In Nick Gillespie Discusses the “Death of Decency” On CNBC’S Powerlunch, Reason’s Gillespie contends that although popular entertainment has grown coarser, there are many positive social trends that are moving in the right direction.
I agree on both counts, and I’d suggest that if pop culture has grown coarser, the answer is change in private conduct. Unfortunately, one often hears that the only way to improve conduct and language in civil society (a fundamentally private domain) is through laws, regulations, and restrictions. That’s not a path to improvement — it’s a guarantee of even worse problems.
People will not be made better through the paternalism of the state, something that really amounts to the condescending, hectoring tyranny of middling scolds exceeding their mandates. The best example is the faith — belief is not advanced truly through a state-supported church (as some nations in Europe still have); the faith that a state embraces becomes corrupt and undesirable. A few people, alone in a household in China, with no support outside, are closer to the truth of life than any hereditary monarch who declares herself the supposed defender of the faith.
There’s also the obvious problem of politicians’ and bureaucrats’ self-interest, a self-interest that all others see, but that officeholders, themselves, refuse to recognize. When a politician tells you that he’d like you to be polite, he really means that he’d not like you to criticize him. What he calls impolite speech, a free society recognizes as lawful criticism.
As for what appears on NBC, Fox, etc., people should and will turn away from the vulgar and repulsive. They’ll do so not because the state banned something, but because people of conscience will reject undesirable programs, on their own. Men and women don’t need guidance from politicians who are no wiser than anyone else.
Here’s an accompanying description of the clip:
Reason.tv’s Nick Gillespie appeared on CNBC’s PowerLunch to discuss the “death of decency” and whether television is moving in the right direction, on June 8, 2010.
Approximately 3.25 minutes.