Project Vision 21

Last week, the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles published the results of a survey done earlier this year about the behavior of American teenagers.

The anonymous survey included nearly 30,000 American youths of 100 public and private schools selected by chance all over the country. The results are alarming. More than 80 percent of students indicated they “sometimes lie to a parent about something significant.”

In addition, 64 percent admitted cheating on one test in the past year and 38 percent admitted cheating on two or more tests in the past year.

Also, 30 percent of teenagers said they stole from a store in the past year, 23 percent admitted stealing from a parent or other relative in the past year, and 20 percent confessed stealing from a friend in the past year. For complete results, visit www.josephsoninstitute.org.

These results are alarming for two reasons. First, they reveal that since 2006 the number of young people acting improperly grew between 2 and 4 percent. Second, at the same time that is happening, 93 percent of students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character and 77 percent said they were “better than most people” around them.

In other words, teenagers are lying, stealing, and cheating more than ever before, but they don’t see those behaviors as a moral problem.

How come we are now in this situation? According to Michael Josephson (founder of the institute), the behavior of these teenagers is, “The product of an indifferent and apathetic society that is letting more and more people get away with it.”

In other words, we have transformed our own children into what Josephson calls “moral mutants.” They are, of course, the same teenagers that in just a few years will assume the responsibility of leading this country. They know that and perhaps that’s why they react the way they do, killing themselves in record numbers.

The same day Josephson published his survey there was a story in Denver about the fact that in Douglas County (one of the wealthiest counties in the nation) four teenagers committed suicide during the past few weeks.

Local authorities said those suicides were “inexplicable” and that they were the result of “a multitude of factors.” What do you mean “inexplicable”? It would be more honest to say, as Josephson said, that those teenagers were victims of the indifference and apathy of adults in general, adults that left those young people without guidance and without hope for the future.

It would be also more honest to include about that “multitude of factors” the corruption, immorality, and violence constantly broadcast now and presented as something “good” and “funny.”

In the same we have all contributed to the pollution and contamination of our planet, even if we don’t want to admitted, we have all contributed also to the pollution of a whole generation of young people.

I can’t decide if we still have time to undo the damage or if it is already too late.