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Gertrude Himmelfarb, a professor emeritus of history, details some of the increasing moral problems in America and interprets them as beingpart of a larger pattern, which she calls “the de-moralization of society.” Writer David Whitman empirically tests the moral decline thesis and finds that, according to the indicators that he employs, it is amyth.
Professor of communication W. James Potter reviews the harmful influences of media violence and explains some of the mechanisms that causethese influences. Professor of communication Jib Fowles argues that the evidence on the negative influences of the media on children is weak and does notprove that television violence makes children significantly more violent.
Political analyst Patrick Buchanan asserts that the large influx of legal and illegal immigrants, especially from Mexico, threatens toundermine the cultural foundations of American unity. Ben Wattenberg, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, argues that the United States needs a constant flow of immigrants toavoid population decline and also to avoid the diminishment of power and influence.
Editor and author Jeff Grabmeier presents evidence showing that women experience more stress than men and then analyzes why. Author Susan Faludi argues that men have been socialized into a sex role that cannot be successfully fulfilled due to currentconditions.
Author Philip Yancey argues that men and women have strikingly different communication styles because they grow up in different cultures. Aman is usually concerned about enhancing or maintaining status as he communicates, while a woman will usually communicate in ways that gain ormaintain closeness. Professor of psychology Mary Crawford contends that the thesis that men and women have radically different communication styles is greatlyexaggerated in the media and is based on simplistic stereotypes.
Editor and author Andrew Sullivan argues that the secular liberal state must grant the right of same-sex partners to marry. To not do sowould be blatant discrimination. Professor of management and public policy James Q. Wilson presents arguments against legally recognizing same-sex marriages.
Sociologist David Popenoe contends that families play important roles in society but how the traditional family functions in these roles hasdeclined dramatically in the last several decades, with very adverse effects on children. Family historian Stephanie Coontz argues that current discussion of family decline includes a false idealization of the traditional familyof the past and misleading interpretations of current data on families. She finds that the trends are both positive and negative.
Christopher Jencks, professor of social policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University, presents data on how large the income inequalityis in the United States and describes the consequences of this inequality. Christopher C. DeMuth, president of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, argues that the “recent increase inincome inequality… is a very small tick in the massive and unprecedented leveling of material circumstances that has been proceeding now foralmost three centuries and in this century has accelerated dramatically.”
Author Charles Murray describes destructive behavior among the underclass. Murray asserts that this type of behavior will result in serioustrouble for society even though, according to statistics, the number of crimes committed has decreased. Psychology professor Barry Schwartz states that the underclass is not the major threat to American ideals. He counters that “the theoryand practice of free-market economics have done more to undermine traditional moral values than any other social force.”
Professor of economics Walter E. Williams asserts that “the civil rights struggle for blacks is over and won,” so affirmative actionpolicies are unjust and adversely affect society. History professor Wilbert Jenkins dismisses the arguments against affirmative action as founded on the false logic that since the promisedland has been reached, continuing affirmative action would be reverse discrimination. Jenkins maintains that an honest look at the facts reveals thataffirmative action is still needed.
Political sociologist G. William Domhoff argues that the “owners and top-level managers in large income-producing properties are far andaway the dominant power figures in the United States” and that they have inordinate influence in the federal government. Jeffrey M. Berry, a professor of political science, contends that public interest pressure groups that have entered the political arenasince the end of the 1960s have effectively challenged the political power of big business.
Author Ernest Erber argues that capitalism creates serious social problems that need to be redressed by an activist government. Economists Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman maintain that market competition, when permitted to work unimpeded, protects citizens betterthan government regulations intended to correct for failures of the market.
The editors of the Economist present the facts on the declining welfare rolls and the dramatic increase in employment for welfaremothers, and they argue that many of these changes are due to the changes in the welfare laws and not simply a strong economy. Randy Albelda, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, argues that even though the statistics look good, thereality behind them is grim. The old welfare system helped many single mothers get decent jobs through education and training while the new welfaresystem in most states forces welfare mothers to take terrible jobs at minimal pay.
Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation; Bruno V. Manno, senior program associate with the Annie E. CaseyFoundation; and Gregg Vanourek, vice president of Charter School Division at K12 Educational Program, propose that relatively autonomous charterschools that are free from most state and local regulations and compete with other public schools will radically reform the education system andgreatly improve public education. James P. Comer, professor of child psychology, contends that all organizational or curricular reforms will have very limited impacts onpublic education. The only reform that will substantially improve public education, he maintains, is to base all teaching on the principles ofdevelopmental psychology.
Marcia Angell, executive editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, presents medical and ethical reasons justifyingdoctor-assisted suicide, including that it honors the autonomy of the patient and is merciful in cases when pain cannot be adequatelyrelieved. Paul R. McHugh, director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, arguesthat sick people who wish to kill themselves suffer from verifiable mental illness and that, since they can be treated for their pain and depressedstate, physicians cannot be allowed to kill them.
John J. DiIulio, Jr., a professor of politics and public affairs, analyzes the enormous harm done—especially to the urban poor and, byextension, to all of society—by street criminals and their activities. Professor of philosophy Jeffrey Reiman argues that the dangers posed by negligent corporations and white-collar criminals are a greatermenace to society than are the activities of typical street criminals.
Ethan A. Nadelmann, director of the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy research institute, argues that history shows that drug prohibition iscostly and futile. Examining the drug policies in other countries, he finds that decriminalization plus sane and humane drug policies and treatmentprograms can greatly reduce the harms from drugs. Eric A. Voth, chairman of the International Drug Strategy Institute, contends that drugs are very harmful and that our drug policies havesucceeded in substantially reducing drug use.
Editor and author Robert W. Lee argues that capital punishment is needed to deter people from committing murder and other heinous crimes,but more importantly, it is the punishment that is the most appropriate for these crimes. Legal scholar Eric M. Freedman counters that the death penalty does not deter crime and has unacceptable negative consequences, includingthe potential of killing innocent people, reducing public safety, and imposing considerable costs on society.
Research associate Chris Bright demonstrates how human actions are inadvertently altering and degrading the environment in ways that areharmful to humans. Bjorn Lomborg, a statistician at the University of Aarhus, Denmark, presents evidence that population growth is slowing down, naturalresources are not running out, species are disappearing very slowly, the environment is improving in some ways, and assertions about environmentaldecline are exaggerated.
Murray Weidenbaum, chairman of the Weidenbaum Center at Washington University in St. Louis, argues that economic globalization benefits allcountries that participate in world markets. Globalization produces more jobs than it eliminates, he contends, both for the world and for the UnitedStates. Herman E. Daly, professor at the School of Public Affairs at the University of Maryland, does not object to international trade andrelations, but he does object to globalization that erases national boundaries and hurts workers and the environment.
George Washington University professor Amitai Etzioni argues that there must be a balance between the rights of individuals and the rightsand needs of the community. The threat of terrorism is serious enough to warrant some curtailment of some civil rights. Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, reports that the Patriot Act seriously diminishes civilliberties. The act defines terrorism so broadly that it could be used to persecute peaceful demonstrators, allows for the indefinite detention ofimmigrants, and greatly expands wiretap authority. Romero asserts that the effects of the Patriot Act could prove to be very undemocratic.
Valerie Bryson, principal lecturer in politics at Huddersfield University, describes the accomplishments of feminism and the women’smovement that it spawned. Bryson states that women have experienced a vast improvement in how they are esteemed and treated and how they seethemselves and what they are doing. Phyllis Schlafly, political activist and political analyst, asserts that feminism is unpopular with women and is pushing an agenda that mostwomen do not support. Schlafly maintains that most women have concluded “that the feminist movement is both socially destructive and personallydisappointing.”
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