Musings Of A Discouraged American (Volume 1)

by Joe Anderson, Featured Contributor

WILLIAM J. Bennett wrote a book in 1998 titled “The Death of Outrage”. In a postscript to his book, Bennett wrote,

Throughout this book, I have explained why I believe the arguments made in defense of Bill Clinton are harmful to our national life. In the end, perhaps the most important residue of the Clinton scandals will be pedagogical; that is, the lessons they will teach children…and their parents too. If the arguments are left standing, if the justifications are left intact, it is worth considering the lessons that will be taught…

• Character in our president doesn’t matter. It’s the economy stupid
• Some powerful people are above the law. They don’t need to play by the rules
• Adultery is no big deal. It’s commonplace. Europeans don’t care about it; neither should we
• It’s ok to lie under oath
• It’s ok to grope women as long as you eventually take no for an answer
• It’s ok to close your eyes to wrongdoing when it’s your own powerful friends and political allies who have done wrong.
• A lot of people engage in misconduct, so it doesn’t matter if you do, too. Everybody does it. This is especially true in politics.
• A person hasn’t really done anything wrong unless he’s been convicted in a court of law
• If you do something wrong and people question you about it, do not voluntarily step forward, admit wrongdoing, and take responsibility. Instead, consider doing any or all of the following:
• Promise to give them answers soon, then stall by giving evasive answers or no answers at all. Maybe they’ll get tired and drop it.
• Just feign ignorance about what you’ve done. Say you don’t know what happened, you just don’t have the facts.
• Attack those who are raising the questions. Try and dig up dirt on them. And intimidate them if you can.
• Play down and make fun of their concerns.
• Claim that people are conspiring to make you look guilty.
• Don’t explain yourself.
• The ends justify the means.”

Bennett’s book was a deconstruction of the Bill Clinton scandals, but his message was clear and far reaching…it’s premise that it’s “ok” to lie, cheat and avoid accountability for personal actions at all costs has become mainstream in America today.

Not only have we lost our sense of outrage, we have lost our fundamental sense of accountability, our fundamental sense responsibility to hold our selves accountable for our own actions…our sense of a moral right.

Think about Bennett’s points above and think about what’s going on in America today…our national culture is one of accountability avoidance, do whatever you want to do…like the Nike ad “Just do it”. It’s all about “me” and doing whatever you want to do with no consideration of the consequences.

Think about parents of children who get into trouble and get caught. What does the parent do? Do they punish the child…no, they blame the teacher, they blame anyone else except themselves or their child…they do whatever it takes to avoid accountability. Think about what this teaches the child…here’s an outstanding video…watch this video…I can’t make my point any clearer.

Think about the IRS scandal, the VA scandal, Benghazi, Immigration, etc., and you see the lessons Bill Bennett warned us about were well learned….the absolutely wrong lessons.