Results like these should give educators and parents alike heads up that their children, our future leaders and entrepreneurs of world, are not getting skills required to become successful.

America’s Social and Spiritual Predicament

.....Who is not aware that dramatic changes in America have begun to seriously threaten our social fabric? Indeed, over past four decades, U.S. has become world’s leader in most categories of social pathology. Violent crime has increased sixfold since 1960. Over one hundred fifty thousand Americans have been murdered in U.S. since 1990 — almost three times number killed in Vietnam War. Thirty-five percent of all births in U.S. are illegitimate and nearly half of all marriages end in divorce. The chance that a child in America will live with both parents until age eighteen is now less than thirty percent. Even suicide rates among teenagers have tripled since 1960. Suicide now ranks as leading cause of teenage death and for every teenage suicide there are fifty to one hundred suicide attempts that have failed . .....Our schools reflect this social turbulence. In 1940, America’s teachers were asked to identify major problems in public schools. They replied: chewing gum, making noise, talking out of turn, running in halls, cutting in line, dress code infractions, and littering. In 1990, answer was: drug and alcohol abuse, pregnancy, suicide, rape, robbery, assault, and homicide. This description is disturbing, but incomplete. For there are profound spiritual trends in our lives that should cause even greater concern. Reflect for a moment. Try to visualize how dynamics of spiritual alienation have been shaping American society. .....Personal relationships — whether within a family, among friends, at work, or with strangers — have become increasingly self-centered. The family today resembles more a collection of detached individuals than a community of love. .....Democratic atomism is on rise. The nation’s legal system has become excessively, and even ritualistically, litigious. .....Our national language has become disturbingly shrill, self-righteous, and judgmental. Too many Americans feel abandoned and alone. Competition has taken precedence over cooperation. Bureaucratic control has triumphed over genuine human interaction in both public and private sectors.Like it or not, there exists deep within American consciousness an existential apprehension about aimless and self-destructive fragmentation that characterizes so much of our social, economic, legal, political, educational, cultural, and even religious life. Try as one might, simple, but unyielding truth is that no individual today can escape ubiquitous impact of cynicism and distrust, violence and fear, intemperance and injustice, isolation and aloneness, spiritual emptiness and, most disturbing of all, absence of mercy. .....Clearly, there is a profound ‘spiritual restlessness’ across land and quiet voices of soul are beginning to ‘cry out’ in open rebellion against dehumanizing structures and alienating dynamics of daily life. .....This drama — which is truly a tragedy of American individualism — carries with it great dangers. For if spiritual forces of alienation are allowed to gain ascendency over spiritual forces of community — and if they are able to generate a profound and uncontrollable fear of all others by each member of society — a repressive political regime will slowly emerge as a practical necessity to protect freedom. Free individuals — acting from fear — will rush to embrace this regime as most practical means of securing their person and property. To be sure, many would resist. But, resistance itself would occasion further discord and need for more control. .....Already, ‘fear of others’ has begun to seep into American character. The freedom to go where you want, freedom to associate with whom you care, freedom to say what you believe, and freedom to be free of fear have all been marginalized. Indeed, if anyone were to analyze ordinary human relationships today they would detect contaminating influence of distrust and fear. .....Let’s not forget: freedom depends upon quality of relationships that individuals have with one another. Wherever spiritual alienation exists, freedom has already been diminished!

America’s National Security Challenge