Truth assinment
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1-TheDayAmericaToldtheTruth.pdf
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THE Everyone Is Talking About
The QW-America Told the Truth
DAY AMERICA
TOLD THE
TRUTH What People Really Believe About
Everything That Really Matters
JAMES PATTERSON AND
PETER KIM
D'~i New VOl!. I Unt.!Ufl -IUhJlIlU ~ydllCy Tukyo
"An extraordinarily exciting book-shoddng, informative, and disturbing in many of ita implications. A true speUbiDderl" -Nallwliellkanden. Ph.D.
"Everybody talb about ethics but theBe two authon did lOIDething about iL The book is a winner."
-Liz Carpenter, former White HoWIe spok.eapeaou.ledurer, and author of Gdting Better Al,,. Time
"In milleDAia tocome, students ofour era will find invaluable insighta in this book into . what we really were as opposed to what we daimed to be. For todays reader, it provides that rMest and mOil disturbing of experienus: the truth."
- John O'Tool~, praideRt, American AuociatioD of Advedising Agencies, Inc.
"Fresh, fascinating, stimulating ••. Wbars new in Amerka in the '9Oe-and what endures-will fascinate anyone aHlCemed with aNIUIlunications in our nmon today; and should be required for those deeply concerned about our nation's future." -Rjdwd s. lWtJeU, director of MMbting Communication&, Eutman Kodak Company
liVery revealing, nut eodly what many of us want to hear, but very believable. This resurch ,.hould serve as a challenge to all of us to tackle the problems disdosed and capitalize on the great strengths confirmed"
-C. Aim MacDonald, presideDt & CEO, Nestlt Foods Corporation
1"Patlenon'li a present-doay Polonius, helping ua to know ounelves in a rapidlyi changing world." -Mel Goodes, prePlent " CEO, Warner Lanlbert Com.,.oy ,HReader8 willle<lrn surprising f<lcts that will shape their conversations and even their I Iivelt in the J99&." , -Robert L Dilenschneider, praident &.: CEO, Hill and Knowlton, Inc., ! Intem.atiwW Public Relations Cowwe1
"Social researcb has never been used more imaginatively or with such urgent purpose.... '(he book is It Dlor.u fitness guide for aD of US who De ready to give our consdence a workoul." -David f. Webb, president &.: CEO, Lever .Ba:aahers Company
"A marvelous barometer especially in these Stomly times. It allows us to meaaure our : secret attitudes and fedinSS, helps us move from shame and confusion and onlo creating new and ch.dlenging penpedive8."
-Melvyn Kinder, Ph.D., author of Guing Nuwhere fusl
I
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1
A New Moral Authority in America: You're It!
It's the wild, wild \\est all over again in America, but it's wilder and woollier this time. You are the Jaw in this country. Who says so? You do, pardner. .
In the 19506 and even in the early 1960&, there was something much clotier 1.0 a moral consensus in America. It waB mirrored in a parade of moralizing family 'IV progr-.uns: Ozzie and Harriet, lUther Knows Best, Du,mu &ed, Leave It to Beaver, and even Bonanza.
TIlere is absolutely no moral consensus at all in the 1990&. e'veryone il; making up their own personal moral codes-their own len
ConlJlllllKill1t:nts. Here are ten extraordinary commandments for the 1990&. 1bese are
real commandments, the rules that many people actually live by. (The percentage of people who Jive by each conunandment is included.)
1. I don't see the point in observing the Sabbath (77 percent). 2. J will steal from those who won't really miss it (74 percent). 3. I will lie when it suits me, so long as it doesn't cause any real
damage (&I percent).
2S
27 26 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
4. I will drink and drive if I feel that 1 can handle it I know my limit (56 percent).
5. I will cheat on my spou~ all, given the chance, he or she will do the same (53 percent).
6. I will procrastinate at work and do absolutely nothing about one full day in every five. It's Btandard operating procedure (50 percent).
7. I will use recreational drugs (41 percent). 8. I will cheat on my taxe&-to a point (30 percent). 9. I will put my lover at risk of diaeaae. I Bleep around a bit, but who
doesn't (31 percent)? ' 10. khnicaUy,I may have conunitted date rape, but I know that she
wanted it (20 percent have been date-raped). Almost all of us have highly individualized moral menus like that today.
\\e decide what's right and wrong. Most Americans have no respect for what the law says.
JHE19SOs
In order to fully underSland the decline of moral authority in the United Slates, it is useful to compare the Amerlc.1 of the 19!1Os to the America of the 1950s. In the 19505, America as a nation was at the zenith of its power. It had just won a World War, the result of which was to make the United Slates the ~t powerful and weahhiest Oiltion in the history of the world .
.The 1950s Wili a decade of optimism, belief in the future, belief in the nation. Conformity to external moral authority was central.
PoIiIIcaI CoIIfomIiIy. Anyone who varied from the political orthodoxy of the time Wili defined as un-American. The House Un·Amerlcan Activities Committee was one of the most powerful committees in Congress.
CanformII, at w..n. This was the age of the "organization man." The Individu alistic entrepreneur was replaced by this orpnizalion man, whose principal loyalty was to the corporation.
Conformity at..... This was the age of the traditional husband-breadwinner famity. The situalion comedies of the 19S0s showed neatly identical middJe.class families with professional fathen and suburban, mlddle-dau lifestyles. Most ceiebtated the supremacy of the American vall of Hfe.
CanfonnIIy III die C......., Martr.etpI.ce. It was the age of "keeping up with the Joneses.H It was a time when the mOlit common advertisinl sellinl theme was "If you're Uke most people .•."
Indeed, belief in the American wlIf was so strong in the 1950s that some social ~cienlists began to speculate that a new civil religion of Americanism was emerg ing. Of this period, George Gallup and Jim Castelli wrote that there Wili emer,ing ". . . a shared public failh in the nation, a faith linked to people', ew=rydll( life through a set of beliefs. symboli:.r:ed rituals that contained religious elements and overtones but _re not formally assodated with any particular reli&ion."
THE lEAL MOlAL AUTHORITY IN AMERICA
A woman lawyer from Wclshington, D.C., said, "1b be perfectly honest, some laws seem to apply to me, some I disregard. Some tenets of the Catholic Church add up, others are absurd, or ewm insulting. I don't need the Alpe, the press, 01' some lowly cop to teD me heM to live my life. That's the way I honestly see it, and I don't think I've ever actuaUy verbalized the thought before."
As a consequence, Americans of the 19908 stand alone in a way unknown to any previous generation.
When we want to answer a question of right and wrong, we ask ourselves.
What we don't do is what people have done fOl' a long, long time: take counsel and advice from our religious and political authorities, from the press, from our schools.
AMERICA IS VIRTUAllY LEADERLESS IN THE 19901
Our leaders are still giving advice, but we are nOl listening. America's leadenthip no longer leads anyone.
\\e asked peopJe to give Jetter grades of A to F to leaders in four categories: religion, politics, business, and education.
The highest grade that any kind of leader got was a C + for religion. All of the others got low Cs or even a grade of D. C - was the combined grade average for leadership in America!
Why? One reason is because they have lied to Us-over and over and over. Our leaders have told the most bold-faced lies.
So who are our moral leaders now? \\\ill, the overwhelming majority of people (93 pen:ent) said that they-and nobody else-determine what is and what isn't moral in their lives. They base their decisions on their own experience, even on their daily whims.
In addition, almost as large a majority confessed that they would vioJate the established rules of their religion (84 percent), 01' that they had actually vjoJated a law because they thought that it was wrong in their view (81 percent).
W! are the law unto ourselves. \\e have made ourselves the authority over church and God. ~ have made ourselves the clear authority over the government ~ have made ourselves the authority over laws and the police. The fact il» that whites are much more likely than others to fOllow their
28 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH THE REAL MORAL AUTHORITY IN AMERICA 29
A NAlIONAL REPORT CARD: HOW WE GlADE OUILEADERS LIES WE'VE IIHN lOLD IY THE VERY IIfST
Instiaution Gtade IlIIIIitulion GtiMle ". want you to know ... that • h;we no intention whatever of ever walking """ill'(ie Religion C+ Business C from the job that the Amerian people elected me to do for the people of the
Education C Politics D United States."
*' ......former Presidentllidwd NilIon, durinl Waterpte The Unprecedet.... Slide ill Our CGnftdence ... l.udenWp PnMded br Our NatiouIIIIIIitutionI
ill I'efanu,e "A litde hyperbole never hurts. I all it truthful hyperbofe .•t's an innocent form 1efcr:nlAfe of ellaggeriltion." .bpressin, Coniidence 01
•,.InstitUlion J974 ChMtJe --OonaId Trump, IIusineunanI. Orpnized religion 49~ 22~ -55~ FifNIla.1 institutions 420 • 19 -55 OrgMlized liAbor 18 9 -SO "If anybody wants to put a tail on me, 80 iIhead. They'd be very bored."
ill Eduution 49 30 -39 -Gary Hall, former presidentbil GIIdicUIe The press 26 17 -35 Executive branch 29- 20 -31 I I. U.S. Congress 230 17 -26 "One hundred pet'cent ipple juice." Major companies 31 24 -23
-The lleech-Nut Nutrition Corpoq&jon. They ew!IItuai/y recanted iU theyU.S. military 40 32 -20 pluded 8uilty 10 Oller 200 felony counts for shippin, jMs of "lOll percentill
·'97) apple juice" lor lllilbies (!he main insredienl WiU beet SUP). ··1977
I •• ". had little knowledge ..." "I've known What's going on lhere, as iI matter of fact, for quite a long time, a matter of yeilrs. It was my idea."
personal sense of right and wrong. So are .Jewish people and Catholics. -former President Ronald Rapn, speUl"Ion two separllt! occasions ~IThe saDle goes for college graduates, liberals. and those earning $45,000 his knowtedge of I,an mRS shlplllllntS
or more a year. The poople who rely most on religious or political authority (that Is,
laws) are blacks, ProteStaJlts, people who did not graduate from college, conservatives, and those who earn less than $10,000 a year. However, the baby boomers (people between the ages of twenty-six and
There are important implications that follow from all of this. FOr forty-four) are more willing to die for what they beJie\e (56 percent) than example, most of us are not prepared-as so many others were in earlier is any other group ofAmericans, including eighteen- to twenty-four-year_ generations-to sacrifice our lives for our country. Or for anything else, old children of the Reagan era (SO percent), middle-aged Americans it seems. between the ages of forty-five and sixty-four (49 percent), and thOtie of
us over the age ofSixty-five (42 percent).When we asked what beliefs people would die for, the answer for almost half (48 percent) was "None." Men are more willing than women to di&-or kill-f0l' their beliefs.
Here is the meallure of Americans' alienation from the traditional Liberals are more willing to kill than conservatives are. 'The young are authority of God and country: more willing than older people are to die, and they are especially more
willing to kill.
• Fewer than one in three (30 percent) would be willing to die for God and religion under any circumstances.
• &en tewer(24 percent) would die for their country.
30 THE DAV AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
IV IfGION: WHO'S REAlLY WILLING TO DIE AND kill fOIl THBI \/AWES
(For a map of America's regions, see Part I.)
WilliNG 10 DIE (Nation'" Average: 52'){,)
Resion l'elcenu,e
W;JtinS 10 Die Re,ion hrcenu,e
WiUin"o Die
Old Dixie 57% L.A.-MelC 51'){,
Pacltim 57 Metropolis 49
Granary New South
55 52
New England Marlboro Country
47 45
Rust Belt 52
WILLING 10 KILL (National Average: 35%)
~ l'ercenl.,e
Willin, 10 ICJII Resion I'efCenur,e
Willif18 10 Kill
Granary 42% New South 33%
Pac: Rim 41 Rust Belt 30 Metropolis Old Dixie
40 34
Marlboro Country New England
2'J 21
L.A.-t.'\elC 34
2
America's Number One Rationalization and Its
Number One Result
"If everybody's doing it, why shouldn't I? If everybody is breaking the rules, am I a complete jerk to play by them myself?"
This rationalization has begun to take hold in aU areas of our lives. Once woven into the fabric of our beliefs, it is where our most serious troubles begin. \\e no longer can tell right from wrong.
It all>O raises fear and doubt, which of len lead to depression: Did I do the right thing? Does it matter anymore? Does anything matter?
Doubl comes with freedom as surely as ash follows fire. Americans in the 1990s haw more of both freedom and doubt-and of depression too than did any previous generation.
In interview after interview, we saw men and women grappling with the cOl1l>equences of their new freedom to define their own moral codes:
• If no one I can trust is available to counsel me, how can I be sure thal what I'm doing is right?
• Is the other person-my lover, my business partner-playing by some set of reasonable rules?
• What are the rules't My rulcs't Their rules? No rules at all?
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32 33
THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
Americans wrestle with these questions in what often amounts to a moral vacuum. 'The religious figures and scriptures that gave us rules for so many centuries, the politiCal system that gave us our laws, all have lost their meaning in our moral imagination.
Most Americans (83 percent) now look back to their parents' day as a time when people were more likely to be moral and as a time when people clearly knew the difference between right and wrong.
In addition, we believe that our parents' generation was much more ethical than our own. \'k see most moral issues in shades of gray, not in black and white as our parents did. \'k'ye become wishy-washy as a nation. Some would say that we've lost our moral backbone.
"I fER STRONGLY EITHER WAY AIOUT THIS ISSUE"
We ~5ked people if they see ~ 5t!t of currenl public issues ~5 being mor~lIy "gray" 01 a5 dear case» of right ~nd wrong:
,., Petcenr.,e Who See l'elcenUfe Who See Gt.y I/i,ht .nd WronaIssue 43'"Rights of criminals 57'"
54 46Affirmatiw iIClion 52Teat:hing Cre~tionl5m in schoob 48 52 48Premaritill sex .... 5bThe rllht to die .... 5b,.1 School busing 43 57Homosexuality 38 62Flag burning 38 62Pomography 37 63The death penally 35 65Homelessness 33 fi1,.1 fighling poverty 33 67Alcohol abuse 31 69Women in the clergy 30 70Anti-Semitism
7129()M)rce 28 nBook banning 27 73,., The drug prublem
Prayer in Khuols 27 73 27 73Birth control
7426 25 75
Communism Abortion
THE REAL MORAL AUTHORITY IN AMElICA
PERSONAL DOUBT
As to their private lives, half of adult Americans said that they had been in situations that caused them to seriously doubt the morality of something that they had done or were thinking about doing. \\e asked those people to tell us about the events that bad caused those doubts.
Their answers give us a unique insight iitto what actually troubles the moral conscience of Americans, what falls in the gray area between the clearly right and the clearly wrong.
Did I Do the Rilhl ThinBll'm Not Sure.
What follows is a sampling from our interviews that re\'eals the difficulty people have in deciding what's right and what's wrong.
• A businesswoman from the Southwest. in her twenties, married. recalled: "I had sex with a stranger. \Wy good sex, too. I changed my name to hide my real identity from him. I don't know what's really right or wrong in this age."
• A store manager from the Southwest, in her twenties. married: "Driving my car under the inftuence of drugs and alcohol. Also, sex with a stranger in a motel in S1. Petersburg. I guess they were both wrong things to do. I'm not sure."
• A \'kst Coast sales clerk, in his twenties: "Because of my religious beliefs, I'm supposed to believe that having sex with someone of the same sex is wrong. "Et I do it frequently. What's frequently? Almost every day of my life. The guilt Is still there. though."
• It's the consequences of sex that severely troubled a teacher from the Midwest 1n her forties: "Advising my daughter to have an abortion led me into a long, suicidal siege. I'm not over it yet. I can picture a baby who never even existed."
• A woman from the Northwest, in her fifties, looked back to a time when she strayed during her first marriage: "My first husband was lazy and mentally abusive. 1 thought I was getting even when I strayed. 1 hurt myself more than him."
And many American men look back in doubt on what they did in war:
• ··In Vietnam, I had very serious doubts if what I was doing was moral," said a ~st Coast post-office clerk, in his forties. "Right now, I have even worse doubts about it."
• A simUar thought process look back a retired manager from the
34 THE DAY AMUICA TOLD 'HE nUTH
Northeast almost 50 years: "I wonder about the bombing I did during \\brld War II. TIle country said it had to be done. I'U go 10 my grave wondering if I'm a killer or not...
SOUle pt.'opJe broke lhe lU~. or laws, for whal at the time lieemed a good reasou-al k:iUit to lhem:
• Abanker from the Southeast, recalled: ". forged my mom's signature when il WiUi ~ ~. impol'laOt tOr me to do so. Otherwilie •• went to jail"
• Au adnUnililrator frona the EWit COilIil. in her twenUes, wasn't both ered about ciwatillg on a &n.d exam: ". had a copy of the exam with lbe au~wer& iu haud when 1 look it. Does it matler? Do exams really anatle..?"
• ".lit:d to Social Servicea Il1O J could feed my children. because their rub are uufair to while Americana," IHlid a Southwe~ern mother, divorced aud living atune.
• A yi«,.c-preaJdent of a service company in the East: ". rationalize liteaiu." from OlY wmpany because they have iCrewed me royally. 'nley look thouliiUlds frolll me. I took lhouliIIKlti from tllt:m. Who's '0 lia)" who'" dghl ur wrong? Nut them, lhal'" for sure."
Some 'old lies (or Idlll'ulhii uutold) to protecl others or themtidvcb:
• "Ilicu ilhuul my husband bcill" wiUucd by lhe law," said a church goi.n~ Nonbea6tem woman.
• "lliCLI Lo lbe police auu said I Willi driving, when my hUlilwld was arI'etiu~d lur OWl Idriying whOO intoxicaledJ. lie WiAS the aClual driver," said an office manager fronlth.: \\bl Coul, iu ht:r lwenUeti.
• A Noa'lhMStem WUllWl whu woeb Wi a &lure managt:I, illllt!1 t:4U"ly laftieb, a fCgulilr churchgoer,lMlid. "I eill out of Iuutie food_, et cetera, around tht: IIoton:. I'll opeu packages, bnack, tlJt:ll move Ull about auy busiue8s."
• A truck driver aduailh~d: ". was a hit-and-run driver. '10 lbib day, I don', know il'the pt:1Wll Jhil Wi45 boldly hurt,"
What'!; right? Whal'& wrouK? W1Jt:n you are making up your own rult:b. your own moral t:udc..>fIi, it can make 11lt: world a confulOiuK place. Mobl An.cdcalllli arc Yt:r) cuutu~ ..boUl lht:ir pcrlllOual &nun":; ri~ht now.
4 --=====:- --~- -~-~- -~=-=~---:~~-~~~~===~----:=- =
American Liars
I low did we aclui&IJy gel the truth from people? l\:ople lJciu~ iulerviewed knew lhat their answers and IiIOriea were
anouymous aud liilfc. They cuuJd finally unburden Ibemtielvea and Bay what lIaey fell. IU m05t people, it Wil8 exhi1araUn,lO be lhemaelWII for a l.:haugc.
Aud 'his calhartic process was probably dae onJy way we could have golleu at 'he trulla .uound the country.
AmcdcilIllii lie. "Ilaey lie Inure than we had ever abougiat pc••lbIe before tbe study. &Il they auld us dae truth about how much &hey lie.
JUSr AHOU'f EVERYONE UES-9J PERCENT OF ~ UE REOO 1..AIlLY.
The majority or us find it hard to let lhrough a week without lying. Out: in live l.:an't make it through a single dtly-and we're llIIking aboul COUtiUOUS, pn:mt=(!ilalcd liai. In lact, the Wily IlODle peupIe talk ilhout U-Ylug '0 do without belli, you'd tbink that lbey were smoken lryinK to gel through il day without a Cigarette.
When we relhun Iromlying, i"» leu often because we think it's wrong (uuly ·1:') percent) thau lor a variety of other reuons, anlong tbem t.be leal of IJClIIg L:ilught ( 17 fJCn:cut).
4S
46 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
\\e lie to just about everyone. and the better we know someone. the likelier we are to have told them a serious lie.
Of course there are white lies and trivial fibs. and the lies we tell to spare someone's feelings.
Then there are serious falsehoods, and 36 percent of Americans. confess to telling that kind of dacker lie, which several people referred to as reallie5.
We asked people to define what they meant by a serious lie. Their answers tell into four categories: Serious lies. they said, are those that hurt other people. Setious lies violate a trust. Serious lies involve crime or It:gal consequences. Serious lies are totally self-serving. are about who and what we are. masking the real truth.
Everyone lies. but some people lie much more than others.
WHO LIES THE MOST IN AMERICAl
• Men lie more than women. • ~ullg men lie more than older men. • Gays and bisexuals lie more than heterosexuals. • Blacks lie more than whites. • Catholics lie a bit more than Protestants. and both lie more than
Jews. • Unemployed people lie more than those with jobs.
WHO TELLS THE MOST SEllOUS LIES" IN AMElICAI
iI I "Men (40 percent) Vi. women (11 percent) " Homosexuals/bisexuals (52 percenl) vs. heterosexuals (31 percen!) " BloJCks (51 percent) n. whites III percent) • Catholics (36 percent) vs. Protestants (34 percent) Vi. Jews (25 percent) • Unemployed (42 percent) vs. employed (34 percent) " Liberals (37 percent) Vi. Conservativeli (29 percent)
ill • AlP=s l8-l4 (SO percent) Age~ 25-.... (34 percent) Ages 45-64 (29 per<.ent) Ages 65 and older (19 percen!)
• I\:ople e.illrning less th.illn $10,UUO .iIInnu.illlly (49 percent) Vi. those milking $45,000 01 more III percent)
iI I "Serious lie~ ilre lieltlill hUll people, ~Ie iI tru~l, have legil (oMequ*,nlI!S, or .rl! IOl.&lly IoeH·,*,I\'inll·
PRIVATE LIVES: ETHICS, VALUES, AND DILEMMAS 47
• The poor lie more than the rich. • Uberals lie more than conservatives.
There is some good news about aU this lying: Lying is something we outgrow. (Or truth is a privilege of age.) In any ewnt, people lie less, in every age group, from eighteen to twenty-four on up through the decades. Those 65 and older lie less than half as much as those who are less than half their age.
WHAT IS THE ONE LIE 'K>U WOULD TAkE BACK IF 'K>U COULDl
• A construction worker from the East: '''ielling this woman, nice girl, I loved her just to get what I wanted."
• A woman from the South who lives with her lover: "I told my mother I hated her-it was a lie. "
• Asecretary in her fifties from the Southeast: "That I didn't do it-in school-with a teacher, when really I did."
• A man in his thirties from the East Coast, bisexual, married: "'leIling my mother I'm not a transvestite."
• "That my husband is not the father of our first child."-a WOOlan from the East Coast. in her forties.
• ..Jlow many men I had sex with before we mel There were a good dozen. And maybe a not-so-good dozen."-a woman from the East. who said that she has bt..oen faithful to her husband during their marriage.
• ". had a social disease and. later, she found out anyway."-a retired man from the Ealltt, who reported four aftilirs during his marriage.
THE POWER Of A LIE
"Lying is a wilY of pining "a-r owr other people through mmipul.illting them in iI vilrious ways. This is something that children Ie.illm. They .so learn to keep
secrets. Sometimes secrets ilre deceptive, .iIInd sometimes they are not. If we are ITlt1ture, we have 10 unlearn any enjoyment of th.illt "a-r.
"You have to know th.illt lhe "a-r Is there, and then you h.iIIYe to see If you can possibly live without it. Th.illt doesn't mean you never get into a situation where lying might be necessary but, on the whole, you try to Ie.illd your life so that you
iI cummuniule with other people without Irying tu ITlt1nipulate them." -Si~SI!la Bok, philosopher
48 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
WE LIE THE MOST TO THOSE WE LOVEill AmeriQOs confess to ~ing regularly lied to the following:
I'erson to Whom Liel Ate Told I'M:etIIIp 01 r.opIe Who tie
Puent 116%
ill friend Sibling
75 73
Lover 73 Spou~ 69 Boss 61 Child S9 Best friend sa
ill Co-worker 56 NelBhbor 49 Grandpuent 47 Work subordinate 4S OoctQr 32 Accountant 22
ill Clergyman 21 Lawyer 20
•.• AND THOSE WE LOVE UE 10 US
Petson Who Lies to Us I'eIRnu,e Who Alree
ill Friend Child
84"" 13
Co-worker 80 Sibling 80 lover 80 Spouse 78 Parent 7S
Itl Boss n Work subordinate n Best friend 68 Neighbor 67 Grandparent 49 Lawyer 42
Itl Accountant Clergyman
34 32
Doltor 31
PRIVATE LIVES: ETHICS, VALUES, AND DILEMMAS 49
~ asked people about the most serious lie that had ever been told to them:
• A man from the Northwest: 'That a child was mine and, three years later, it was proved he wasn't by a blood test."
• A woman from the Southeast: 'That my ex-husband wasn't having sex with my daughter. "
• A woman in her twenties from the Northeast: "My husband stole $1,000 from me and then bed. I found out the truth six months later."
• A man from the Midwest: "Being told my biological mother was dead, when she liYed a few blocks from me."
• A woman from the South: "My IIeCOnd husband told me he was not a gambler, never gambled. In fact, he was a compulsive gambler. What a pig!"
As further confinnation of America's distrust of authority, 32 percent think that they've been lied to by a clergyman. The same applies to accountants (34 percent). And in the case of lawyers, people say it in spades: furty-two percent believe that they've been lied to by attorneys.
WHAT WE LfARNED ABOUT LIARS
What are we to make of all of this lying? Here are some observations that we made, based on thousands of interviews:
• Most of our lies are relatively harmless. • Most Americans are not trying to hurt other people with thm lies. • Lying does empower many of us. It allows us to be people we aren't.
It gives us the illusion of control. • There are more seriuus liars right now (liars who do hann) than at
any time in our nation's past. • Inside many liars is an honest person trying to get out. In our
interviews, we let some of those people out-for a day, anyway. • Lying has become a cultural trait in America Lying is embedded in
our national character. That hasn't really been understood around the worJd. Americillls lie about everything-and usually for no good reason.
• The majority of Americans today (two in every three) believe that there is nothing wrong with telling a lie. Only 31 percent of us belicve that hOllcsty is the best policy_
107
14
What Men Really Think About Women;
What Women Really Think About Men;
and the Real Truth About Both
Ttll:: sexual revolution of the 19605 and 1910s has left American men and women of the 1990~ in Iitlparate world!;. nley stare at each other with indifference or, often, hObtility.
What do men honesdy think about women? In OUI interviewb, it was t:Videllt dlat the majority of men btUl bet!
women through the leub of traditional stereotypes. \\blllen art! St:C11 as pUltSycalb, 0 .. at least as catb; lheir Liulogy is their destmy; they nebt; they shop; they cry for no discernible reatiOn. Nonnan Mailer onl:e said, "You dOll't know anythiJlg ahuut a woman until you meet her in l·mul." Sylwstel' Stallone has lx.>t:1I l4uutt..-d ab lohlying, .., have alJ the rCillOt)/l in the world to be a misogynist."
What do women really think abuut men? \\Umen see men as predators; bullies; boys; the primary provider; even
as meal tickets. Most women express some fear and COllcem about the pll~sical (or viujent) side or Ameril:du men.
106
MEN AND WOMEN IN THE 19905
\\bmen still wonder, and worry whether a man can be sensitive and nol be a wimp. This is consistent in both rural and urban parIS of the country.
WOMEN ARE THE MORAL SEX
One thing isn't contusing anymore, not to women, nor to men: \\bmen are the more moral sex. That's one of the only propositions
that the two sexes absolutely agree on. \\bmen he less, steal less, fight less, do drugs less, are less often drunk
on the road or on the job. \\bmen are more responsible, more loyal at work, more faithful in th~ir relationships. \\bmen make better citizens, bellel' team players.
Yet it's still a man's world. Half of the men and two-thirds of the women said that men have the easier life. (On lhis issue, as on many othetB, blacks parted company with whites. Most blacks believe that women have it easier.)
rorty-five percent of men say that their best friend is a woman. Only 31 percent of women find their best friend in a man. MalTiage has been an institution that supposedly protected women
from the consequences of male tomcatting. As you might expect, women do not fully share the view that marriage is on the rocks. That marriage "till death do us part" is outdated, that the institution itself will be obsolete by the year 2000, that most marriages will end in divorce: These are all opinions held by some women but by many more men.
On the other hand, the proposition that "parents have an obligation to stick it out in a bad marriage for the sake of the children" got the agn!emellt of 41 percent of the men vs. only 26 percent of women.
WHAT WOMEN SAY ABOUT MEN IN THE POWDER ROOM
\\\! thought that it would be an interesting experience-for men c!>pedally--lo h~ar what some contemponuy women really say about tHen whclI they talk alllong themselvcs.
The Sl:cne is an otlice IJuildillg in a metropolitan dty. The partiCipants arc all professional women, college graduates, with an interviewer.
MEN AND WOMEN IN THE 1990. 109THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH108 I WOMEN: THE HONEST SEXiel PEOI'LE WHO B£L1EVE THAT IT'S ALL RIGHT TO LIE ...
Why
To protect oneself To avoid person .. emtJ.rrusment
ie I To keep one's job To make oneteIf look better To gain a ramal! amqunt of money To get even with someone
PEOI'LE WHO HAVE STOLEN ...
FIOIlI Whomiel Store Pilnmt Str.nger Friend Bo5~
ill Lover Neishbor Co-worker Clienllcuratomer Work subordinate Child
iel WOMEN: B£TTER WORKERS
AcliWly
Pilrticipated in unethical p ••ctices lit work Took office supplies
ill Lied 10 boss lied to co·worker W.~ dlunk at work Uraed drugs at work leit work early without tefling lInyone Hlid an ai/air with a co-wmker Stole valuable company property
*' Goofed uff at work WOMEN: TtiE LESS lARCENOUS ~X
~ Itl Cheated on a test or exam
Lil!d on ~ job application Burro~,J moll~y without repaying it Cheated on i'l(;ome t.xes ElWlSl\er,ued un an insurance dlIim
IMen Women 63~ 52% 56 48 56 35 2& 19 25 15 16 8
Men Women
27% 17% 2S 11 20 6 19 7 15 8 13 8 11 3 10 1 10 3 9 2 7 J
#'efCtml.."
Men Women
23% 14% 38 32 27 18 19 13 15 4 12 4 19 11 13 6 6 1
35 30
""",,,,,.," Men Wumtm
4J% 27% 40 26 .JO 16 29 :lI 27 14
iI Activily
Shoplifted Used an ellpeOse account to entertain a personal friend Took a kickback or bribe
iI WOMEN: THE MORE DILIGENT AND PERSEVERING SEX
iI
8eIieI
The Ym( to get ahead is by politics, not by twd MH'k I expect to compromise values to get ahead The only w~ to get ahead is to cheat
WOMEN: THE LESS ADDICTED SEX
iI Alcohol IIIept drugs Gambling
.AddicCioII
iI WOMEN: THE GENTlER SEX
...
People Who Have Ever • ••
Gotten into a shoving match Challenged someone to a fight Gotten into a 'is,fight Hit someone with m object Sent someone to the hoipia.! Threatened someone with a knife Thre.tened someone with II Bun ~ut someone with II knife Shot someone with a Bun
...
knife Gun
WflpOn CMried
... WOMEN: lHE MOKE SUSPICIOUS SEX
AaMly .
Searched spou~eJIover'5 wallet/purse S«retly gone through spouiellover's mall Lhe<:ked up on ,pouiellover's whereabouts
l'etcenu,e
Men Women
26 16 19 5 15 4
,..",.,. Who Ape
MM ~
SK 42~ 32 20 19 8
Who~ MM Women
32~ 18% 26 19 12 5
~e
Men Women
61% 3O'JI. 56 26 54 20 15 29 19 5 13 6 13 5 10 3 8 2
I'etcen~e Men Women
15~ 4% 12 4
htcen~ lien Women
34% 56'" 28 46 40 4S
110 111 THE DAY AMUICA TOLD THE TRUTH
PelCent18e
iI Atliv;'y Men Women
Se~rched child's room 28 43 Questioned spousellover's friend 35 42 Secretly gone through child's mail 23 38 LilOtened in on spouseJlover's phone call 19 28 Li~tened in on child's phone call 17 25
iI Secretly fol"-d spousellover Secretly followed child
22 18
22 16
iI IANIMAlS WE ASSOCIATE WITH THi OPf'OSITE SO ANIMALS MEN ASSOCIATE WITH WOMEN:
l'etcentl8e AnirMI 01 Men
C~tIkitlen 41"'ill Dow/bird 6
Deer/doe 4 umblsheep 4
ANIMALS WOMEN ASSOCIATE WITH MEN:
hrcetl,.,eill AnirMI 01 Women
23%Dog Pr~tor Illonlti~er) 21 GorilWapelmonkey 8 Donkeylhorse 5 Wolflfox 5ill Bull/ox 4 Wetiells~kelr~t 4
INTEIlVIEWt:R: Please write down the first thing that popli into your mind when I say "women."
WOMAN # 1: "Superior Race." I just think that women are baliically beller than men. I think that they're more interesting, more emotional, inwKhtful, have a lot more depth to their character, are more open, are more caring, are not that limited. They're emotionally more open than men, alld intere1iting and loving and limart.
WOMAN #2: "(;rcat and imerebtillg." If I think about peuple I know and the people I care about, aud the people 1 think are bpeCial, I tcnd to have many more women than men who fall in that category.
MEN AND WOMEN IN THE 1990.
WOMAN #3: "Understanding." When you talk to a woman, she listens, and she hears what you're saying. Whereas, when you talk to a man, it's just what's there. You don't get any more. I think men do not hIM! the feel for the way our needs change. With a man, it's like being in a time warp. It's as ifhe's saying, "w,ut a second. '«>U just got me bent all out of shape because you were crying. n And the woman says. "Ob, that's past. I've gotten rid of that" The man goes off and has a heart attack, and the woman has totally gotten it out of her system.
ill WHAT WOMEN WD AIOUT MEN ACI05S AMERICA
Things that women ~id to us about men:
o "How dumb they ~re ... they're not brain surpons, not _ the brain surgeons."-a youns saJeswomm from the wt, never muried, lives with her lover.
if o "I think Mick Jager had ~ rare insight: 'Men ~re busts of burdenl'''-a ~rried WOIniln from the East Coast.
o "The best man, tmt r~re keeper, gives good check... · -m EHI Coast woman, ~rried twice.
o "I think men hiwe a Ireat sense of fairness. If you keep everything on that ~sis, they respond very -'1,"_ psychologist from the West Coul,
iI married. • "How well can he perform'''_n educator from the South, in her flftIes,
never married, lives alone. o "Tmt they can be Iyinl asshoIes."_ nlneteen-year-old laborer from the
Midwest, never m~rried, IMls with ~ roommate. • "Give me nice biceps. 1'\1 jump on tmt myoid time."_ Wesl Coast widow
if in her late twenties. • "Perverts, by and larse. They are ~H ~er one thing."_ mvried woman
trom the Midwest. In her euly twenties. • "Need ~ mother 10 tell them what to do. Sometimes, I like that too."_
West C~st budget assistant. in her thirties, married. o "How they are in bed and the size of their dick. For talk and companion
ship, I've lot lots of girl friends."_ married wom~n from the Southwest, if in her late thirties.
The talk eventually turns to the real role of men in their lives: WOMAN # I: 1 don't have any friends that are men. I mean, it's about
sex lor me. I lee! very fulfilled in all other areas. 1 really think I've built up a lite where I can almost function Without a man.
WOMAN #2: I feel like I'm not valkJated without a male partner in some ways because I was brought up that wJ.y. You know, very strict, Catholic. Hut there's the other tiide of me that is completely validated withuut them. 1 do matter in this world Without a man.
113 112 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
WOMAN #3: That's an issue that a lot of women feel the same about. I think you just said it. A lot of women in their late thirties who are not paired off with somebody have that exact feeling, like they feel very good and accepted in other aspects of their lives.
WOMAN #2: Bul they're not validated. WOMAN #3: Yeah. WOMAN #4: It's like you have to take care of men. It's not two strong,
equal individuals who are coming together at the same place. I feel like the woman is more intigrated and stronger and bas been through more. And then here comes this guy who has needs and speaks with a forked tongue and acts like he's liberated. But he's not liberated, and he doesn't really want you to be independent either. It's ... I don't know. I just think they're not as evolved.
WOMAN #5: I think the only successful relationship I've ever had was with the first man who wasn't threatened by my career. And that's the man I married.
WOMAN #6: Think about the times when you're away from home on business. I find that men are completely helpless when we're not around, and you see another side of them all of a sudden. He's like a very strong, macho man, who can do everything. And you go away on business for two weeks, and they fall apart. It's like they don" know what to do wilh themselves.
WOMAN #5: 'abu know what else is interesting? When spouses die, almost within the year, men will hook up with somebody and remarry. I think they need a pill·tnCI" no malter. I think women are much stronger and don't need to jump into the next relationship.
WOMAN #6: Actually, a lot of widows become amazingly euphoric, even if they loved their husbands.
WOMAN #4: See, I wish sometimes men could just act like women. WOMAN # 1: The whole idea that the man is supposed to be the strong
person in the relationship and the provider, we're criticizing all of these things about guys-and then, on the other hand, when they're not that way, it'!> sometimes perceived as a lack of strength.
INTi:RVIl-:WER: 'That's a point. A lot of women I know break up relation ships if the guy's wimpy.
WOMAN #2: So we're saying, "Why can't they be more like women?" \\bmen an: unden;tandin~, women arc emotional. women are vulnerable. Then, when we find men like that, we don't WolDt them.
WOMAN #4: I used to ha\'e male mends, but they're never as good as female friends.
WUMAN #2: AU my male liicnds arc gay. INTl-:RVII-.WER: Wheu II)ClY lhe word "mcn," write down a word.
MEN AND WOMEN IN THE 19901
.. "MOMMY" "I love intelligent women. I love to go home md talk to women who want to talk about politics or birth control or, God forbid, baseball. forty years ap, my mother didn't go to college, she didn't go to high school. She was one-dimen sional, raised the kids. And one night, the night my father died, I stayed up until five o'clock in the morning with our two friends, drinldna beer with my mother,
tr which I had never done in my life. And I found out that here was a woman that WiS incredibly talented, an incredible brain. I thought of her as Mommy. Then, aU of a sudden, she's telling me she listens to Itzhak Perlmvl and all these things when my father wasn't in the house, because he felt threatened that she liked something he didn't understand completely. And I think that was very typical of that generation. And what a damn sNme. And it's too bad we don't spend more.. time understanding who women really are, and they don't do the same really finding out about who we are."
-Man, in his Nte forties, white, f<IIher of IWO, coIIqe pilate, busineu executive.
WOMAN #1: "Boys." I don't think of women as girls. But I do dUnk about aU these little boys running around. They're big children, and incredibly needy.
WOMAN 112: \ery needy. WOMAN #3: "Self-centered." When you meet a guy for the first time,
it's amazing how little they ask about you. '*>u'll sit and you'll spend two hours having dinner with them, and they'll tell you everything about themsel\'es. And they won't ask a thing about you. I don't think the key to a mau'l> heart is through his stomach. It's through your ears. Because llhink that men will fall in love wuh you ifyou're a great listener.
INlt:RVIEWER: What would you say is the greatest area of conflict between men and women?
WUMAN #4: Control. Who's going to sit in the driver's seal
WHAT MEN SAY ABOUT WOMEN IN THE LOCKER ROOM
The participants now are all professional men, friends, drinking bud dies. I Jere are the kinds of' things men say about women over a few beers.
INT~RVIEWER: Just teU us the farst word that pops into your mind when you think of women.
MAN III: "l':rratic." My mother was erratic. My sister's err-me. I think nne uf Illy duwnlalls is uupn:dil:lablc and erratic women.
MAN #"2: "\Uluptuous. II
114 115
THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
MAN #3: "Ambivalence." \\bmen have two personalities-modern-day women anyway, the ones I deal with. They have this necessity to prove themse!vt:s in the business world, or to prove themselves the equivalent of men on a lot of levels. But underneath it all. there's this driving desire to make a nest. So paIt of them is constantly fighting. ~ can meet the most qualified woman intellectual, and underneath that, when you scratch the surface, you lind SOIlleone who wants to build a nest.
MAN #2: I think when a girl is coming up the street, men look at her tits. Nobody looks at &heir minds. And that's all they say: "What's the matter? Why don't you look. at my mind?"
INTli:R~Ili:WER: Which sex has a better fix on the needs and priorities of the oth~r sex?
MAN #-1: \\Vmen are more perceptive about life in general. Plus they spend much more time thinking about certain things than men do. Men are in buliiness doing this or that. \\bmen have more time to do it. They spend half their life doing that.
MAN #3: People came in and made women aware that they had brains and tha'e was something better in life than just raising children. \\ell, that may be right and may be wrong. But it still goes against everything
in nature. INTERVIEWER: What do you think are the ground rules today? MAN ;;3: I belieYe tllere are new ground rules. 1don't quite unde[t;land
them, and that's why I stay wilhout a relationship. MAN #2: I think there are instincts deep down with women, MAN # 1: They're unlJelievabJe. MAN #2: \\bmen tlUllk-no, they Imow-we're providers. MAN #-1: The need to have a lJaby is unbeliev-olble. TIley have no control
over it. Something inside them is saying, "\bu got to reproduce. 'lUu have only so many more years. Reproduce! Reproduce!"
MAN # 1: \\bmen are captives of their bodies. MAN #2: Of course they ate. MAN #4: It'l get married again (I got married twice) 1wouldn't marry
a woman that works. I don't want to get involwd with women that work. It intericres with life. I like to play a lot of golf on weekends. And if you can't hack that, don't get involved with me. That's my opinion.
IrHUtV1EWf.tl: Do you think it was better the way it was, when women
stayed home? MAN 112: \\bmen ar!!n't dedicated to business the way men are. 111ey
come in at nine, they work until five. In my opinion, I think thal, basically. they're looking lOr a husband. They're not going to go and !;UplJOll the family--,·at !caslllOl if tlwy have a choice,
MAN # 1: I ieel a ll'cmenduus amount of cOII,'ulSion in my gcncration.
MEN AND WOMEN IN THE 19901
MAN #3: I think women have more difficulty dealing with men's idiosyncrasies than men do dealing with women's idiosyncrasies.
INTERVIEWER: Are women more honest than men? MAN #5: I think they are, yeah. They think they're more honest, see.
They blurt out stuff that we can't understand. MAN #4: One pussy hair has got more power than a church full of
saint!). I wish I could say it in Italian. That's women's power and their strcngth. That's the only way they can control the male.
ONE CONCWSION
A bad altitude exists right now between American men and women. TIlis attitude is conUibuting to the problem between the sexes.
A majority of men believe that women expect men to undel8tand women's emerging needs but that women aren't willing to reciprocate with men. They don't try to understand the problems of being a man. Men feel that the situation has become completely unfair and weighted against them. "Men die earlier," one man said. "and I don't think women have stopped to think about why that's so. Most men have the pressure of responsibility thrust on them, and it goes from cradle to early grave."
Thi!) bitterness is widespread, and it rum deep among the men we talked to. It surfaced in interview after interview, when men began to talk about what they really think and belie\'e. It's creating a counter trcnd tuward the past: the old TBtA (tits and ass) syndrome is returning. It also hilt; the potential to spawn a rtM>lution among men-a men's movement.
\\Umen have changed during the past couple of decades; that is clear from our interviews. w'men are more confident about tllemsehes, more outspoken, much more involved in the work force. 1be previous docu mentation of this a(;curately matches our data: W,men's superiority in moral!; and ethics, while suspected by some, is o\'elWhelming.
The rhetoric or the women's movement, however, seems to have helped to l:reate caricatures of men, stereotyping, and bigotry. Alleast, it came up often in our interviews. As necessary as this stereotyping may have been as a catalyst 10 change, it bas now become another obstacle to Il!l:ondliation bet ween the IieXe8.
Hut stereotyping is happening with both sexes right now. Most men and women seem to have little experience that results in an understand ing uf the oppotOite sex. Their views are largely shaped by myth and word (If IIlCluth frolll I'licnds. Listening to American men talk about women is like h~Lellill~ to them talk alxJUt world VOUtics. They know very little, but
116
.'.
THE DAY AMfllCA TOLD THE nUTH
iI WHAI MEN ACIOSS AMOICA SAID AIOUT ~N
• "They'.e In!ed)" 1e5M!f peopIe."~ deipr from &he We~t C~t, in hi~ Ihiniei, newf ........itId.
• "Mt!n oUtI ~,io.r 10 WOIIltIn. The proof is ewrywhere. Who runs the world'''---an t.ro& eu..t nloUl, in hi.l~le thirties, 1IW',i¥d.
• "They Kt Met drew lUG much like men, ret they newe, pick up lhe tI ch«k."-in E••, CuMI mnwnne" in hil Menliel, A_r m,mied, liveli
alone. • "Sure, WOr1WII IlKced Ihe j~.,., bul at leilil men made an clio,. to under
sund whitlhear neeldi .re. Wonwn .t..cotype men iInd .nak. no effort tu Undef5tilnd."-40 E... eo.ul wklwnan. IIW'ried.
• "They're a hull. pain in !he "$ bul nice 10 Iwve around. II-an unemployed iI min from ..., t ..., in hili Ihirlifi, dillUfced.
• "They ••e only "uod 11K one thinS; two, if $he an cook."~ Soulheln cop, in his fortie., ",.,ried.
o "T~I they ... :.urry bitches iInd only lood 'or one thing."-il Midwestern Wllldltr, lwetlliclt, IMMtr married.
• ". know why m)' wi'. like;; modern dinee. I love il lhat .he doe•. She', made no di~1I Iv urWt:.liund why ltuve the thinp I du."..; Ioiwyef 'rURI the South.
iI
• "TheY'fll COWVlt. Yuu willk intu Mly k·MarI in &he counlly, you'lI ..e nothinl bUI LOWI, Isu.fotnle. il."-.", It.ilion OWVRer 'rurn abe MidM:ltl.
• "This _'I ~uund velY elllishilmlld uf me, bul ii', Kc.:ur.le. When ~ man m~'rle~ a WOIfI"", two thing' ~n; One, lhe wom.1Il c.:hinKelt; two, ~hll Irio!l 10 dl4l1~ yuu. AllllUltt 1111 Ill." will diwK,t:e with Itwl."-il mltd;,••
tI dtA:tOl OR &/11: Weltl C.,.)l.
what Ihcy know. lhey'l'c ;adamant about. \\bmen uncn tlllk about mcn Wilh Ill&.! saUte lack uf real uudcn~talldillg. Aud "aey'r.: iu'h:xilJlc about llitlir views ill> wcU. lu iutcrvicw ailer illterview. bulh :;CXCIt werc cu· trcndacd in lhei.r ~c..cutyfltlb and prcjudiccb ahoul the wher sex.
Ahuu:;l hlllf uf alll11cu dUlik uf WUUM:ll ab IJUtllllli. AJiuu:.1 half of .ill \~UlUcu lhiuk ul' meu a:. dO"b ur pn..'tIatocb.
WORK 147
21
Modern American Business: Greed at the Top
Much has been written on the loss of world market share by American businesses and why we can't seem to compete the way we used to. According to thousands of workers and bosses, one very important and underestimated reason is clear: The perceived low ethics of management is a major cause of our problems in the business world.
Greed in American management is out of control. Never have !iO many taken su much, right otl" the top.
It I THl ROUIU WITH IUSINISS TOOoW
"The trouble with the rat race is tNt ewn if you win. you're ilill a r."" -lily Jumlin
When we asked about their business ethics, American executives pointed a shaking finger of guilt-at themselves.
'Illey know that they're doing wrong. The managerli' viewli of their
146
own actions, their own morality, is even lower than the one their workers have of them.
In addition, modem American managers show little loyalty to their companies, to their workers, or to the public that buys those products.
American workers reply with absenteeism, petty theft, indifference, and a generally poor performance on the job.
The American business system often creaks and grinds to a halt, and it's the ,Japanese or Europeans who get the next order. The syndrome has gotten worse every year of the past decade. Let's start at the top and see why.
THE BOSSES
FUmier NCAA chanlpionship basketball coach AI McGuire once 0b served, ". think the world is run by C students." McGuire has pretty high standards, and he keeps being disappointed by the leaders he meets.
The consensus is that our business executives are enrtching them selves beyond any kind of acceptable level, while impoverishing America.
As a direct consequence, there is no loyalty in many companies. The very idea iii scorned: "You want loyalty? Hire a cocker spaniel'" one of our iDlerviewees told us.
Other thoughts we heard:
• "GM isn't what it was, and they were never all that great to us."-a GM worker.
• '1'here used to be a sense of family around here-not since the buyout."-a General Rxxts manager.
• "You want to be loyal, you wdnt to belong to something better than
It AMEllCA AND JAPAN: THf D1FFUENCE IN UKUTIVE PlIVILEGE
"Tht! income gap between American and Japanese busine55 executiws is astound· ing. . . . There is no w~ that 101 Japanese executive) coutd expect to equal the luxuries enjoyed by American eXKutiYes. Mr. Matushita, probably the wealthiest nwn in j.lpan, when traveling abroad with his secretary, uses regular commerciill
It llighb. HiVing .. private pWle is simply out 0' his realm 0' consideration.
",An Americanl corporate chairman with whom I am acquainted complained thaI he has no use for all the money he receiws. His company is doing well, and his income is in the muhi-million-dollar-a-year range. His children ;are all,rown, .1Ild he .. nd his wife already hiVe ViKation villas, a yacht, and .. private airplane. Ue ~id they just have no w~ to spend any more money on themselves."
-Akio MDril~, Chilirm.llll of Sony Corporation It
148 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
yourself, but they make it impossible. "-a Shearson Lehman execu tive.
• "Everybody is for themselves now. Nobody's for First National Bank."-a First National Bank of Chicago employee.
• "They lie to us ev~ry single day."-a ronner Ykndy's employee. • ".Jameli Brown it; in jail while Ross Johnson walks free. Something's
wrong here. "-a tunner RJR worker, a black woman.
·1 TEN \,a:RY LARGE GOlDlN PARACHUTES Re~ To/al DolIN
NiIme MId Tirle ComfWlY kKLe~";n8 Pad.age
Retired $22,400,000
Robert M. Price, CEO Control Data Resigned 13,500,000 ., R. Gordon McGovern, CEO Cimpbell Soup Resigned 11,100,000 G4lrth H. Drabinsky, CEO Cineplex Odeon Resigned 7,400,000
Joseph G. Temple, ExKulive Dow Chemical Resigned &,500,000
Vite-President Terrence D. Daniels, Vice- W.R. Grace Resigned 5,800,000
Ch.tirman Jan Lo:!schly, President Squibb Resigned 5,400,000 ., Myron I. Gottlieb, Vice-Chairman Cineplex <>deon Resigned 4,500,000 Horst W. Schroeder, Pre)ident Kellogg Resigned 3,800,000
Kenneth J. Thyger)on, Chairman Imperial Corp.
John M. Richman, Vice-Chair,.,.n Philip Morris
Resigned 2,bOO,000
SouK"; BU5ineu Wee,\;. ~y 7, 19'JO
Several workers told us about the unethical things they'd actually seen executives do. The misc.leeds 1II0l;t often wimessed: intimidating and threateniug employt..-es; violating job safety standards; discriminating against Wacks, Hbpanks, or Asians; discliminali.llg against WOllltm; sexually l....rassing womeu; oven criminal actions; making products that endange.· lives.
On w..U Street and ill HoUywood, two places where the sharks are especially thick, there's .1 common feeling that the younger carnivores are even more voradous than their elders.
"It's like Lord oJ tile Flies, with the yuppies in middle management," said one husinessmall we spoke to. ··It's emotiouaUy draillillgjustto LOUIe to work illlhe morning."
The movie busilless wali never particularly noloo lor its business morality. But .Jere IJcllshaw. a produl:cr who's bt!cn around for thirty years, tuld the to:> Allyt"it:!) Time!) that the new breed of lloUywuc.x.I
WORK 149
• A NEW YOIUC EXfCUTIVE TELLS HOW THE SYSTEM \\OIlS "Not every but too many senior executives hiM! their price. That's why there are these exorbitant salaries at the top of a lot of companies. We won't admit It, not even to ourselves, but we'lIt! been boupt. If we deliver profits, at almost any cost, then we set ludicrous bonuses--millions of dollars.
"This is how the system works and it's repeated in most companies: Money Is
•
• put on the table fof lop executiw!s, especiIUy the top dot- A lot of money. Enough money to make it impossible for the exewtille not to do what Is 'necessary.' Let's yY it's $15 mU110n if the numbers are ~"I jf they aren't. That kind 01 money can cause someone to rationalize a lot of decisions, especially when it comes to cutbacb. In a sense, the bi8 money packaaes create a conflict of interest for the executive: '00 I do the right thins by my peopIel Or by the bottom line (Including my bottom line)l' An incredible amount of ration
•
alizing goes on. 'This is for the good of the company; it has noth"" to do with my $15 million.' That kind of interior dlalosue.
"I'd like to say I could rationalize what l'lIt! done in terms of people in my own company. I can't. I was bought."
-Man in hI5 mid-Iorties, white, _ned, urns .ax- $5IID,IIOO it year plus bonuses.
lOSSES vs. WOUfISill ~of ~of
Question MatYam Who -"11ft Wottm Who-"llft Who works harderl
Workers 43'" ~ ~n~gers 31 18
·1 Who is more ethicall
Workers 37 37 Managers 13 19
., Who i~ more greedyl Workers 10 15 Manclgers 61 53
Who is more trustworthyI Workers 32 ..0 ~n~8er5 14 14
.1 Who takes credit for another's workl
Workers 18 23 ~nagers 50 51
., Who cares mosH Workers 2& 41 Molllagers 29 24
150 ,.,
THE DAY AMERICA TOll> 1 HE nUTH
executi~ has tumed the perwuaJ ,rUtillhal ulied to govern d~aI-making into a joke,
"The older hands g~t dePl'etibed," IJemJUlw said, "Ther~'s a lack of moriility ...uong the ),uuugt:r SCl. L~illg 1).1110 lJecuna.: il WiAY uflUe. What's fruSll',lliug is that I dUll" ~ any uWilziw'aWe rt:waN fur hOllt.'St), or fortlulghulCSS, ..
." ~. ETHICS: Ull ",)lkt.~' Iltl'OlT
Thint percenl oi Alnt:1 h:iln \WI kim. wr II .... Iht:il enlf*Jyel ellg~e~ ill oAt 1,,4»1 one u, Ihe 'oIlowins "iIllJ~ ul un"lhkoll Alivilie,,;
• hie ""'''&'' ul "'''I\'",i,''a~""r Inlimw.les oImJ 111I".aI.,II" enlplu)'ec~ regul ... 1y I~i"" VioI.le» job wiel)' »1.........1.1. .. OiSt li...in~es "Iain!>1 bI.al.k~, Ith"oIniu., 01 ~UII" 11 (liM. fllninile" "lIain~ """~II 01 >cll...alI)' h.., .. ~»C,. diem II
• I Ln",1iC' in nimill.al alli~ihal~ 5 ..uke,. prodLK:b Ih.l e"ll.&lIlI':' hUAloIIi live,; ..
• I IIUSINtSSfUUO IN lilt Ntws---_._-------------------- ~usille"~ stori", It.." Ih,,~e .al" ~u \.UllullUlifJl.ale t...J.a) Itloll tlK:)' ullt:n dOl... ellCIi ....... c the "UlII " ..ge ul "UlII""'p~I':
"lhe Gene.'" EI"'-IIK. Cl.lllliWlt)·, wtlll.h w~ 1.1.Il1vil.l~ in .. jury 1II.II.I'I.Ivcn I""H' It inl Ih... Army lUI • Lwuld.dd """'pule' ~)~Ielll ...1I.e"... )'e,leld." Iu JloI), une til
lhe 1.1l1e1~t fint!~ e>t!f ")~t!l>!oc" 1<11 lJelroAudillll,he I)elc ..... Ucp.ulmcili. t,. 1. \\,111 P"Y ~11>.1 millioH III uilll"'.! 0111". ivit '~Iwllie).
•
"lhe Norllul.lp l:or"ul.liun oIwe~ lu IJol) $1711l1l1iun 'u, 1.aI,ilyillK Ito" dollol un UJrnlklflenb 01 11M: (1U1~eI lIIis,jlto .ntllhe 1i0l1lK:1 ~I, the 1.I'lIl')1 fI .."loIIY I100u.1 ~"IlI"lIIelll WoA~ 'coAlh".' ill I~. wh.!11 Ihe ~wMhlroHtd l.I.IIPOI",I"'1I IUI<.I ) ..; mil/lUll 'Uf l.I~cllHlhllg Ihc ••1)Vl'III,"CIIII.., nll'n",,) t""~"fe."
./IM!" hHi ,,,",,,, lui) !t, 1'rAJ
22
American Workers Get to Tell the Truth
Here is the quid pro quo ill the American workplace today. American workers are as disloyal to their jobs as their bosses and
compauies are perceived to be disJoyalto Ulem. Over their life span, Ule averaKe American worker will spend 76,900
hours on UJe job. That's a big part of their liveli-hy far the biggest waking activity.
But to heal" person after person tell it, Americans make poor use of thot>e working hoon;.
Q: How many people work in your office? A: Ahout half of them.
That uld joke hm', far frum the truth in lhe 1990s.
154
WORK 155
THE TRUTH AS WORKERS SEE IT
The so-called Protestant ethic is long gone from today's American workplace.
W>rkers around America frankly admit that they spend more than 20 percent (7 hours a week) of their lime at work. totally goofing off. That amounts to a foor-day work week across the nation.
Almost half of us admit to chronic malingering, caBing in sick when we are not sick. and doing it regularly.
One in six Americans regularly drink or use drugs on the job. Only one in four give work their best effort; only one in four work to
realize their human potential rather than merely to keep the wolf from the door.
But then, why should we? After all. half of us genuinely belieYe that you get ahead not through hard work but through politics and cheating.
About one in four expect to compromise their personal beliefs in order to get ahead on their current job.
CAN'T GET NO SATISfACTION
Only one in ten say that they are satisfied with their jobs. Only three in len Americans tMly tbat they are loyal to their companies.
IV REGION: MODliN AMERICAN WOUfI5ill (For a map of Ameriu's reSions, see Part I.)
VERY SATISFIED WITH JOB (National Average: 20%)
Re,ion I'e~ llegion ~!*fe
ii' M.ulboro Country 35'" New South 19% Old Dixie 33 Pac Rim 18 Granary 2S Metropolis 17 L.A.-Mex 22 NewEnstand 12 Rust Belt 19
PUT TOTAL EFFORT INTO JOB (National Awerase: 45%)ill Re&iOll ~e Resion l'ettenu,e
Marlboro Country 65% Metropolis 43% New South 52 Old Dillie 40 Granary .q Pac Rim 39 l.A.-Mel( 46 New Enstand 27
ill Ku~t 8elt 45
156 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
Americans are happiest and do their best at work in Marlboro Country. New England is at the opposite pole: Its residents admit that they are the least satisfied with their jobs and the least willing to give work their total effort.
Few of us are willing to put the public interest above our pocketbooks. Most people told us that they would quit their jobs before they would take a pay cut so that the following problems could be fixed:
• DiSCrimination against women, blacks, or Hispanics • ProduLtion of products that endanger human lives • Prevelltion of employee layoffs without sufficient notice • Pollutiull of the environment
The reason they would quit is key: Americans don't trust the managers who make these financial decisions, supposedly for the common good. They believe that managel"S make decisions with only their own interests at heart. Why then should workers be the ones to sacrifice?
Many American workers say that they cannot trust their co-workers (43 perceut) or subordinates (38 percent) in the cunent business envi ronment. Maybe it isn't surprising when you listen to what people say about their jobs.
WHAT PEOPLE SAY ABOUT THEIR WORK
In the boardroom. "\\e were all millionaires, yet we thought it compassionate that we took no bonus at a time when thOUsandlli were being fired in our compauy. That's how out of touch we'd become."
Stealing. "Our night manager steals from the company nightly. \\e caD him The Burglar." "Everybody steals supplies out of the warehouse." "Co-workers take money out of the cash regititer," "My boss has taken money and giveu mercha.ndise aW'tly."
l¥iDg. "Bosses often ask someone to say a job's done when we haven't even started." "'There's constaut lying to clients about completion of quotas," "We all lie to clients, everyone of us, to everyone ofour clients."
Cheating. "Cheating people out of pay." "Leaving work without fin ishing the job." "Shameful misuse of company materials and company time." "Cuver-ups for jobs not done." "Hdsification of a lot of ~i~u-in sheets which gel billed."
Sex. "Secret meetings in the closet. ... My girl friend is botling the boss durill~ lunch." "Employees loving each other in the store alter we close." "Sexual harassment by our gay bosli. He hits on the men ill his departmeul. "
WORK 157
It THE lOP fiVE OFfICE CRIMES
1. Takins office supplies and equipment 2. LyinS to a boss or co-worker 3. 5tealins company funds 4. Affair with a boss or co-worker S. TakinS credit for work not done
It
Doctoring document•• "Falsified reports." "Shady accounting." "Signing someone else's name." "Altering of many official recorda," "Signing by other people, not the applicant." "Using false company names." "People falsifying forms for leave." "Incorrect work turned in to fiU quotas. Everything we do down in South America!"
OFFICE CRIME
It's not surprising that we see so many locked doors or that companies are turning to what's called "integrity testing" in rising numbers. These are tests (not including lie detectors, which are banned by law) that are given to job applicants in an effort to screen out would-be tbiew:s. This kind of business testing is growing by more than 20 percent a year.
Super D Drugs, a chain in the Southeast, turned to integrity testing after a dramatic rise in what they called "shrinkage." The company's Vic:e-President for Loss Prevention said that the tests are already saving $400,000 in stolen goods.
The New South, where Super D Drugs operates, ranks second only to Metropolis in its rate of unethical employees. Old Dixie is close behind those two.
You don't have to bolt the door quite so tightly in New England and Marlboro Country, where workers' ethics are strongest.
The Case for Hirinl Women O\<er Men
Our current ethics at work are low, but they'd be a lot lower were it not lOr the great number of women who've entered the work force irl recent years.
When we compared the answers given by the two sexes, we confirmed that women in thi!> country simply behave more ethically than men.
On every question we probed, American women in the workplace held to a higher moral standard than men did.
158 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
.. IOSSlS AND WORKERS: THE GlOWING GAP MBelWeen 1981 and 1969, the net worth of the Forbes 400 richest Americans narly lripled. Corporate executives also made strides in this area. In 19110, corporate Chief Exec:utive Officers made roughly forty times the income 01 iM!raae 'iCtory workers. 8y 1919, CEO, _re makin, 93 time, ill much."
.. -kvln Po PhIllips, aulhor 0' The I'oIiIia 01 aIch MId Poor. We.1hh MId the Ametian aectorite in the ItuBMllJtemlillh
Most women-but only a minority of men-are loyal to the company that pays them (60 percent vs. 46 percent).
Less than half as many women as men believe that the only way to get ahead is to cheat, and not as many believe in politics rather than work as the way to success.
In addition, women are much less willing to compromise their values to get ahead and somewhat more willing to quit as a matter of principie if they learn that their company is engaging in illegal activities.
I.ook for the ~
In their on-the-job behavior, women are less likely, usually by pretty big margins, to take office supplies home, to malinger, to lie to bosses and co-workers, tu leave early, or lO goof off. Management is much less likely to find a woman drunk at work or on drugs. If valuable company property is stolen, the thief will be a man six times in seven.
At work, as in private life, women set a higher standard of ethics.
AMERICA'S BUSINESS FUTURE
High-school seniors proved even more cynical than aduh business executi\cs. If you listen to our high-school seniors today, greed will be even morc prevalent when they are running American industry.
On each of a dozen questions, seniors held lO a lower standard of ethics-usually much lower-than did the adults whom they would one day succt.:cd.
Buildih~ beuer mousetraps interests the seniors even less than it dOt:S those Willi run Americall industry today. The statement, "Prime objective of bUliinl':'s ilt to fJl'Ildun: the Ix!st product for the lowest PI1CC." wuu the agreement of one-third of the adult bu!;inelts people Vlt. only '2.7 pcl'l;cmt of the hlgh-sdlOOI students.
WORK 159
WHAT MIDDLE CLASS KIDS MISS: THE lOY Of GIVING* "One of Ihe most incredible things to me, really, is to see the typical middle class kid who'. given everything he wants, except the privilege 01 service, the privilege of 5elf-5oKrifice, and the joy of being a giver. We've become a pa5sive soc:iety that iees everything in terms 01 our open mout~fill it with something I The idea that we can actually do things for something broader __ community-i$ lost. "
-Willard Wylin, bioelhicist *
Someone doing business with these high-school seniors is well-advised to get paid in advance:
"Do you think that a company which is going bankrupt has a moral obligation to repay its debt?" "Yes," said 56 percent of business execu tives. "No," said a larger majority (62 pt!rcent) of the senion.
Similarly, almost all of the adults "would replace a faulty product made by Ilhdl'} finn even if under no legal obligation to do so." Fewer of the seniors would do the right thing if they weren't under the gun of the law.
The kids on lying and cheating in business? They were twice as willing as the adults were to do one or the other in the course of business.
\\buld you "consider lying to achieve an important business objective of lhe firm'!" "Yes," said two-thirds (66 percent) of the seniors vs. less than one-third (29 percent) of the adult executives.
"U a building is damaged by a stOlm, (would you) include all damages covered by insurance, even though not caused by stoml?" "Yes," said half of the seniors vs. one-quarter (26 percent) of the grown-ups.
THE 'lICE Of SUCCESS
"Success can be defined in so many ways. Right now people ask, how high is your po~itiofl, how lIlany people work for you, how high is your salaryl When you get into that kind of yuppie version of success, you're gains to sacrifice things along Ihe w .. y. There's not enough commitment to the ground rules of civic virtue. The yuppie is the constituency that makes it okay. They're the people who appl.lud success, who allow an Ivan Boesky to say, 'Greed is good: and not be hooled down from the stage. They're the people who wrile book5 on how to win by intimidation and who can get on every TV show to teach people how to do that. Of course, this yuppie mentality is not really people, iI's an approach. It'~ Ihe philosophy ui me.lsurlllg our lives by whal we get, what we acquire, who we know. II'~ .I very shallow kind of life. People find that out in time_ But during III<' !,eliClt! when thdl philU'o"phy flourishes, we SiluifiLe a lot."
··-MllI.,u·' ',~cf1h~"\, CUltl i~1
DAY AMlRlCA TOLD THE nUTH160 THE
"\\buld you cheat on a highly important business certification test?" "Yes." said more than one-third (36 percent) of the seniors VS. 14 percent of the adults.
More than twice as many &enion said they thought lhal it was ethical to accept gillS-of $500 cab. ur it vacation. ur a Chri&tnliUi "resent wurth $100 "'. uwre--trwn a DUwIh:r with Wbuul tbey were doing bUliineslt. ~ than twice ilti lIlany (44 percell' of the aenion Vii. 21 percent of
lbe ildultlt) did ,hal Ultly wuu1d "'11. a d'* if tbe1r brother·ju·loaw hili an lnIidc: Up that h_CUlUIJiAIlY iii beulK add. TIler., is no Woly you can gel caughl buying and iid.bng lbe IliWCk tOr a taandaiome prOOl. ..
t.bIt oa'the &t:lliorli {59 percenl) Iiilid lilat they would "cunsider making a dt=al thal Is Ixmt.:diue ilh:pl bUl Iit4Uld to lUake $10 million. and puniaillilltlut hi waly lliix muntlhi' probation." Half ilti IIWIY adult.. (24 percent) agreed.
What au~ we to.Dike of all thili? 1aken ill face vll1ue. il telb us that when thetie YOUII" people are
running the show. tbey will probolbly speud tlteir lim&: gambling Wilh other peuple·s money whde Ule American economy ..tides t"urthtlr down and we haw to ~o to GennallY or .);lpan to find a moullelriip lhill works.
IVrlunately. there'lt IiUWe widellce UlOtt lhUi is not the liltit wurd, wen on how Lbutie IiiUDC tlC1Uorit will bt:tlOtYe when lhey are in the ,·eat buatUlcltlt world. They're not Iht:Hl yea, IiO what lhey liay loday Ui biltied nol on expt!l1ence but 011 lIlt:ltloagtlD dley gel hum our currtlUI leadeni illld cultun:.
------------ -------------- ------------------
24 ---------- -==-========---- =
- -------------~----------------- - - -----------
The End of the Hometown in America: The End of
Community
Somewhere in America's past, there is this wonderful, neiU'ly perfect :;malllUWIl.
W!'ve S~1l it piclured in the ftlms of Frank Capra. in abe paintinp of Nurmau Rockwell. \\\l'w: heard about it in Ol&Iuhutlu.d and ew:n in Bruce Spriuglilccn's sungli.
lu lhat lOWll, everybody knows their neighbors. 'hn Sawyer-style misc.:hief iii aLout as dOtie alii the town IMtf' IelS lu real criDlt:. 1 .. lime of ~I'i:.il:i, everyone pild~ in, IiO no one in luwn ja reaUy alone.
That lOWIl walt lhe AmW'icau idt:a1 cunulJullily. It hi a1su il1~ dream now. Then~ arc very ,ew. If ilny. hometowns 1e1\ anynMN'e. More important,
thea'c Is lJl·.U;lI~ally 110 ben~ 0" community to be fOund anywtat:re in lhis l:uuulry.
A va1"iety of lac.:ls supporllhib sudulogical change in Americallliving.
169
170 171 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
WHIH PICKlT fENCESIt
'" love white picket fences. I think some of this country's greatest hours were the late 19405 and early 1950s, when there WoiS some sort of fantastic mood thilt I'Ye neYer seen again. Things seemed sotid and dean and newer, and there was oil depth of whoIeIomenes5.••• Life went to hell in a band basket after thilt. Little kids 10IIIere mooting heroin, not knowing where their mother was."
It --OiMd lynch, direaor of Twin Peaks wad Blue VeIve'
WHAT HAPPENED TO HOMETOWNS
As long as people respected the life and property of others, the social and public order somehow hung together.
Now Americans are losing respect for private property. Three in four of us confess to offenses against private property. ~ take things from work (60 percent). ~ steal a towel from a hotel or health club (50 percent). \\e don't repay loans (almOlit 25 percent). \\e shoplift (29 percent). \\e even steal from our spouses (9 percent), parents (21 percent), and friends (13 percent).
So here is what our current average neighborhood looks like. Here's what has probably occuned in your neighborhood in the past twelve
months:
• Home burglary (48 percent of us have reported a "neighborhood" burglary recently)
• Car theft (35 percent) • Drug dealing (27 percent) • Murder or attempted murder (23 percent) • Rape (9 percent)
Here's what your neighbor!; are afraid of:
• Being burglarized-we lock our doors (44 perct!nt) • Being raped t2.J percent) • Tht!ir cars being stolen (34 percent) • Being murdered in the vicinity of their own homes (14 percent)
COMMUNITY LIVES
WE DON'T GET INVOlVED ANYMORE
Americans today have tittle or no sense of belonging to a community that is important to their lives. The thousands of people we interviewed averolged out their level of community involvement below three on a scale of one to ten.
And other measures of our alienation from community include:
• 1Wo-thirds of us haw never giYeJl any time at all to community activities or to the solving of community problems. Not surprisingly, more than two-thirds of us cannot name our local representative in Congress.
• More than half believe that they haw no influence on the decisions made by local government
• One-fourth admitted that they don't really give a damn about any of their neighborhood's problems.
CHARITY BECINS M HOME
\\e are not a charitable people right now. The average American gives conSiderably less than 1 percent of his or her income to charity. Nearly one-third of all Americans have neYer given money to any charitable cause!
il BY REGION: WHERE CHARITABlE DONATIONS AlE MADE
(For a map of America's re&iotts, see Put I.)
GIVEN MONEY TO A CHAItITABlE ORGANIZATION (National Ave,.: ~)
il Resion l'etcen,.,. Who
DonaIe '0 ChMiry R.,;ott ~Who
aon.te 10 CIMmy
New Soulh 75% Rust Belt ~ New Enlland 75 Marlboro Country 62 Grarw,), 71 L.A.-Mex 62 Metropoiis 70 Pac Rim 57
• OldObde 69
As you travel the country. though, there is a signiftcant difference, rcgiull to rcKWIl, in our wiUingness to giw. Charitable fund-raisers' lJJ'o~pecl:; a.re best in the New South and New England, poorest in the Pac Rim and L.A.-Mex.
172 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
WHO ARE THE PEOPLE NEXT DOORI
~ don't know our neighbors, either. The great majority of Americans (72 percent) openly admit that they don't know the people next door:
• Have neYer spent an evening with them (45 percent) • Have never borrowed the proverbial cup of sugar, or anything else
(42 percent) , • Have never been irnJide their homes (27 percent) • Don't even know the names of the people who live next door (15
pen:ent)
lit I WHO'll CAlE fOR THE UDlILYI
Inside our communities, how ..oout the elderlyl We uked our respondents, "Who!ie responsibility is it 10 cilre for the elderlyl" Their heilrtfell respon!ies:
Whose Responsibility I'elt'enl4lfe
lit The children Government
54% 21
The elderly them!ielves 20 Chilrililble organizations 3
We asked people if they thought lhilt lheir children would take care of them in lheir old ale. Forty-six percent 01 tho!ie asked Silid ·'No."
lit
25
America's Real Crime Statistics
America's official statistics on crime are somewhat misleading. According to our research crime is underestimated by about 600 percent
Thirty-nine percent of the people in America have some kind of criminal offense in their past, and a sizable number seem to actually draw the lighUling of violence on themselves.
Crimes of violence were confessed by enough of OUI respondents to persuade us that the proportion of our population prone to violence is much higher than any national statistics released to this point
In this land of violence. it came as no great surprise that only a minority of us (32 percent) feel very safe in our neighborhoods.. The rest conless that "we live with continual fear ...
Our fears are grounded in the facts of our daily lives, the real crime statistics that come from our own experience.
More than half of all Americans (60 percent) have been the victims of crime at It:ast once in their lives. Of those, more tl&an half (58 percent) ItULJt: been victimized twice or moTe.
The statistics uf violence in our poorer neighborhoods are familiar fare
171
174 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
• OffICIAL STAIISTICS UNDERESTIMATE CliME BY fIOO PERCENT COMW&ISON OF OUR CRIME STATISTICS WITH OffiCIAL CRIME STATISTICS
The dimensions of the crime problem in Ameria are very big indeed. According to tbe U.S. Bureau of Crime SUtistics, there were 20 million personal crlmei (that
• is, crimes against individual Americans) in 19118 alone. This means that in 19811, there were 100 personal crimes for every 1,000 Americans I As ~ as these fi&ures may seem, they underestimate the relll crime threat to
most Americans. Crime sLltistics are calculated on a yearly basis, meaning that the official sutistics only report tbe chances that an individual American was victimized in one given year.
• We decided to take ,) different approach, asking Americans if they h~ ever been the victims of a criRie. We were liure that the number would be much hi8her Ihan the official single-year averages, but we were unprep.ired for the revelation that fully 60 percent or 600 in every 1,000 adult Americans have been the victim of at least one crime.
• Thil> figure is six times greater than the single-year official estimates. We further
found that 350 in every 1,000 Americans have been the victims of at lea.t two crimel> I].S times the sinllle-year estimate) and that 200 Americans in every 1,000 have been the victims of at least three crimes.
For the record, the 100-in-1,000 otficial crime-victimization rate corresponds almost exactly to our eslimate of the number of Americans who have been the victims of four or more uimes in their lives.
in our newspapers. What surpris(:d us is the expt:rience of crime reported by pcopl~ who Uvc in America's upper-middle-class and rich neighbor hoods:
III our Heverly Hills-South Bronx study, for example, we found that the people uf Beverly Hills are almost as likely (53 percent vs. 55 perccnl) to have been victims of crime as the people of the South Bronx; the pt:OiJlc of l1t!Verly Hills arc almost as likely (12 pert"ent vs. 14 pen:elll) to have experienced a crime of violence themselves. People in Beverly Ilills are also more likely (50 percent vs. 48 percent) to know someone who has bt..'Cn struck by violtmce.
TKUE CONFESSIONS Of CRIME
AU kinds of peuple conJessed small-scale crimes ill the privacy of our intervIew:. :
• A ball).. leUt!r li'OIIl J\1clrupulis: "Lots oj' pelly theft whcn I was a leenager. Now I wurk iu a bank, right. ..
COMMUNITY LIVES 175
• A Rust Belt lawyer: "Drugs and theft right up to the present time. I sometimes steal at our office ...
• A Southern cop: "I've stolen many items. Little here, little there." • A receptionist from a rural area in the Northeast: "When I was
younger, I stole from department stores. I occasionally hit the malls now."
• A high-school coach from the East: ". stole a leather jacket last year. Every couple of years, I steal something big."
• A young woman from New England, who is a fitness instructor: "Attempted larceny. Also, stealing gasoline from cars in the neigh
'borhood." • A meat cutter from the Midwest: "Dope-stealing from work. .. • A Midwestern woman, who owns a manicuring business: "Stealing
in stores and buying drugs." • A Midwestern woman, who now is president of a small company:
"Stole paper goods, pens, smaD machines from a fonner employer." • A broker for the federal government: "As a teen, working in a camera
shop, I stole a lot of equipment." • An Old Dixie factory foreman: "I steal packs of cigarettes off our
lunch wagon." • A realtor from the ~st Coast: "Smoked marijuana and committed
petty theft in convenience stores." • A mother of two from the Rust Belt: "Stole cosmetics at a Mary Kay
show."
... MAMA TRIED " 'This is the nineties, man. We're the type of people who don't uke no for an ansWt!r. It your mom says no to a kid in the nineties, the kid's just going to laugh'-,) twenty-one-ye..r-old surfer called Road Dog, who said his family owned a chain of pharmacies.
"He and his friends shouted in appreciation as another gang member lifted his ... long hair to reveal a tattoo on a bare shoulder: 'Mama Tried: ..
-Nt:w rOTA Times, April 10, 1'J'JO
Other:; (;onte:;sing to regular stealing: a college pl'ellident, a telephone illterviewer, a licensed practical nurse, au auto mechanic, an insurance salcsman, a market-research interviewer, a waitress, the owner of an IIISllrilllCC agellcy, a postal supervisur, a filmmaker, a mailman, a carpet illsla.ller, a llIarkt:l consultant, a home health aide.
176 177 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
More serious cJime is committed by a disturbingly large number of people we talked to.
Fully 2 percent of our nationally projectable sample admit to having pushed drugs; another 1 percent each to robbery, car theft, and assault. That's a lot of people acrotiS this country who have been involved in felonies.
• THE PERENNIAL VICTIM
One American in ten has suffered four or more crimes in his or her lifetime. \~ decided to take a closer look at perennial victims. Why do some peovle seem to walk under a raineloud?
TIleY au! not people whose circumstances make them more vulnerable than most. Something else is going on, something that has to do with who they are as human beings.
That's the conclusion we were led to when we discovered who the perennial victims are not:
• They are not more than averagely poor or uneducated or members of minorities.
• They are not mostly women (60 percent are men). • They are not mostly old (only 6 percent are sixty years old or older).
In tact, the greatest proportion of perennial victims shows up in the age group where you might least expect to ftnd them: men between thirty-ftve and forty-four.
NOlle of that ftts with the standard perception about where crime hits hardest ill America.
Who are these perennial crime victims then?
• '(bey're more than twice as likely to have committed a crime them Itd\\!s. Fifty-nine percent admit to having committed at least one crime.
• The) 're more than twice as likely (51 percent vs. 20 percent) to have contemplated suidde. AlmoslllCAlf have been in therapy.
Most illterestingly, perennial crime victims are often victims of child abuse. They are three times as likely to have been beaten and lour Hurel) as likely to have been sexuaUy abused al) children.
COMMUNITY LIVES
WHAT AMERICA REALLY BELIEVES ABOUT THE DEATH PENALTY
Americans kill each other at a far higher rate (currently, more than 25,000 homicides reported each year) than do the citizens of any other industrial country. Maybe it is natural that sentiment for the death penalty, abolished throughout \\estern Europe, is making a comeback in" the United States.
TIle number of prisoners on death row rises each year, and public support for the death penalty is increasing. Here's what people be1ieve right now about the death penalty:
\\e found that two-thirds of our respondents (68 percent) favor legal execution.
A number of Americans go beyond that in their desire for legal vengeance, or some kind of justice.
When it comes to specific offenses, Americans' support for the death penalty comes close to 100 percent.
Crimes against children-even when they do not involve murder-are those for which the largest number advocate death.
It SELLING TRADE SECRETS 10 J.U'ANI AMERICANS NOW SAY, "HANG 'EM HIGH."
Nearly as many (41 percent) Americans now consider seKing trade secrets to Japan a form of treason as worthy of execution as selling milita/)' secrets to the Soviets (49 percent).
It AMERICANS SUPPOIT Ttl( DEATH PEN4lTY OVEIWHBMINQY
Offense ~ Suppoltin, &ecution
It
Ran a child-prostitution ring Sold drugs to children killed an innocent child Engaged in senseless mass-murder Killed a policeman
97'" 95 83 82 78
It
Was a terrorist who planted a bomb on an airplane Put poison in over-the-counter drugs Killed a litorekeeper in a robbe/)' Killed ~omeone while driving drunk Raped a woman Sold milita/)' secrets to the Soviets Sold trilde seuets to the J..palle~e
75 74 73 70 59 49 41
THE UAY AMERICA TOll> THE TRUTH178
Mauy Americans ~o bt:youd bimplc advocaq in lheir lliupport of the dealh pellah y.
DUI! pt:I':.un in tOOl' wants a return to public executions. allhough tltis lime hi lhe modem lllatUlt:r-on tdcvitdou.
Ouc-llulJ uf tlle pt.-oplc we hlJU&"C to would like to wiUl~ an cXt.'t:ulion lhclIIl>Ch,c:.,
.. ulh J,l vcrccill \\"uul'] "ull the bwildl dM:m~IVet6. TIwliC wluul",'Cr eXCl:uuom'I'~ arc Illt:U and WOIllCU 1"1'0111 Ihe whole tipL'\:lrulll ol" American IUe, .
A It.alllpllllg of lhe men "sduLicb a lluwc:r-lihop OWllel' in hili carty lhilliclIt; it Ihl'''''C-liIllCblU.u·l1cd l>'.:hu,,1 h:.ad,,,,..,; a poIilaJ a;upcrvilior ill hili eatl) luuic:.; a IlLAckal' IJl.aUl bUIJl..'i"\"u;or; an i.utUriUK:e executivc; sewral nlt.'\.ll'-.d docWfti; a yuuu~. ",'olcltlJonal mudd; and iawYCni frum San ......0111'-11>',;0, W.llihiugIOU••.ua.] Mis:.ibSippi.
Aillun~ lhe \\Uln~u \\oultJ-lA: CJ\",ocutioucn. arc two legal tlet:rclaneli; lhe UI ..u.I~Cr of .. piu.a lJ""lur; dU'-lulli. l.awycl'Ii, aud pliycbulogililti.
29
Religion: Who Really Believes in God Today?
Whal is going on in congregations, parishes, and synagogues across America? The news is good-and bad.
God is alive and very well. But right now in America, fewer people are listening to what God has to say than ever before.
Ninety percent of tire people we questioned said that they truJy believe in God.
It would be the logical conclusion then to think that God is a meaning ful factor in ttxlay's America. Hut we reached a difterent t'Ooclusion when we dug deeper with our questions.
In every liingle region of the country, when we asked how people make up their minds on issues of right and wrong, we found that they simply du not turn 10 God or religion to help them decide about the seminal or JlIorai issuCb of the day.
}<Or most people, religion plays virtually no role in shaping their opillions 011 .. lung listot' important public questions. This is true even 1111' 'luesliClw; thai St!CIII duscly relatcd to religion: birth contlUl, abortion, even IcacliiJlg Creationism and the !'Ole of womeu in the clergy.
199
200 201 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
On not one of those questions did a majority of people seek the guidance of religion in finding answers. Most people do not even know their church's position on the important issues.
That. perhaps, is the true measure of Americans' indifference to the teachings of organized religion: W:! don't follow what our church says because we're not interested enough to find out what it's saying.
THE RfAl. ROLE OF RELIGION TODAY
As we enter the 1990&, only one American in ftw ever consult a minister, a priest, or a rabbi on everyday issues.
Half of us haven't been to a religious service for a minimum of three months. One in three haven't been to a religious service for more than a year.
More than half of us (58 percent) went to services regularly while growing up, but less than half of those (27 percent) do so today.
Only one in ten of us believe ill all of the len Commandments. FOrty percent of us believe in five or fewer Commandments.
ill RELIGION: HOW lMPOITANT IS ITI
l'etcenu,e oIl'euple Whose Reli,ion
Percern.,e of ".wpJe Not Cett~jn
H.d No Role in of Theil
luue SIYpin, Theil
I'olition ChUICh's I'o.ition
ill SdMX>l busing fe.aburning 1~ deith peOilty Book binning Communiilll
70% 66 64 64 64
66% bl 57 62 flO
Attirmilive wion 61 69
ill Birth control Abortion
58 56
40 52
Humosexuality le.tChing Creitioniilll in schools Pornography PrelNria.1 sex
55 55 54 53
52 52 41 43
Anli-St!mitiilll 53 56 .. I Women in the dergy
lYcism 52 ... 47 43
PrIfer in schools 44 35 Divorce 43 37 NIKht In die 43 57
GOO AND OTHER HEROES
W:! have established ourselves as the authority on morality. Vk now choose which Commandments to believe and which ones not to believe. Clearly, the God of the 1990& in America is a distant and pale reflection of the God of our forefathers. 'This is not the "jealous God" of the Old 1estament-six in seven people think that it is okay not to believe in God. Rather, Americans seem to use God to refer to a general principle of good in lif~r, sometimes, He (or She) is the creator who set off the Big Bang but doesn't intervene in human affairs.
FOr most Americans, God is not to be feared or, for that matter, loved.
WHO IS RELIGIOUS IN AMERlCAl
There are those who do call themsel~ truly religious, and some people may be surprised at the demographics.
Ninety-nine percent are under the age of 65. One in four is a college graduate, and two in three haw had some
college. They are more often women. And that fact supports our findings that
in this country, women are more moral than men, and religious people are more moral than the national average.
RELIGIOUS PEOPLE ARE MORE MORAL
Ilow does the growing number of nonreligioUS Americans compare to those who still hold to traditional beliefs? Can a judgment be made about who's more moral?
People deS(;ribing themselves as "very religious" (14 percent) definitely make better citizens. In the self-portraits they painted for us, the very reUgious scored much higher than did other people on moral questions that most of Ult would accept as defining citizenship in a civilized society.
ReUgious people are far less likely to "have a price." The nonreligious were those 17 percent who defined themselves as being "not religious at all. ..
It I WHAT WOULD YOU 00 fOR $10 MILLION'
l'ercenu,e of l'ercenr.,e of ReIi,iow Non«tii,ious
WuuldYuu ... People Who Af- People Who "',.. Abindon your ~renlsl 17% 37%
* I Leave your spousel 8ecome iI prc»titule fori weeki 11 16 26 18
202 THE DAY AMERICA TOlD THE TRUTH
Religious Americans are more willing to die for what they believe. They're less prone to do something that they know is immoral because others are doing it They are much more sure of their own moral worth. Three limes as many among the religious described themselves as "very good" people.
TIrey are also more at peace with themselves. Religious people are more likely to say they are satisfied with their lives (50 percent vs. 36 percent).
Rt:ligious people are much less likely to have used drugs (27 percent vs. 58 percent).
They are more truthful. Tlrey are more commiued to the family. They make better workers, and they are less prone to petty crime. The religious are also less likely (9 percent vs. 21 percent) to carry
Viedpons.
SIN, AMERICAN STYLE
If religion duesn't give us satisfactory answers, does that mean we believe lhat there are no rules of morality-that anything goes?
Not entirely. Americans still have a lively sense of what sin means. And if there is
om: id~al that underlies our definition of sin, it is the oldest, most universal principle of them all-the Golden Rule. Sin, as most of us sec itloday, i6 doiug unto other6 wha1 we don't want done unto ourselves.
GOOD PEOPlE
• • Jewish people (41 percent) .are the most likely to describe them,~lve5 .as
very good vs. 30 percent 01 C.atholics .and 27 percent of ProtHt.ants . • BI.acks (34 percent) ire more likely to describe theml>elves ol~ very good
th.an .are whites (28 percent•. • The elderly, those iied 65 ind over (35 percent), more th.an 18- to 24-yeir
olds (25 percenU. • College-edut:ited (35 percent) more th.an less-educited people Ill. per·
cent) . .. • HOnlOseXUOils Oind bisexuals (30 perteRt) more th.an hetero~exual~ (27 per cent).
• COllservollives (Jj pen en!) mUle thin liberolls Cl7 peruml).
GOD AND OTHER HEROES 203
*' IY REGION: WHERE _LiMas LIVE (for .a m.ap of America's resiGns, see Put t.)
BELIEVE IN GOO (N.ationalA\'erige: cm.)
~ It.,ion Who llelieve IfeBion :::* Old Dixie 96% New South Gr.anary 92 90% MetropolisL.A.-Mex 91 87
Mirlboro Country 82Rust Belt 91 Pic Rim New England 90 81
Fewer than two people in five believe that Bin is "going against God's will" or "going against the Bible" or "violating the 'Jen Commandments." FOr the rest of us, sin is defined by our own consciences. W! define what is Sinful and what isn't
The Worst Sin I've Ever Committed
Here are examples of what Americans we interviewed remember as the worst sins in their lives:
• "Killed other humans in war."-a post office clerk from the Ykst Coast, {ortie!>, Baptist, not a churchgoer.
• "Got into a 6s16gbt with my father. I knocked my father down tWke."-a truck driver from Old Owe.
• "J !>hot two people once and almost killed them."-a man in his thirties from Old Dixie.
• "I lit my mother. "-a single man in his late twenties. • "Allowed JOnuer spouse to physically abuse me without seeking
help. "-an Hispanic secretary in his early twenties. • "I once (;onVinced a rich person to invest money in my company and
we used it fOl' liVing."-a real estate agent from the Southwest • "Stealing over $500 worth of material from the hospital that I didn't
really need. "-a registered nurse from the Midwest • "Slealillg from my un<.:le, and I am very sorry. "-a bank teDer from
(he Northeast.
• "Selling drugtl to higb-school kids. "-a singJe man froID New En glantl, in his early twenties .
• '"Beillg jcaJOUIi of lilY next-door neighbor's new car. "-a housewife, ill her carJy lillic!>, churchgoing Catholic.
---
--- --
204 205 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
• "Playing sexually with little girls."-a single man in his late thirties. • "Having a child out of wedlock."-a sixty-ftve-year-old woman from
the New South. • "The most serious sin I have committed is not being able to quit
drinking and writing bad checks."-a single man, in his late thirties,
Lutheran. • "I had an abortipn when I was a very young girl."-a thirty-year-old
woman, now divorced and unemployed. • "Five abortions."-a woman in her late thirties, churchgoer from the
South. • "Stealing and, though not controllable by me, sex with my broth
ers."-a saleswoman, ~inll.le, jewish, attends services regularly. • '1\ied to commit the ultimate sin, suicide."-a disk jockey from the
Midwest, single man, Catholic, doesn't attend church regularly. • "Attempted suicide. "-a divorced man in his thirties from New
England, Baptist, not a churchgoer. • "Euthanasia. I helped my si~ler to die."--a secretary from the North
east, in her fortie~, graduated from parochial school, attends l:hurch irregularly.
• "Being bom."-a rew'ed man from the Northwest, nonreligious.
00 AMEILICANS STILL BELIEVE IN HELU
An afterlife in heD is not something very many Americans honestly fear. Moltt American~ (62 pc!occnl) profess to believe in an afterlife that
includes both heaven and heD (55 percent of us believe in thc existence ot'Satan). \\e are confident, ho~er, that our future prospects are bright. Almost haU' of us (46 perceJll) expect to spend eternity in heavcn Vii. only 4 per\:cnt who see their future in hell.
In this respect, we have not lost the optimism for which we are famous.
OTHER POWERS
In addition to God in his heaven and Satan in his hell, these are beliefs
that wme of us hoW:
• rurty-five pt!n:ent of all Amel'icans believe that ghosts exist. • Almost one III three (31 pen:ent) believe that SOIll~ pt.-ople have
lIlagit:i11 puwers, • Aboul unt::-lourth ot' u~ bclil!Vc in witchcraft t2H pcrl:CUI), lJIa<.:k
magk (24 pelunt). and voodoo (20 percent),
GOD AND OTHER HEROES
• And as many as one in twenty Americans have actually participated in some ritual of satanism or witchcraft I
PlOTESTANIS, CATHOlICS, OR JEWS: WHO'S MOU IflKiIOUSI
StMemenI
Believe in God
If believe: Very sure of God's existence Believe God created the universe Believe there is tl Hell Believe there is tl HeiWen Not at a" religious Went to churchlsynagogue often when 8fOWIng up Go 10 churchisyniSOKue often now Less ahan 20 percent of life influenced by religious
beliefs Churchfsyn4lgogue had no inRuence on moral
development
• I SIN: AS AMERICANS HONESnV SEE IT
"1IIc:"un~ ciefine "sin" as tollows;
Definition
Going against God's wi"• Any immoral act Willful wronpng Ii<Irm to self/others Goins against one', own befiefs Violating the Ten Commandments
1etcenUp Who Ape l'rotestlnlS ClIthoIIcs Jews
97.. ... 11..
73 65 27 91 91 56 94 89 44 94 89 53 7 6 30
67 78 31 34 .. 1 12
13 15 51
17 19 30
l'ercenttp WhoAltee
1;0,. 15 13 13 13 11
206 THE DAY AMERICA TOLD THE TRUTH
AMERICA'S SINS
Wh.t .re the serious sins people have .ctucally committedl Here's whilt people confessed in our interviews:
-4ctivity
Adultery Steilins lying/thea'inS Disobeyjn~hurtin8 ~renl or other re'tlU"" Prenwrltal )eX SI.nder Disobeying it religious law Creed H.vin8 in ilbortion Attemptinglwmmilting murder
~enu,eWho Mnit 10 Activily
24% 21 lS 10 a 6 .. .. 2 2
30
Who Are Our Real American Heroesl
The majority of us (70 percent) believe that America has no living heroes today. About the same number say that our children have no meaningful rolc models.
More than most of Ul>, people in Old Dixie and in New England still helic\-\! ill tK:roes, but even there, less than half are now belie\'el"s. In the Hu~t Belt, il'l> only one jll five.
The! whole idea of heroes has gotten fuzzy for us. Sometimes it dCKcueratel> iuto TV celebrity. The late historian Barbar.l Tuchman rCl·aUt:d attending a conterence on heroes, held on Supennan's fiftieth lJiJ'lhday. She commented:
··It was quite weird. what they considered a hero. The real hero of the discusl>iun was the liule girl who'd fallen down a well. Sbe didn't do anything to make hertielf a he~she was just in the news. Other heroes discussed wert: Elvis Presley and somelxxly whom I had never heard of. the J\Ia)'Hower Madam."
Nor do we have people in public We we can look up to. OnJyone-third (II liS thillk that the President has any right to tell us what'~ right or wnlll~. aud far lewel' wuuld accept his advice without question.
207
208 209 THE DAY AMElICA TOLD THE TlUTH
iI AMUICA IN THf P051-HEa0lC Aa: WHAIIT AU. MfANS
In the Late 1930s ~ the 1940s, Joe DlMagio represented an American idNI. He was the man of deeds rather than of words, whole quiet IeoIdership IJYde him the embodiment of the American hero. Indeed, Ernesl Heminpav ~ OiMagio in mind when he defined heroism as "srate under pressure." In The Old Man iIId
iI the .se.. the old man cites Joe DiMagIo as proof that heroes really do exist and that man contains within him an unconquerable heroic spark.
It 15 easy to identify other American heroes from the put: ChMIel lindbergh, "the lone EqIe"i &be Ruth, "the Sultan of Sw.a"; Joe louis, "the Brown Bomber," who demolished Adolf Hiller'. claims of Aryan racial superiority by fLatteninl the German "Superman," Max Schmelins. In the movies, John Wayne speciMlzed in Playinl American heroes.
iI Seventy percent of Americans now say that America has no more heroes. Why are there no heroes todayl There are no heroes bec.luse we haw ceased
to believe in anything stronlly enough to be impressed by its attainment.
• Who really cares how RYny millions of ~rs our athletes will eilrnl • Who really cares how many comic-strip viH;&ins will let mutilated and
iI , massacred by our movie heroesl • Michael Milken and his $bOO mifllon a year salary Is to Horatio Aller as
today's MiIdonna is to the historical Madonna-. parody.
An anecdote told by a university president makes the point about our loss of belief in our leaders: In the fall of 1987, he was teaching a Sunday school clatis for adults that included hanken, business executives, and university professors. He asked them a question based on a then-recent event: "\\e hear on the news that an Iranian ship has been sunk in the Persian Gulf. The Jr.wian guvemment says that it was sunk by American
_ I IY IfGlON: WHO IItUfVESIN AMERICAN HElOn
(for illNp of America's regions, see Part I.)
BELIEVE THAT AMERICA STil L HAS HEROES (National Averaae: 30%)
h""enYBe ite,ion Wh0"Bree Re,ioo
-I Old Dixie 43% Marlboro Country New England 42 Metropolis PKRim 3CJ L.A.-Mex Gra~ry 34 Rust Bdt New South 31
Perulm"lle Whu"Bree
31% 31 29 10
GOD AND OTHER HEROES
torpedoes. The u.s. government says that the ship hit Iranian mines. Whom do you believe?"
The class was sllent. No one answered. ENeryone wanted more infor mation before deciding what they thought had happened.
Not one person in that class trusted their own government to tell the truth.
They had as much trust in the government of Iran.
ill MOlAl AlJTtIOIITIES: SOURCES THAT WE WIU AllOW 10 TELL US WHAT IS liGHT AND WRONG
SoutCe ., Spouse/lover Parent Grandparent Best friend Bible Religion Personal doctor ill Child Local police ChurchlsYOilgoSue Government Personal lawyer ., U.S. Supreme Court Uncle/aunt Schoofteacher Adult friend College professor Boss President of the United States
.1 Book Co-worker Local politician lY minister The press filmous athlete
., Neighbor TV personality FictionallY character Movie slar
~oIl'eopIe Who I'etnn".. 01 Peoples.y SocMce 11M Who Accept SouIce's Some IIiIht to Tell Them MQnI AdvIce Without What's IfiIht iN w.w" Question
77", 55", n 46 58 37 57 37 52 37 52 34 51 37 50 31 50 33 .... 2S 42 2S 43 29 42 2S 42 2S 39 23 39 22 37 20 36 23 32 19 28 11 24 12 22 6 21 7 21 6 21 7 19 8 19 7 19 5 19 6
I I I
I
! I
i ! I
210 THI DAY AMIIICA TOLD THI nUTH
IF NOT 000, HEaOES, OIl OUIINSTITUTIONS, THlN WHOM DOWETIUSTJ
10 whom. or to wbich institution do ID08I of us tum for moral and elIuwd advice~ When we du tum to someone fur help ill the 1990s. who is it?
Our church? . Our penunent? Out' IICbooIa? Our p.arenUi? .. Then: ;~ a clear <Aud oWl'Whebning winner: wr Ipwtie or lover. ~YOllti d::;e--tbe u·..mtional iluthudtieai--t'anb far behind the iuu
mille cilde at the top. Only "Lout one ill lIu'ee Amerk:i&lls accept wililOUt qUelition the mor.d
luid.uu:e of religion, itat pr.u;titiolltirlli. ur lUi IiCriplurea;. Iblith.:id figumi fare WUIlie. The SuvrelUC COUll conunalldlli the alleaPancc orone ill loor. 'nle I'leaiident is wdl b4:blnd lhe nIne Justice» wilh 19 percent. lucaI tdiliciilllli are way down at 6 pcrcenL t:du~tors "ill'e no better. S4.:hoolteilClM:l·1i and college p1ut~IiOI'S are
couwdert:d moral aulhUllUeIli by 23 perccnt and 20 percent. rellipecuvcly alltwugh both are illlwuglile occupation» that Americilllli nWilI rellipecl.
The tiaddelll lihowil., is by lhe American preA Utili iruitltulion, much more eltl ....t:d a tkcade and a hatt' aBO, when reporl.el'li were unl~overiug lilt.: W"Ic.:I·gah: lOCandabi, hilli t'ailW lenibly hI the upiuiOIl of lllOlil pt..>ople.
Alii 1U00al autlwritit.:b ill lhc.:ir livelli, Aallcricauli "i&Wd Iht: IJrt:1iIIi al 6 pclcenl. 'I'bat'lii on a pal' willA movie lilarli, aud I percent below famouli atlilclelli and telC'lUOOU 1lt!lliOucilitielt.
11 ~ uut)' 1 1Jc.:1'I.:eut LcUel' t".tll fi~tiuUid IciL-vhJion cbaraclcrlli.
236 237 fiFTY-fOUl REVELATIONS
than 600 percent. The amount of actual crime in this country is stagger in~ Sixty percent of us have been victims of a major crime.
S. The 1990s will be marked by very personalized Moral Crusades. Many of us ache to do the right thing, but we feel that there are no sane outlets through our institutions. The first Crusade-environmentalism is actually happening and this time, we are serious about it. The next Mu-ai Crusade could be in the area of education. That's where it should be. \Ulunteerism is going to happen in a big way.
6. Americans now'believe that the Japanese people are superior to us. 7. Lying has become an integral part of the American culture. W! lie,
and we don't even think about it. The people we lie to most are those clOlitlst to us.
8. Community, the hometown as we have long cherished it, no longer exit;tl>. TbtlTe are virtually no hometowns anymore. There is no meaning ful ben8e of community. Motil Americans do not participate in any conununily action wbattiOever.
9. One of our most devastating findings: One in every seven Ameri cans has been sexually abused as a child. This number far exceeds the statistics published to date. Child abuse is actually creating sociopaths in this c,:ountry-at an alanning rate.
10. The ideal of childhood is ending. A tragically high percentage of American children now lose their virginity before the age of 13.
11. Date rape is a second important, and largely unreported, epi demic. 'twenty percent of' the wumen we surveyed report being raped by their dates.
12. American workers and executives are now willing to sacrifice to be a part of winning companies. They want to be part of something bi~~er and better than themselves.
13. Amel"icam. I>till deeply love America, although they don't eXJ>l.>ct it to be number one ill the IIcxt ccntury, nor even lor thc rest of this decade,
14. A men's revoJution is Lrewing-in reaction to the women's revo lutiun.
1 S. Homosexual fantasies are extremely common in every sec;tion of the United States--one in five of us men and women haw: homosexual fantasies,
16. The United States is fat' and away the most violent ilK.!ut;trializt:d nation on the earth.
1 7. ~ have lost tailh in the institution of marriage. A third of married mCII allll wumen l'oulcssed to U~ lhat they've had at least une atlair. ·h~cntY·llinc pcn:clIl aren'l rcally surc lhatthcy t;lilllovc theu· spouses,
FIFTY-fOUR REVELATIONS
18. There's a breakdown in filial piety-a majority of us will not take care of our parents in their old age. .
1 9. Americans believe in the death penalty. Ninety-five percent of us believe in capital punishment for some crimes. One American in three would actually volunteer to pull the switch for an electric-chair execution.
20. The number one cause ofour business decline: unethical behav ior by executives.
21. Seventy percent don't believe that America has a single hero right now. George Bush gets some high mark&-but mostly because our ex~tations fOT the presidency are so low.
22. Eighty percent of us believe that .IJlOl"aIs and ethics should be taught in our schools. A letdown in moral values is now considered the number one problem facing our country.
23. America's Sodom: It's &\Wly Hills, not the South Bronx. The people of Beverly Hills are more likely to have an extra-marital affair and twice as likely to use illegal drugs. The level of child abuse is equal in the two communities.
24. Ninety percent of all Americans believe in God. It is Who that God is that contains the surprises.
25. Religious people are much more moral than nonreligious people. 26. According to over 60 percent of us, Japan will own the next
century. 27. American marriage is in crisis. More than half of all Americans
genuinely believe that there is no good reason for anyone to get married. 28. America's number one addiction, by far, is alcohol-not drugs. 29. Americans are declaring an end to the cold war. \\e no longer
fear the Russians. What we fear are trade wars-and mostly with the Japanese.
30. \\Omen workers are more ethical. They are less likely to steal, to malinger, to lie to their bosses, to leave early, or to goof off. W>men workers are fat, less likely to drink or use drugs on the job.
31. One-in-three AIDS carriers we talked to have not told their spouses or Jovers.
32. The number of sociopaths is increasing at a dizzying rate. The P"clC Rim region leads the country in sociopaths.
33. One in seven of us carry a weapon either on our persons or in our vehides.
34. Ameri(;a's most ethical corporation, according to most people: 18M.
35. The Jeast moral occupations in America include crime bosses, dHl~ dealcrs, aud eon~l·esslUcn.
23~
3.
3~ Dixit3. ofou
3! who ideol
4( SUrp!
often 41
anytJ their 4~
Iepol ofho 4~
subsl trolll coml ~
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