Begin with two assumptions: 1) American society today is more liberal today than it was 75 years ago, and 2) that shift, which in some sense paralleled LBJ’s Great Society, stems from a deliberate effort to change society – ostensibly better.
So, has society changed for the better? The thought occurred to me as I listened to the latest news, to include reports that prominent men in Hollywood were taking advantage of young women (and young men).
Unfortunately, there’s nothing new about such behavior in Hollywood; the phrase “casting couch” has a sullied connotation that includes virtually all of the behavior being discussed, behavior that predates Hollywood.
Certainly, there are areas where society has improved with regard to minorities and women: the equal application of the law with regard to hiring and firing, ownership of property, access to education, etc., in these areas and others society has changed for the better, improvements that are obvious on their face.
But what about other areas? One of the mantras of the 60s and 70s, that continues to this day with only minor changes, was that women needed to be liberated. That translated into two interwoven story lines that needed changing: women as victims of men (sexual assault) and the restrictions of marriage. Both needed to be fought if we were to change society for the better.
There’s little argument that the way women are portrayed by those who would set our societal norms (Hollywood, the Media and academia) – has changed significantly. And, as any society responds to pressure, it would seem that society has responded. The question is, has the response been of benefit?
We all know the story on divorce: from the late 1800s until the 1960s divorce rates steadily rose from 3% in 1880 to 29% in 1944. Rates spiked to 43% in 1946, settled into the ‘20s’ during the 1950s, then started rising again in the late 1960s. By 1980 52% of marriages ended in divorce. Divorce rates have remained around 50% since then.
Consider the rate of rapes in the US over the last 80 years. (The figures include forcible rape, statutory rape, assault to commit rape and attempted rape): during the 1930s rape rates were regularly below 6 per 100,000. Rates jumped during the war years to over 10 per 100,000, dropped below 10 by 1960, but climbed precipitously in 1964 to 11.4 rapes per 100,000, and then continued to climb every year until 1980 when the rate hit 36.8 rapes per 100,000. Rates peaked in 1990 at nearly 43, then came back down and remained in the low 30s for more than a decade beginning in late 90s. But they’ve started to climb again. Figures for 2016 show the rate has increased in the last several years and is once again above 40.
Or, consider the black community in the US: how has the black community benefited?
In the 1940s some 15-16% of black children were born into single parent homes. By the 1960s, as Senator D.P. Moynihan pointed out, a crisis was brewing, and some 23% of black children were born into single parent homes. The federal government stepped in. Today, that number sits above 70% and has for some time.
Black unemployment was, from the late 1800s until World War II, essentially the same as the overall unemployment rate. Following the war black unemployment rates separated from the rest of the nation and have since then have been roughly twice the stated unemployment rate. (The current national unemployment rate is 4.1%, black unemployment sits at 7.5%).
Social engineering has become accepted, and the government today, despite caterwauling that President Trump is unraveling this or that, is huge, intrusive, and continues to grow. The social engineers defend this growth, and their actions, by claiming this will make society better.
But the facts don’t provide a convincing backdrop for their monologue. Rather, the facts provide, at the very best, a mixed message. Trying to make society better is a noble goal. But perhaps its time we stop looking at things through the lens of political ideology and start looking at the facts. There are some real problems in our society, problems made worse at least in part by the aggressive social engineering of the last 50 years.
If we’re really interested in making things better maybe it’s time we take a hard look at these numbers and figure out what they tell us about our current actions.
Copyright 2017 Arrias
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