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In summary, Macaulay's article discusses other authoritative bodies besides the law itself and how our views of those bodies shape our view of all authority. He examines a poll of some of America's better high school students finding that about 30% of them had at one point or another cheated, claiming that this sort of behavior demonstrates a certain acceptability for rule-breaking as long as one is not caught. He also looks at entertainment and how it often sensationalizes legal matters. It shows lawyers who blatantly disregard the rules of the court, policemen who step outside their boundaries, and underdog defendents who are predominantly innocent. Then, he takes a look at spectator sports, an activity that 84% of Americans spend several hours a week engaged in (204). He discusses how commentators often comment on how players get away with breaking rules and how one person actually wrote a book about how to bend the rules of the game in order to best succeed.
And isn't that what everything is all about, success? I think that is the biggest thing I got from this. I am not one to oppose all things capitalist, but it seems to me that this is one of it's major flaws. Capitalism focuses only on success, and fails to examine the means used to get there, and even whether or not that success is only short term or will actually last and help others to succeed. So, it seems to me that this article examines how a capitalist ideal inclines members of society to see authority as a necessary evil to be disregarded whenever it is most convenient.
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Everything in this culture IS about success. Cheating is simply another way to get there--as with the school cheating example given. We live in a success only culture where failure is looked at as a failing rather than a learning experience no matter what the context. Authority to us is something we have to put up with and attempt to get around at every moment possible. I wonder what would happen if our generation had an across the board respect for authority?
ReplyDeleteMy group got into a discussion about this topic of success, and we came to the conclusion that school is like prison. People can learn the ways to use the system, and really have to learn that system. Sure there are some students who go to school to learn, and do learn. But so many others cheat or manipulate their way through. My high school had 14 valedictorians, and at least one cheated her way to that position. I mean she was smart, but just shy of Princeton smart. She manipulated her way to the top with cheating and her parents pressure (two lawyers). The level of success was so high that it takes that kind of shameful action to succeed. It's disturbing, but it happens. Survival of the fittest, or craftiest.
ReplyDeleteThe cheating thing is interesting. It's true that our culture, and in fact most capitalist cultures, prioritizes success and "getting ahead" above everything else, even if it means abandoning morals and values. You see this not only in cheating but in much larger scale things--most notably the recent scandals with the banks, and other instances of corporate fraudulence that hit the media. Imagine if the cases of fraud weren't discovered until years after the CEOs had retired? We would look at it then with less outrage and more awe that they "got away with it."
ReplyDelete(Of course it's a bit different when said case of fraudulence leads to economic meltdown, but still).
Talking Soup said, "Imagine if the cases of fraud weren't discovered until years after the CEOs had retired?" Well, I'm willing to bet that the cases of fraud that have been uncovered are a minority of cases that are committed. Especially in a culture that puts such extreme pressure on its people to succeed. And to add to that there's the fact that the higher the class you are born into the more of that pressure you feel, so because of this those who are handed money and power have more reason to commit morally questionable acts to keep ahead.
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