ZAXXONS and Morality

A number of years ago, it might be fifteen or longer (the years tend to pass much more quickly with age), there was a funny cartoon that portrayed a young man interviewing with a prospective employer. The middle aged hiring manager asked the mop-haired young man what type of experience he could bring to the company and the young man eagerly replied that he had “destroyed over 270,000 Zaxxons” in some space invader game, an answer that left the would be employer in a cartoonish state of befuddlement.

I recalled this cartoon as I pondered the article this morning in Nationalreviewonline that purports to portray the millennial generation as becoming more Victorian with regard to their morals (full article here). The data for this portrayal hinges upon a lesser degree of violence, a lesser proclivity toward sexual crimes, fewer bouts of binge drinking among highschoolers, and a lessening of sexual promiscuity among teenagers. However, regarding sex, the article noted that this lessening was based on high school seniors having a reduced number of students who had engaged in sexual intercourse with more than three partners. We certainly haven’t set the bar too high.

Now let’s compare the above portrayal with the Pontiff’s desire for everyone to stop evading physical contact through the use of technology(here). He makes a wonderful point. On my daily walks I am one of the few without earplugs. For that matter, when I am on my part time job, I doubt it is an exaggeration to believe that less than 10% of my fellow employees can function at their work without numerous stoppages for tweets, e-mail interruptions on their personal cell phones, or adjusting their personal music in their ears. No one knows what is going on around them. My daughter offers further anecdotal evidence regarding the younger employees that she hires who can’t communicate with each other or their customers. Eye contact has become an antiquated quality. In my church, I notice the hand-held device has replaced the fatherly thump on the head for maintaining their child’s respectful silence.

So now, I question the accuracy of a desire for some type of Victorian morality rather than an increasing desire to be lost in self-indulgence at the expense of any social contact. There are a number of polls that point out that church attendance (for me a prime indicator of a desire for morality) in the United States is on the decline (here). So instead of a return to morality, it appears to me that we have a generation that is too trapped within technological narcissism to sin. Remember the quote from Throw Mama From the Train,  “Larry never did-- anything.” I don’t believe lack of interest should be equated with morality.