Dr. Herbert I. London is a renaissance man — he’s run for mayor, governor and state comptroller; served as a dean and distinguished professor for decades at NYU; written or edited more than 25 books; and even recorded a top-30 hit, “
We’re Not Going Steady,” in 1961.
Though it all, he’s been a voice of conservatism, and his latest work, “The Transformational Decade” (University Press of America) is no different — making a strong case that 3,000 years of tradition and success have been discarded in the past 10 years.
Traditional marriage is under assault, and a majority of births to women under 30 occur without the benefit of matrimony. “The liberal idea has been transmogrified into the libertine ideal,” London writes.
Zeroing in on the politically correct hijinks on many American campuses, London notes that university administrators make maximum efforts to ensure that nearly every kind of physical diversity (racial, ethnic, sexual orientation) is achieved except the diversity of thought. He cites an ISI study that concludes there is in fact “negative learning” for many students over four years of college study. “There is a trivial difference between college seniors and their freshman counterparts regarding knowledge of America’s heritage. Overall, college seniors failed the civic literacy exam.”
“Political know nothings,” estimates London, now “constitute 25% to 35% of the electorate.”
London catalogues how as the decade unfolded, negative trends accelerated. An individual’s right to be left alone, for example, seems to be evaporating. London focuses on Facebook’s inherent appeal to narcissism, concluding that “anonymity is a dying institution.”
Those of us who came of age in the 1960s might argue that many transforming negative forces, such as recreational drug use, environmental fanaticism, libertinism and anti-military bigotry got their geneses in that decade, as did a new appetite for entitlements. Hence, were the Sixties more “transforming” than the Aughts?
London says no, arguing that 2000-10 was the “efflorence” of the forces unleashed in the 1960s. And, he warns, the “degradation of the culture” may be with us forever, quoting the great historian Toynbee: “Civilizations die as a result of suicide, not murder.”