Morality for sale

A man is sitting in a bar next to a beautiful woman. He asks "Would you sleep with me for $10 million?"\nThe woman says, "Of course."\nHe then asks her, "Would you sleep with me for a dollar?"\nThe woman snaps angrily, "NO! What kind of woman do you think I am?"\nThe man replies, "We've established what kind of woman you are -- now we're just negotiating a price."\nI don't know whom to give credit to for that joke, but I think it is telling of today's society -- equally to both men and women. \nLast semester, one of my professors asked the students if they would be dishonest or enter into a job/career which compromised their principles for financial benefit. Although one can assume some people just don't raise their hands for anything, there were very few people who showed their convictions to say "no" to such a proposition. \nHave we become so jaded and profit-driven that we are willing to whore our souls to the almighty dollar? Or, have we become so lazy and distracted that our opinions and morals are not worth standing up for? \nMy professor implied that the idealism which once typified American youth has been eroded -- perhaps by greed and self-serving interests. I contend that what is even more troubling is the evident lack of respect and concern among Americans -- the younger generations specifically.\n"Reality" shows, which showcase the inane and the absurd, have become the trend in modern entertainment. Watching (and thereby encouraging) fellow citizens debase themselves for money or fame is just one of the more disgusting examples of the shameful behavior prevalent today. Those who watch these programs are at once as guilty as the creators of this trash and as exploited as the shows' participants. \nBut the masses should rest assured: filthy rich television and advertising executives thank you for your passive participation in the debauchery of America. \nWhy is this so bad?\nA simple answer: people entirely rapt in the mental junkfood of today's technology and media are much more easily manipulated. \nThe priorities of individuals have eroded to the point of mindlessness. The television popular today is akin to the gladiatorial contests of Rome - all the decadence minus the bloody deaths. The Romans used the "games" to distract the people with the basest form of entertainment - much like today.\nVideo games, ordered button-pushing (often WITH the bloody deaths), boil down to little more than applying Pavlov's theory to humans. This self-indulgent entertainment leaves little room for any significant progress as a human being because it places individuals' focus on worlds of fantasy.\nJust as disturbing, social interaction (i.e., talking to other people face to face) has been replaced by text messaging and on-the-go cellular phone conversations. Although mass and personal communication may be at historical highs, the lack of intimate personal contact cannot help but lessen the understanding of the human condition by making people nothing more than words on a screen or a faceless voice on a phone. \nIf you look around campus today, you will see more people talking into their hands than trying to really interact with someone else. Such disconnection with other people and reality allows us to be whores of the marketplace. \nLosing that personal intimacy with other people removes the sense of community and thereby the responsibility to each other in our society. Selling our values -- the rules by which we govern ourselves to protect us from each other's avarice and vice - does not seem quite as bad if we do not see the consequences of our actions on other people, but only a change in numerical profits or names on a page.