Self-mutilation, American style

Maybe it is time for a civics lesson.

We had them in school when I was a kid, and probably anyone over the age of 50 or so remembers them. If you are younger than that, maybe not so much.

It seems that about the time our country was debating whether or not the war in Vietnam was a good thing, we also started questioning whether or not the United States of America was a good thing.

It became unfashionable to be overtly patriotic and became politically incorrect to say we lived in the best country in the world. It's all relative, after all. You have to walk a mile in the other guy's chains to see how well they fit.

Eventually, it became fashionable to insult our leaders, to question our foreign policies and to doubt our values. As a nation, we have become the equivalent of the young women who scar themselves with razor blades. Why do they do it? No one knows, but it certainly has something to do with low self-esteem. The ironic thing is that "cutting" just has the effect of increasing self-hatred rather than doing anything to make the person feel better.

That's kind of where we are as a nation today. With our political leaders, our comedians, even the people who write letters to the editor, we see a tendency to gleefully announce yet another failure of American might, or yet another mistake by the ruling party. And before the wound has a chance to heal, someone picks the scab off in order to start it bleeding again.

Occasionally, a leader has the capacity to withstand the steady drumbeat of attacks through the force of his own personality. Such was the case with Ronald Reagan, and also with Bill Clinton, different as those two men were from a political point of view.

But despite occasional upturns in American self-esteem, we have been on a steadily downward trend for the past 40 years - and if we continue to doubt ourselves, our values and our leadership, it is inevitable that our nation will plummet just as dramatically as our self-esteem. Think Roman empire, and you get the picture. Outward signs of decline such as increasing vulgarity, vandalism and violence are accompanied by inward decay such as a slow collapse of the education system, inability of the bureaucracy to service the needs of the people, and general disrespect for institutions of government and religion.

It's not a pretty picture, but hey, why should we worry about it? After all, we have our iPods and MTV. We have McDonald's and Applebee's. We have the NFL and Nascar.

Oh wait a minute, those are the bread and circuses, aren't they? And we have plenty of those, don't we? Distractions that feed our appetites and deflect our gaze from the growing chaos around us.

And as each succeeding generation has less connection to its heritage, there is less chance of turning back the darkness. I'm sure there were Roman senators who shook their head in wonder that their empire was past the point of no return. But what could they do? The inertia of history plows under many good men. Besides, if you shout too loudly against the darkness you are considered a madman. So most good people keep quiet and go about their business in the dying light. Others just pull tight their shutters and shiver in the light of the last embers while listening for the barbarians at the door.

But still a few do rage against the dying of the light, and maybe they offer a small amount of hope that all is not yet lost. The Minutemen, for instance, sounded the alarm on our borders, and they may have acted quickly enough to stem the invasion of illegal aliens into our midst. But that battle is still being fought, and the outcome is by no means certain.

More importantly, as a nation, we have exhibited no inclination to admit that we have a problem, nor shown any understanding of the importance of being united in national identity.

Which brings us back to civics.

The purpose of civics is to educate citizens about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship and to give young people an understanding of the fundamental values and principles which underlie our great republic.

But in our politically correct age, such education is called "indoctrination" and is thus frowned upon. We are not free to pass on to our progeny that which makes us proudly American; instead we are to cower in shame and run the razor blade through our national identity until we draw blood. One cut for racism, one cut for greed, one cut for imperialism. Cut, cut, cut.

And not a word about freedom, liberty, or democracy. Not a word about fighting to ensure that the world is safe for freedom. Not a word about hard work and ingenuity. Not a word about caring and compassion. Hang your head in shame and take a cut for slavery, for the death penalty, for Abu Ghraib. Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner - hang your head in shame. FDR locked up the Japanese - hang your head in shame. President Bush didn't find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - hang your head in shame. Halliburton made another billion - hang your head in shame.

It's inevitable that with such a burden of shame and so little understanding of our inherent greatness, the United States of America cannot long stand. And it does not do enough just to say you love your country. Love of country is irrelevant. As President Reagan said in his farewell address, "This national feeling [of new patriotism] is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last, unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge."

Which is where civics fits in.

President Reagan, in his warning to the nation, asked, "Are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?" Do our children today have any chance to absorb, in Reagan's words, "a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions"?

If they do, they probably have their parents to thank for it. They certainly won't get it from the popular culture of television, movies or music. They won't get it from schools without a large dose of skepticism and ambivalence. Unbelievably, they won't even get it from their own government, where many of our leaders use their public forum to decry American greatness.

Ronald Reagan left office just 17 years ago, but in that short time his hope of an "informed patriotism" has been dashed. Instead of a love of country, today we are more likely to experience the "erosion of the American spirit" that Reagan predicted would be the result if we did not cherish the proud memory of what it means to be an American.

And once that spirit is extinguished, this world will never be the same again. Ask any Roman.