 |
|
[Reviewed in THE FUTURIST, September-October 2004]
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead by David Callahan. Harcourt. 2004. 368 pages. Check price/buy book.
Anything to Get Ahead: The New American Norm?
Reviewed by Lane Jennings
Cheating, like charity, begins at home, as do the solutions to an increasingly corrupt culture.
This is one book we might all have wished didn't need to be written. The Cheating Culture offers a critical look at American values, pondering the causes and implications of a growing trend among ordinary citizens to disregard social rules and even to break the law for no greater motive than personal gain.
Author David Callahan, co-founder of the Demos public policy center in New York, is not concerned with "cheating" in terms of lifestyle choices like sexual behavior or drug use, but rather with ordinary people's willingness to deceive others and cut corners purely to make more money or win some prize. Examples include financial advisers who accept payoffs to knowingly steer customers toward risky investments, lawyers and doctors who bill for hours never worked or services not delivered, students who copy test answers or buy term papers, and employees who use company time for personal business or play.
Self-centered sinning is hardly new; indeed, Callahan concedes that in some ways American society today is more honest than ever before. There are fewer corrupt politicians in public office, for example, and organized crime has less impact on many areas of daily life than was common in decades past. But while tougher laws and closer scrutiny by the press have helped clean up public life, multiple forces have put enormous pressure on people to lower their standards of ethical private behavior.
Since the 1970s, the United States has increasingly become a "winner-take-all" society, argues Callahan. In field after field, a few top performers receive pay and public acclaim out of all proportion to what most workers doing substantially the same job can command. In baseball, he notes, today's average major league player might receive $300,000 a year, while a star on the same team pulls down several millions--not counting the extra income from endorsements and public appearances. Small wonder then if professional athletes--and aspiring amateurs desperate to get a shot at the big time--turn to steroids or other banned substances that promise to give them just enough extra power or endurance to stand out.
The obsession with winning powerfully encourages cheating in two different ways. First, those who are already on top often cheat simply because they can get away with it--note how many people tolerate or quickly forgive behavior by celebrities that they would never accept from a neighbor or a co-worker. Second, those who are not yet winners (members of what Callahan calls "the Anxious Class") are tempted to cheat when, realizing that winners receive special treatment, they conclude the existing system of rules and laws is unfair; they then can feel free to disregard it. Many people today appear convinced that they must cheat simply to keep up with everyone else.
Adding to these pressures, Callahan notes, U.S. government agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and others charged with enforcing fair practice in trade and finance, are badly underfunded and hampered by legal loopholes. As a result, many white-collar criminals are never caught or punished.
Nor do professional associations always enforce ethical behavior by their members. Instead, they spend lavishly on public-relations campaigns and lobbying to block effective laws and new national standards for service and accountability.
Can anything be done to halt or even slow these trends? Callahan is optimistic, but warns that finding solutions will not be quick or easy. Allocating more money and personnel to enforce existing laws is one important step. Another would be for professional associations to rethink their reason for existence. Their true task, he believes, is to guard and enhance the status of their profession, not to blindly defend the privileges and reputations of anyone currently practicing in their field. Instead of uncritically championing doctors, lawyers, or teachers as a group, their respective professional associations ought to serve the larger public interest by insisting on the highest levels of preparation and practice from every professional in their field.
In sports, new initiatives are needed to put fair play and teamwork back in the foreground. From preschool onward, competitors must be taught and constantly reminded by coaches, parents, and applauding fans that winning is not the only thing that matters in a sport. The same holds true for academic work at every level. Students need to be convinced that gaining skill and knowledge is truly worth the effort it requires and that beating the system through deception, while sometimes appealing in the short term, ultimately leads to shame and failure.
So far, so good. These prescriptions, while perhaps not easy to enforce, are at least unlikely to raise loud objections. But Callahan goes further. He maintains that the surest way to end cheating is to drastically reduce inequalities of income, status, and perceived security throughout U.S. society. Taxing the superrich more heavily, funding new programs to expand opportunities for the disadvantaged, and removing inequities in law enforcement, will, he believes, help establish a new social contract in society and restore trust in U.S. public institutions.
The place to begin, Callahan cautions, is with ourselves. Ordinary individuals must be prepared to lead by example, regardless of how celebrities, opinion leaders, or even their own neighbors may behave. Each of us must dare "to be a chump." This means paying your full share of taxes even when you are sure that many other people cheat and get away with it. It means paying full price for a new compact disc even when you know you could easily, if illegally, download the same songs free from the Internet. It means doing the right thing, not the easy or most profitable thing, in every situation. And it means refusing to quietly tolerate cheating by others.
Callahan demands that we be prepared to openly confront people we catch cheating, tell them to their face we are ashamed of them, and tell the authorities, too, whatever the consequences.
Personally, I find this last injunction hard to follow. To control your own behavior and express your opinion freely and honestly to those around you is indeed leading by example. But by taking the added step of whistle-blowing, you put yourself in the role of moral judge. Some situations are morally clearer than others; but instinctively I feel any decision to report wrongdoing by others should be reached as a last resort, not an automatic reflex. Yet, what other options are there if we truly hope to reverse the trend away from fair play and honesty in business and private life?
Though clearly written and well documented, The Cheating Culture may not appear to be required reading for futurists. But the issues addressed here are vitally important to maintaining a sustainable system of social organization, and I especially recommend this book to educators and others concerned with finding ways to shape a better world for those who will come after us.
Editor's note: Additional background on this book, including related news items and a brief interview with the author, can be found online at www.cheatingculture.com.
About the Reviewer
return to top
COPYRIGHT © 2004 WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY
7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, Maryland 20814.
Tel. 301-656-8274. E-mail info@wfs.org. Web site http://www.wfs.org.
All rights reserved.