I once sat through a discussion in which the supposed selfishness of the younger generation—young women in particular—was the subject of great lament. The argument was familiar: the nation needs children, businesses need employees, and yet these young women, we are told, think only of themselves. I do not speak as one of those aggrieved by such charges; my wife and I raised three children, all of whom completed their university studies, live here in the Czech Republic, and hold ordinary jobs.
Still, I cannot resist posing a few questions to the moralists:
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Would you be willing to pay an additional four thousand crowns in taxes every month so that the state might provide generous support to young families with children?
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Would you accept government regulation of oversized apartments if it meant thousands of young couples could secure housing and begin raising families?
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Are you prepared to endure the shrieks of children without complaint, on the grounds that the nation desperately needs more of them?
These are, of course, rhetorical questions. What passes for “moralizing” so often amounts to nothing more than shifting responsibility onto someone else.
And here we touch on what is most revealing about public handwringing over the nation’s supposed moral decline: morality is always condemned in others. Rarely does one hear, “We are all behaving badly, and the fault lies with me as well.” Almost no one declares, “If morality truly is in such a pitiful state, then I shall bear a greater share of sacrifice than those around me.”
To be sure, there are many good and selfless people in our society. But I have yet to encounter a single one of them railing loudly about moral decay.