There is a lot of speculation, especially from the conservative right-wing, that morality in this country is crumbling, and we are entering a era of unrivaled hedonism. From certain perspectives, this is undoubtedly true. As a member of the generation on the cusp of assuming leadership of this country’s future, I also often wonder about the content or importance of morality in today’s world, usually from a vantage point of self-created aloofness, choosing to judge instead of acknowledging the truth of my inclusion and shared moral outlook. From that tower, I feel that perhaps there is a crisis of morality gripping the nation, but it also signals an evolving, or to some devolving, concept of what is moral. While I clearly cannot speak for the entire, or even most, of this country, I can speak as an individual bombarded with pop culture and advertising that more or less shapes the modern world.
Today’s pop culture is literally consumed with references to criminals and (like batman) rouge vigilante’s achieving real justice of the kind a court never could. Pop Culture phenomenons like The Sopranos and The Wire focus on the lives of successful criminals sometimes forced to address such issues as a moral code. In those instances, the characters often attempt to express a set of ideals that focuses on protecting family and close friends, and doing what is necessary to achieve those goals. What they are not portrayed as is completely evil. On the other side of the spectrum, heroes like Batman and Officer John McClane (Bruce Willis in Die Hard) often go outside the law to administer justice in lieu of a broken court system that can’t or won’t address the problems itself. The days of heroes like Eliot Ness, who takes on and defeats evil while staying within the contours of the law, seem to be gone forever. While individuals will almost certainly feel the real life versions of either set of characters should be punished for violating the penal law, as an ideal we root for them to succeed in their endeavors, even when they are in clear contravention of the same laws we claim to cherish.
While this shift in hero and villain construction can be partly attributed to the evolution of story telling and the effect of turning the movie industry into a cash revenue service, it is also a result of clever writers tapping into an emerging morality system within this country that is most akin to wild west morality. What we love about these characters is their individuality, and their ability to make the world right on their own, without having to beg for mercy from a justice system that will seemingly shift the focus of the case to an illogical “legal issue,” and then dispense what it calls justice but really solves nothing. With the criminal heroes, we give them, even if begrudging, respect for their ability to exist beyond the confines the rest of us deal with everyday. For the vigilante heroes, we admire their resolve, and power to force justice where the system could not. The theme that emerges is one of a new morality, or perhaps the digging up of an older moral code, taking hold of the nation’s mentality. Under this moral code, acts outside of the law, even egregious ones, can be justified by appeals to family and individuality of the kind that many Americans feel they should enjoy but no longer exists. In short, we seem to be becoming more libertarian (I wont say anarchic for everyone knows Americans really do love systemic order of some sort). If this shift is indeed true, it is interesting to ponder how this emerging morality will effect future jury verdicts and policy decisions. More than that, however, it leaves one wondering if this trend represents the death of morality in America, or a transformation that will allow this country to realize its true desires as never before.
-David Beach
