The Demise and Death of Respect

By William L. Garvin

Several events have occurred recently to signal that respect is no longer a core cultural value in the United States.  First, the New York school system has decided that it will no longer suspend students for cussing out a teacher.  Then an eighteen-year old reprobate curses at her judge, flips him off and then seems genuinely shocked when he takes offense and gives her even more jail time. 

On a more serious level, convicted double-murderer Nathan Burris mocked his death penalty sentence.  “I cannot or will not express remorse or regret—it’s not gonna happen,” Burris taunted.  “I’m in California, and there ain’t no death penalty in California.  The way I see it, I have good 25-30 years left before anything happens.”  Burris murdered his ex-girlfriend (who had broken up with him) and a man he suspected was now involved with her.  As far as Burris is concerned, he’s got “three hots and a cot” for the rest of his life.

Taking personal vengeance to an even more disgusting level is ex-cop Christopher Dorner.  After being fired from his job, after exhausting all his due process, all his administrative and judicial appeals and still being found guilty, he was unable to get on with his life.  Instead, he swore vengeance not only against the Los Angeles Police Department but also against members of their families.  True to his malevolent threat, he murdered the daughter of the LAPD captain who defended him against the charges resulting in his termination.  Dorner also killed the young woman’s fiancé and later, ambushed and killed a police officer in another city.

Curiously and morbidly, the internet is abuzz with defenders of all three individuals.  Some actually see Dorner’s murderous rampage as some sort of legitimate crusade against oppression.  They view the monomaniacal ramblings he posted on Face book as some sort of “manifesto” of political significance.  None of this bodes well for society.

Maybe it’s because of a degraded culture that has become all too acclimated to lying and law breaking with no substantial consequences.  Presidential prevaricators abound.  President Nixon was not a crook and President Clinton did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.  President Obama blamed Benghazi on a non-existent demonstration and video and shoots shotguns “all the time.”  Television edits and alters their videos to totally distort the content in order to further their assumptive biases.  Television pundits went to extreme lengths to tie the Aurora shooter and the Giffords shooter to non-existent conservative sources.  However, they don’t even mention Dorner’s glowing paeans to liberal politicians and progressive commentators and political voices.  Political campaigns saturate the airwaves and mailboxes with deliberate falsehoods and half truths.  They feel free to demonize anyone who gets in their way if it will score a cheap political point.

Maybe it’s because they see bankers earn millions while their clients lose more and nothing happens.  Maybe they see politicians criticize Wall Street on one hand and take their cash with the other.  Maybe they see Al Gore make millions selling his television station to oil money and al Jazeera and the hypocrisy nary makes a ripple.  Maybe they’ve gotten used to millions of law breakers coming across the borders and the government doing nothing about it.

Maybe it’s because they’ve grown up being told how special they are and how they should be extremely proud of whom they are even though they’ve never accomplished anything of any special significance.  Maybe their self-esteem has exploded into such full blown narcissism that they think they are smarter, better, and more deserving than anyone else.  Accordingly, they don’t need the normal restrictions of society, laws, or the legal system or see the laws as pertaining to them.  Maybe they somehow feel that they are entitled to be judge, jury and executioner.  Maybe they think they too should have the president’s drone policy.