In the past three decades, we have observed remarkable changes in people’s lives worldwide. A pivotal moment in that transformation of our societal landscape transpired in 1954 when the Senate McCarthy hearings were televised directly into every household. These broadcasts provided unfiltered, real-time sound and visual coverage of a congressional hearing. This unmediated live transmission marked a significant shift in how journalism was perceived and how politicians conducted themselves. Unfortunately, much of the resulting impact was not in the best interest of society.

Checkers Speech

Even before the McCarthy hearing broadcast another use of the media showed its power.  Richard Nixon was running with Eisenhower for vice president. However, the press had found a private fund Nixon used for campaign expenses.  The media went after Nixon on the fund which caused Eisenhower to reconsider whether Nixon should be the candidate to run with him.  It was clear that not only was Nixon talking to the people of the country but he was using the medium to talk directly to Eisenhower and other political leaders.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Checkersspeechaudio.ogg

Nixon was desperate to solve the problem. There were now many politicians calling for him to resign from his candidacy as vice president.   It was finally decided that the only way to deflect the negative press was to do a live thirty-minute television to speak to the people about his life and the situation.  If the power of the media had brought him to this place then it would take the power of the media to move him out of the sink hole on which he found himself.  

He bought the half hour of television for $75,000 which in $830,000 in 1922.  He was ready to change the course of history using this relative new medium of television to make his political point.  At the end of the speech Nixon called for those listening to contact the Republican National Committee and express their wishes as to whether he should remain on the ticket with Eisenhower.  The first wave of what would eventually be more than four million letters, telegrams, postcards, and phone calls had flooded into RNC headquarters and other political offices. running seventy-five to one in favor of Nixon. Nixon skeptics joined in; both Stassen, who was attempting to run for president and Dewey who was the governor of New York sent congratulatory telegrams. 

During his speech he made the following comment:

One other thing I probably should tell you because if we don’t they’ll probably be saying this about me too, we did get something—a gift—after the election. A man down in Texas heard Pat on the radio mention the fact that our two youngsters would like to have a dog. And, believe it or not, the day before we left on this campaign trip we got a message from Union Station in Baltimore saying they had a package for us. We went down to get it. You know what it was?

It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl—Tricia, the 6-year-old—named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it.

This statement is what named the speech The Checkers Speech even though Nixon wanted it called The Fund Speech.

Nixon was eventually placed on the ticket by Eisenhower.  This was probably the first time we had seen the power of the media used to influence politics but, it would certainly not be the last.   Seeing the nature and response of the speech and the impact it had on the public the media moguls saw money and power within their grasp.  Now, they could be the ones to shape each election and at the same time add to their bottom line!

Pentagon Papers

Another significant event that reshaped our societal behavior was the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971. This event marked the first indication that even the most secure information could no longer be considered safe. The shockwave reverberated through government circles as officials came to terms with the loss of control over these classified documents, making them realize that nothing they held was entirely secure.

The Watergate scandal, a major political controversy that unfolded in the early 1970s, stemmed from the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters located in the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. This break-in served as the catalyst for the entire scandal. Notably, it was the investigative work of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that propelled them to fame as renowned American investigative journalists. Their relentless pursuit of the truth led to the exposure of the Watergate scandal, ultimately culminating in President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

The roots of investigative reporting can be traced back to the Progressive Era in the United States. During this period, a group of journalists, often referred to as “muckrakers,” played a pivotal role in revealing corruption, social injustices, and corporate abuses. Prominent figures such as Ida Tarbell, Upton Sinclair, and Lincoln Steffens were instrumental in this movement.  African American journalist Ida B. Wells conducted groundbreaking investigative work on the subject of lynching in the United States. Her reporting shed light on the widespread racial violence and discrimination. However, the impact of these investigations was somewhat limited due to the less sophisticated means of information dissemination compared to today.

It wasn’t until August 8, 1974, when President Richard Nixon announced his resignation, that the true power of the press and its investigative capabilities became evident. This, coupled with the newfound wealth acquired by reporters due to their work on Watergate, attracted many others to the field of investigative reporting, all hoping to achieve a similar level of recognition and success.

Journalistic Ethics

Investigative reporting initially adhered to a set of generally accepted rules that served as journalistic guidelines. Here are some of those guiding principles.

Here are a number of those.

 This advent of twenty-four-hour news in 1980 with the beginnings of CNN brought another point of focus away from the family and continued to erode the family worldview.  This has caused family units to focus on worldly issues increasingly at the exclusion of family issues.  The news now raw, required that we accept what we see and hear.  I find it amazing the even when the media shows us this raw news story, they cut away and immediately tell us what we just heard.  But it doesn’t stop there, the have a panel that tells how we must think about what we just hear. 

Most people were not equipped to apply the critical thinking necessary to what they are being told, let alone pass that skill on to their families.  However, during this time we had not reached the point where the time between receiving information and the need to act on it was immediate.  We still had time to think before we reacted to new information.  We had time to have thoughtful conversations with others.  We did not deal with others including our families in soundbites!  We did not have twitter, Facebook, email, or other social media.  We had time to think it through no matter how cumbersome that process might be. Nothing was preserved forever, there was time to change when mistakes were made. That was on the way to a major change.

Enter the 8088

 A dramatic change came in 1974 when Intel manufactured the first computer chip, the 8088.  This brought about computers that compared to today were more like toys.  They were fun and exciting, and they could do what we commanded but the processing power was limited. 

In the 1980s, these new devices were now invading our homes in larger numbers.  The desktop computer was now a reality.  It wasn’t long after they arrived that the desire to interconnect the computers to each other and more importantly to repositories of data became desired.  The internet was born from that desire.  In those days we referred to that connective platform as the information superhighway which is probably a more accurate title.

All during this time, the focus moved increasingly away from the family and community to the wider sphere of virtual social interaction.  Individuals were turning away from the family and community to focus on a new world where they could access what they wanted, participate as an avatar that allowed them to provide a new autonomous identity, and make statements they would never make if anyone knew who the other person was.  They were driving at increasing speeds on this information superhighway without even having driver’s training or a license to travel.

Parents Guide

In the 1980s as this new highway was coming about, I prepared under contract with a law firm a booklet entitled Parents Guide to the Information Superhighway.  In this booklet, I predicted that unless we began to help our young people be better prepared for journeys on this new superhighway of information we would see further deterioration of relationships in the social fabric of the family, community, church, and friends.  I suggested in the document that teaching young people how to use critical thinking skills and how to form meaningful personal relationships would become increasingly important and must be built into our schools from kindergarten through college.  I also suggested that parents take classes to better understand the cultural and social impact of this new information revolution.  They could not protect their children through technology or software but only through better knowing how to interface with their children under this new condition where the half-life of any piece of information was approaching zero.   But most who heard my message just laughed it off feeling that this was just some stupid theory.

Today’s New Social Environment

We began to see the effects of this new environment in major ways in the past years leading up to today.  Donald Trump put a fire under this situation.  Social media provided the ability for each person to have an opinion and express it world-wide in one click.  Now, this is not about whether you liked Donald Trump or not but the effect of such a polarizing figure had on the circumstances at the time.  Never before in political history had the system been do directly attack.  He was determined to “drain the swamp” and he was using social media to attain that outcome.  But, he failed to realize how deep and wide that swamp was or how intrenched it was in every aspect of this world.  It soon appeared that draining the swamp would only succeed in killing the fish . 

This situation we are now in has been building for many years but what is different now is that facts no longer mattered.  We no longer care if what we know is true or false.  All we wanted is to be sure what we heard matched up with what we wanted to hear.  We wanted something that reinforced our position.  Anything else was just a lie. 

 We established our positions aligning with our favorite media source.  We became the  perfect AI units.  Artificial Intelligence you ask.  Yes, because we refuse to use our intellectual ability to question anything that challenged our belief’s.  that is about as artificially intelligent as anything can be.  We accept without question what we are told to think.  We behave the way they tell us to behave and unwittingly do the work of some greater being.  We each had a new god in our life. One we couldn’t see, one that we had not met but one that could get to us each day to make us comply.  One thing is for certain, the swamp needs this swamp drainer gone and they are still working today to accomplish that task.

Because of this new social order, we now saw families dissolving as each member held a different view and actually disliked even members of their family who held a different view. People stopped talking out of fear of reprisals.  This country went through a major change without recognizing that we had just reached the point where the half-life of information had reached zero and truth no longer was relevant to any conversation.

Authority is now questioned at all levels.  Facts are now replaced with fantasies.  We have become conditioned to take overly aggressive positions even to those we love the most.  We do this without thinking of the consequences or the losses we may incur because of our unwillingness to put out thoughts on pause.  We no longer work on the building of those relationships that were once so important. 

Both young individuals and adults are increasingly adopting online personas that are not their true selves. They find support from internet acquaintances who often have no genuine concern for their personal development or future. These virtual strangers, who have turned into so-called friends, possess the capacity to boost others egos and influence their decisions. This shift has allowed greed and the pursuit of power to fester within the online realm, often invisible and elusive until someone finds themselves ensnared. Once trapped in this web, escape becomes an arduous feat, leading to a sense of hopelessness.

In the Parents Guide, I made it clear that the problem could not be changed by trying to regulate the information superhighways.  Roadblocks to data would always have another road to the information they desire.  The changes had to come from a greater effort to make certain the individual – their children as well as others in their environment are properly equipped to deal with this new highway.  They need to obtain a license to drive.  I suggested that the license would consist of the following:

1. Critical Thinking Work with individuals to ensure that they have the critical thinking capability that allows them to analyze data and see the distortions. In later books, I wrote chapters on how to develop critical thinking skills within individuals. 
2. Discovering Who You Are Work with children to help them discover who it is that they are and how it is they wish to be in the future. Work must help to instill in them through the family,
   community, church, and others to provide a foundation for their life. 
3. Attitude Drives Everything  I developed the concept that success in a person’s life has its roots in the attitudes each person brings to the table.  The attitudes we carry in our life comes from years of conditioning.   These attitudes drive our behaviors.  Behaviors provide those results that drive our success in life.  Critically important is the person must have defined what success means to them that would come through the efforts in step two.  This will keep the person from adopting someone else’s definition of success. 
4. Build a Foundation We must help young people build a foundation in their life composed of their Purpose, The Principles they embrace, and the Pathways they need to be successful. The purpose becomes the cornerstone of their life where they carefully measure every opportunity against their life foundation.  Principles become the touchstones where they establish those important principles in their life that become promises to themselves and God that they NEVER break. And finally, they must set a pathway for their future by focusing on developing a series of visions for the future as well as the milestones, initiatives, and steps it takes to get reach each milestone.  Together these steps form a framework and direction for their life. 
5. Partners Many times, younger individuals and even those who are older look for partners and then form their life plans around them. That is wrong since what the other person believes and desires do not necessarily fit the Delight of their Own Heart.   Therefore, only after they have completed the steps above should they form partners in their life.  A child’s first partners must be found in their family, the close community, and their religious groups.  Once they have established these inside partners they can reach to the general world for more outside partners.  Most importantly now that they have critical thinking skills and an understanding of themselves, they can be on the internet with the personal power that comes from their identity and with no desire to form a new one that fits someone else’s model. 
6. Parent Development In this step and based on all that is above, parents must look to develop themselves in two areas. First, they must be responsible to develop systems that support what has been developed in steps one through five.  Parents should not assume that all will go well.  Governing systems within the family will lead to more effective outcomes for the child.  These governing systems must provide reasonable support for the younger person. They must also look at the development of the child based on what they have produced in the above steps.  That development must be in a written plan agreed to by the child and surrounded by those systems that measure results and progress. 
7. Continual Development There must also be a process that ensures the continual development of the child in the family environment. There are two factors that are often the most contributors to the loss of family.  Those two factors are Pride and Distraction! It is easy to let pride invade our thinking even in families.  I often told my children to remember that it takes two to have war and one to make peace.  To have the courage to put down your weapons of war you must be willing to release yourself from the pride that binds you to your position. The second is distractions. I mentioned before that with the advent of open access to any information, entertainment possibilities, and most importantly the ability to interact continually with others outside the home, we often lose the desire to be together.  Togetherness has now become being in the same room on a smartphone, texting a message. The only way to keep this distraction is to have those systems of rules such as no phones during dinner.  In our home, our family had to be at the table for dinner or have a good excuse so we could have exchange of daily activities.  That was one of those places where we could relate to each other.  Systems of life in the family are what keep us together.

Much of the content in the Parent’s Guide was crafted years ago when I foresaw an impending problem on the horizon. Unfortunately, this transformation has unfolded gradually, much like a frog placed in a pot of water with the heat slowly turned up, ultimately reaching a boiling point. This gradual shift has occurred with a lack of action over the years, leaving us at the precipice of this boiling point, struggling to respond reasonably to new information.

Now, it’s imperative for institutions such as religious groups to go beyond mere preaching and engage in teaching. Their role extends beyond delivering the Message; they must instill a fresh perspective on life that harks back to our fundamental identity and purpose.

We cannot alter the information system or reverse the impact of most social changes. During my time serving on the Governor’s cabinet in the 1980s, I consistently emphasized that the state’s role is not to regulate the moral compass of the people. This responsibility lies with the family, the community, and religious leaders. Over the years, the family structure has eroded, and religious communities have sometimes fallen short of their responsibilities, leading to government intervention. As history has shown, this experiment hasn’t yielded the desired results. It’s time to break this cycle and cease relying on the government to dictate our spiritual, moral, and ethical paths.

Churches Role

The solution lies in our churches taking a critical look at their practices, their responses to the challenges of the 21st Century, and a reevaluation of their rules. It’s essential for them to shift their focus towards the inherent spirituality that exists in all individuals. Collaboratively, they should explore new approaches to assist people in addressing the steps outlined above. This collective effort is the path to addressing this new societal crisis and returning to the values that have made our society a beacon for the world.

If we fail to recognize the urgency of our situation, we risk a bleak future. However, if we acknowledge that we must step out of our current predicament, there remains hope for the well-being of our children, grandchildren, and future generations. The choice is ours, provided we can rise above the conditioning that surrounds us every day. Instead of conforming to others’ expectations, it’s time to strive towards becoming the individuals we aspire to be.