from their workplace, "fudged" on their taxes, or padded their expense accounts?

Pertaining to the field of education, there was a major push some years ago for "Peace Education" while fewer texts have included Patrick Henry's famous call to "Give me liberty, or give me death." For liberal educators, the "basics" include more sex education, while in truly basic areas such as math, proven successful methods like those John Saxon developed some years ago (and which achieved remarkable results when tried in the Dallas, Texas school system) were then not allowed in a number of states.

Likewise, when the reading scores of first graders in one school in a state almost doubled after introducing the Spalding method of phonics instruction, liberal educators were still reciting that worthless truism that not every student learns to read best in the same way.

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Whether in education or foreign policy or some other area, have you ever noticed that whenever there is a problem or crisis, a Commission is appointed and the members of the Commission are often the same people who have been in leadership positions during the 10-20 years the problem has been getting worse? Doesn't it stand to reason that these should be perhaps the last people to be consulted regarding how to solve the mess they have allowed to develop?

These are but a few of the contradictions and hypocrisies that exist in American society, and if we do not do something to correct them now, matters will only continue to get worse.

Dennis Laurence Cuddy, historian and political analyst, received a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (major in American History, minor in political science). Dr. Cuddy has taught at the university level, has been a political and economic risk analyst for an international consulting firm, and has been a Senior Associate with the U.S. Department of Education.

Cuddy has also testified before members of Congress on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice. Dr. Cuddy has authored or edited twenty books and booklets, and has written hundreds of articles appearing in newspapers around the nation, including The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and USA Today. He has been a guest on numerous radio talk shows in various parts of the country, such as ABC Radio in New York City, and he has also been a guest on the national television programs USA Today and CBS's Nightwatch.