WASHINGTON, July 28: Americans really must be a busy lot - trying to save their marriages and neighbourhood, making roads and schools safer and taking an active role in the country's politics. But they are not at all busy, says the cross-party National Commission on Civic Renewal which has also warned that the United States is leaning towards becoming a nation of passive observers.The Commission spent 18 months investigating what is amiss in the US. They found out: Too many Americans are wasting time watching television while churches, schools and neighbourhoods suffer. The country now risks being overwhelmed by a wave of passivity, cynicism and inferior performance.
According to the National Commission on Civic Renewal, US popular culture is mostly vulgar, violence-oriented and mindless, with socially acceptable behaviour marked by a corresponding tendency toward unhelpfulness. The Commission's 20 members is headed by the highly respected democratic Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia and former republicaneducation secretary William J Bennett.
With the help of the few charitable trusts, the Commission reviewed developments of the last 25 years - only to find a decline in civic engagement and political activism, with a corresponding rise in violence, divorce and alienation.
The Commission's criticism of the media was particularly harsh. Television, says their report, causes a great deal of damage, because it isolates people and strongly encourages tendencies toward violence, sexual aimlessness and direct sensory gratification.
Just as tobacco companies are being held responsible for the social costs of their products, the entertainment industry should be held accountable for the damage it causes society, the report's authors argue. Television is not solely to blame. Movies and popular music also play a role.
However, the Commission hasn't given up entirely on the land of opportunity. It praised the rare efforts being made at local levels to foster more acceptable senses of community and to encouragecivic action. Statistics show that rates for divorce, crime and teenage pregnancy are all dropping.The Commission now wants to launch a variety of projects to strengthen the efforts of community volunteers, to pressure the entertainment industry, and to urge the state to play its part.
People should play an active role in their society, the Commission told Americans, ``after all, it's your democracy and not a consumer good or a spectator sport''.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
