Whenever I interact with individuals, I find that they are for the most part decent, caring, kind and generous. And yet, I find that our culture as a whole has become more and more mean-spirited, violent and vile. Why is this so? Why is it that our society is so much less than the sum of its parts? I can only conclude that the shapers of our culture, the influencers, the shakers-and-movers, tend to occupy the lower percentiles on the scale of human decency.

Can anything be done about this? It is easy to just shake our heads and say that it’s always been that way and probably always will be. But perhaps the time has come to insist on accountability from our elites.

The politicians who lie about everything and then excuse it as “embellishment” and “hyperbole”; the ultra-rich who pay nothing in taxes; the spreaders of conspiracy theories and misinformation; the war-mongers and the hate-mongers — can we finally rise up and say to them: “enough is enough”? If not, the downward spiral of our cultural evolution will culminate in a disastrous crash.

Richard Krepski

Highland Park

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