Culture

Welcome Changes

Society's progress in the last half-century

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David S. Atire
Valedictory Address
Aldous Huxley High School
May 2, 2045

I feel very lucky to have been born when I was, to have seen and benefited from all the changes that have occurred over the last 50 years. America has become a better place in which to live because of these changes.

We have more peace in our society than ever before. Just a generation ago, people regularly argued about issues of right and wrong, resulting in much quarreling and hatred. They called these arguments the "culture wars."

These capricious categories of right and wrong were based upon religious beliefs, which by virtue of their diverse origins led, not surprisingly, to diverse conclusions about morality. This was causing such a disturbance in our culture that, happily, the Supreme Court ruled in 2016 that the constitutional doctrine of the separation of church and state required that religious principle could not, even indirectly, inform public policy.

Welcome changes followed rapidly after that. Holidays - which were considered public festivals - could not even remotely have any religious connections, and so ended the tyranny of Christianity in such things as Christmas and Easter. Zoning laws banished all churches, synagogues and mosques from the corporate spheres of cities and towns - since such areas were considered public.

Even more helpful were two follow-up decisions by the Supreme Court. In American Atheist Association v. Madison, the high court ruled that religious discussion was banned from any venue of public debate, whether during the course of election campaigns or on editorial pages of newspapers. And in Universal Civil Liberties Union v. Franklin the court ruled that religious discussion in public places, "out in plain sight and within earshot of possible dissenters," ran afoul of the Constitution as well.

The whole atmosphere of our society is much improved, since our culture is no longer constrained by arbitrary categories of right and wrong. Without these limitations - as with all moralistic restraints - we are a truly free people. Because there is no single, self-proclaimed "right way for everyone to live," there are few, if any, philosophical conflicts, very little bigotry and virtually no judgmentalism. Since everyone believes that there is no absolute moral canon, these "wars" have ceased, and we are at peace.

Such peace was a long time in coming, however, because people used to argue about so many different things. For example, 50 years ago people quarreled constantly about "saving the family" and about "family values." The arguments resulted because people could not decide what the family should look like, or what "values" should be passed along from parents to their children. This was divisive, and so our culture eventually settled on the idea that, to prevent this division, we should eliminate any thought of what constituted a "true family."

That meant that marriage was no longer seen as between one man and one woman. After all, that limited marriage, and it also created a category about which people argued. If love is the bond of any true relationship, why should society limit marriage to the love between one man and one woman? Isn't it better to broaden it so everyone could participate in this blessed institution? Otherwise one has an elitist sense about such matters - a "relational aristocracy," one writer called it.

So, in just under one generation, our culture opened its arms to any and all relationships. Marriage can be between one man and one woman, two men, two women, three men and five women - it doesn't matter. All are free to love and join together as they see fit. There is no right or wrong relationship.

With this change in marriage came changes in our definition of what a family is. Instead of limiting it to what used to be called the "nuclear family," our society realized that there were many models from which to choose. This has allowed children to experience a wide variety of family life. There is not the sense that two adults own their children - rather the children of America are shared by the community. They are raised by what is now called the "familial web."

In my case, for example, my dad was married to two women in succession, and is divorced from each one. Then he was married to three women at the same time, one of whom divorced him when she discovered that she was a lesbian. This one of my moms is now married to another woman. I have been exposed to so much variety, that I am certainly not the person I would have been if I only had one mom and one dad.

Marriage licenses are renewed in five-year increments, which in many instances avoid the hassles of actually getting a divorce. One person - or both - can simply refuse to "reenlist" in the marriage, which then makes the "contract" null-and-void. This gives so much more freedom to people to navigate their own path through life, without the ties that bind and restrict free "relational mobility."

All these changes do not mean that children are not well cared for. They are - sometimes by three, four, five or even more parental figures! In addition, mandatory government schooling (beginning with day care six weeks after a child is born) oversees a young person's education and socialization all the way through college. This unified system instructs children in the way in which they should live their lives, infusing them with a worldview that is a common, consistent, and comprehensive view of reality. Such an approach - characterized as the Three C's - has virtually eliminated the myriad of factious, inconsistent and piecemeal views that led to so much
conflict in the past.

Even when it comes to raising a family, parents have so much more choice today than before. First of all, through biotechnology, there is an increased freedom in selecting the parental combinations used to give birth to a child. One woman can donate the egg, which can then be artificially inseminated, and then implanted into another woman's womb. After the actual birth, the child can be adopted by both women, or a third, fourth, etc. How wonderful for a child to have, not simply one mother, but innumerable moms!

The same is true for the dads. Through genetic splicing, two, three or more men can actually be genetic contributors to a child's makeup. And, of course, there is no limit to the number of men who can adopt the same child!

Genetic science has given us further freedom to have exactly the type child we want. Gone are the days when parents were surprised - sometimes shocked! - to discover some unexpected physical trait, especially if it were a disease. Through genetic manipulation, almost all unwanted characteristics can be eliminated.

Of course, whenever nature proves stubborn, abortion medications can be employed to eliminate the unwanted child - along with that pesky defect! Since birthing clinics were required 25 years ago to provide a "satisfaction clause," all parents are given a one-month trial period after a baby's delivery in which to decide whether to keep the child or dispose of it in a humane fashion.

With all these amazing medical technologies permeating our culture, it is comforting to realize that medical costs are a smaller percentage of our nation's gross domestic product than they were 50 years ago. Not only are our health industries more efficient, but as a society we have become more efficient in expending our valuable resources.

For example, those citizens whose health deteriorates rapidly - and in the opinion of a Communal Medical Council, becomes an irreversible decline - are euthanized in a humane and painless process. Thus those younger people whose diseases are immune to treatment, or especially the elderly whose physical condition is quite likely to proceed downhill at their advanced age, are not
allowed to become a strain on the medical facilities that are here to help those of us who can be helped.

This would never have been possible had it not been for the infamous Supreme Court ruling in Philadelphia Mercy Hospital v. Jefferson in 2032. In that case the nation's high court ruled in favor of Philadelphia Mercy Hospital, which no longer wanted to treat the emphysema of a Mr. Ben Jefferson. Mr. Jefferson desired to continue treatments even though his disease was irreversible. The Supreme Court said such individuals became a "cultural medical burden" to our society, producing "a detour of limited, zero-sum medical services away from those needy who can benefit to those needy who cannot."

Since the court accurately observed that simply allowing Mr. Jefferson to die in agony without treatment was inhumane, the court ordered the man euthanized within 30 days. As the first person ever euthanized by judicial edict in the U.S., the city of Philadelphia erected a statue to Mr. Jefferson, celebrating his courage as the first in a long line of our elders who bravely stepped aside so the rest of us might live full and healthy lives.

This emphasis on the quality of life for Americans meant that a self-actualized and pleasurable existence became of utmost importance. In perhaps no other area was this seen most clearly than in the area of sexual freedom.

Sex was one of the most controversial and divisive issues of the last century. Sexual puritanism was so entrenched that it wasn't until the 2020s that the sexual revolution finally subdued the cantankerous cultural faction that clung miserably - and many said hypocritically - to outmoded and repressive views regarding nature's most pleasurable gift.

As a result of this victory for the forces of civilization, children are now encouraged to accept themselves as sexual beings and to experiment safely at whatever age they themselves deem appropriate. Without the heavy-handed moralists tossing guilt and shame to our children like so much candy at Halloween, young people no longer have to scurry to those clumsy, furtive embraces which previously marred the stutter-stepped pathway leading to full sexual wholeness.

As our school health counselors have repeatedly taught us, such "do-it-in-the-dark-corner" sexual trysts actually caused many of the
problems over which the moralists wrung their hands. Everyone knows that it is hurried, shame-filled sex that caused young people to forego adequate prophylactic protection, resulting in the unwanted pregnancies which lead to unwanted children. (Of course, since implanted contraceptives were universally required 20 years ago, unwanted pregnancies have virtually disappeared.)

This irrational phobia on the part of my grandparents regarding sex also led - for the same reasons - to the fearful pandemic of sexually-transmitted diseases which sky-rocketed in the 1980-2030 time period, and have only recently been brought under control. If, as some scientists predict, newer and drug-resistant mutant strains of those diseases erupt in the next few years, we certainly can blame the sexually-repressed guardians of youthful virginity from a half-century ago.

Although I loved my grandparents while they were alive, surely their own quality of life was lessened by so much anxious and unnecessary supervision over the lives of others. It brought nothing but division, anger, and "culture wars."

No longer. We have peace in our midst through unity. Changes such as the ones I have mentioned have altered our culture in ways we could not have dreamed possible 50 years ago. We are sailing in unchartered waters, and no one knows where we might end up! How thrilling is the voyage upon which the new America has embarked!