"Calling Nanny 911! We Need You!"

Lately, besides coverage of the political campaigns, the news seems to be filled with stories that, quite frankly, boggle the mind (or at least my mind) and leave one wondering--what is going on in America and where is it going?!  Seeing, reading and/or hearing about teenage girls fighting viciously on video, about beatings among 12 year olds, about raids on presumed religious “cults” because of alleged child abuse and related atrocities, about glorifying cosmetic surgery as standard and accepted practice in order to create and maintain “My Beautiful Mommy,” and the list goes on and on, can’t help but make one wonder if the “moral decay” of American society has finally arrived!

I recall the findings of a study back in 1995 by two leaders of communitarian thinking, Daniel Doherty and Amitai Etzioni, reporting that “76% of Americans believe that our society is experiencing moral decay.”  By this it was meant that Americans: (1) are abandoning moral standards (i.e., values); and/or (2) are not living up to the moral implications of a commitment to such values.  As we look back over the past dozen or so years, have things deteriorated even further?  Should we as a “society” now, more than ever, be concerned about the direction that people are going and, by implication, taking the country?  And here I’m referring to individual or personal responsibility, not the role of government per se or some other “collective” to which we may easily point blame.  Let’s face it, we have met the enemy and the enemy is us!

As a member of American society, as a global citizen, as a person who is committed to helping in the human quest for meaning, and especially, as a parent, I must confess that I’ve been reflecting long and hard on this issue.  In this regard, I wish that I could find a quick and easy fix to what appears to be, judging from the symptoms reported above, a serious, deeply disturbing, and malignant disease in our society.  Regrettably, I haven’t yet come upon such a “fix.”

This said, I do know that our society could use and would benefit from a good dose of “respect” (for oneself and for others), as well as a shot of “responsibility” to accompany all of the so-called freedoms that we cherish, yet usually take for granted.  On this point, my mentor, the world-renown Viennese psychiatrist and philosopher, Viktor Frankl, warns us that “freedom threatens to degenerate into mere license and arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness.”  And even though Dr. Frankl enjoyed his time spent in America and admired a great deal about it, he was not shy about criticizing the popular understanding of some cherished American values, such as our notion of freedom.  He took exception, for instance, to what appeared to be a commonly-accepted view of equating freedom with a license to do (and say) virtually anything that one wants.  On the contrary, to Dr. Frankl, freedom without responsibility is an oxymoron.  That is why he liked to say that “the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast should be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”

So as I considered how best to promote these two “R’s” (Respect and Responsibility) for the betterment of American society, trying hard to practice what I preach and not to be a “prisoner of my own thoughts,” I pondered: wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply call “Nanny 911” for help?!  Nanny 911, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is a “reality television show,” loosely based on a British program called Little Angels, in which American families with unmanageable children (and sometimes irresponsible parents) are reformed by ex-pat British nannies, including one who served for the British Royal Family.  Each nanny attempts to help unruly families get into working order by promoting and enforcing respect, discipline, responsibility, and the like.  Now wouldn’t it be great if we could call upon these nannies to help us with some of the aforementioned problems that are plaguing American society?  Calling Nanny 911!  We need you!