Just Because

by Mark Morelli
November 17, 2005

I'm at the YMCA waiting for my kid to finish gymnastics, reading a magazine in the lounge by the vending machines. Two kids under ten approach the machines, palms jingling with coins. Down the hall, their mother spots them and approaches. Her voice cuts through the din of people exercising.

"We're not buying that junk! We're going home to eat. Let's go!"

The kids ignored her and pumped coins into the machine. The mother sighed.

So did I.

Two generations ago, the roles would've been swapped. Kids would've squealed to get their way. When it didn't happen, it would've been the kids to sigh in resignation.

Now it is the so-called voice of authority begging to be heard. It reminds me of that scene in "Animal House" when Donald Sutherland, as an English professor, plaintively reminding the students in a hurry to exit his classroom that "Some of you still owe me papers!" Then he added, "This is my job!"

"Animal House" was anti-authoritarian. The 1960s echoed the old revolutionary concept to "question authority." We have evolved since then. We no longer question authority. We ignore it.

This affects us all.

I will have to wait in line longer at the grocery store because some adult wastes time arguing with kids as to why she doesn't want to buy candy. Sure as the weather in Ohio changes if you only wait five minutes, you can bet that the kid will in short time whine himself into ownership of a brand new Twix bar.

I am faced with students (I often teach college English classes) who understand that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and will insist that since they pay my salary through their tuition, they are the customer-who-is-always-right, and they "feel" that their "C" should be at least a "B."

But that's what happens in a culture that is ruled more by momentary impulse than by the steady hand of a guiding principle. For instance, in early November I saw a headline: "Interest in small cars falls with gas prices."

Of course, small car-use is inarguably essential to an efficient, long-term national fuel consumption policy. To discard the value of small cars just because gas prices drop 60-cents is like the children ignoring their mother at the vending machines. It shows little respect for a mature, far-reaching guiding principle, and none of the rewards of self-discipline for the common good.