Corrupt Since Birth

America began as an immoral country and has not developed more quality values to this day. The realization of this lack of growth is what will provoke the nation to engage in moving toward better core principles. A faulty beginning primed America to become a nation that functions toxically on both large and small scales. This toxicity has affected not just the country, but the individuals’ outlooks born within it. The cost of this is America’s inwardly detrimental social system. Poor morals can be recognized in more than just the common man, but also the public and political figures of the country. Likewise, distorted ideas of success defiled the fundamentals of the American population during Puritan times and have continued to haunt every generation after it. America built toxicity into the way society functions. The origination of these toxic fundamentals are represented through the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and the novel, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both pinpoint the flawed moral compasses of their variety of intriguing characters, some proving to be shockingly unethical through the conflicts that arise as the story moves forwards. However, unethical behavior is not only recognized in America’s past but also in the nation’s current politics. An article titled Kavanaugh is lying. His upbringing explains why. by Shamus Khan highlights the twisted ethics of an infamous political character causing an intense debate in the nation’s present news. Corrupt morals can be determined by observing the motives of peoples’ unethical behaviors. This is because the purpose behind an action is the deciding factor of whether an act is virtuous or unprincipled. Equally as important as the motivation behind the action is how one deciphers between right and wrong. The use of this comprehension for the greater benefit is seldom seen. The lasting effects of the original unconscionable thought process can be seen in how Americans treat one another in modern society. Americans are generally unforgiving of natural human behavior, even if it is in a positive and affectionate way; an article titled Still Puritan After All These Years by Matthew Hutson investigates a psychological study focusing on this common insensitivity. Unadmirable behavioral habits developed during the Puritan times; these habits have yet to cease. Immorality is clearly depicted through corrupt motives and a distorted view of good versus bad; this societal red flag can be observed since its origin during Puritan times and has maliciously persisted until present-day America.

The mental focus in today’s society revolves around personal reputation and a false idea of success due to the prioritization of shallow concepts since America was formed. A Washington Post article titled “Kavanaugh is lying. His upbringing explains why.” by Shamus Khan articulates why a popular figure in America’s politics is strikingly unethical and the reasoning behind it,

How could a man who appears to value honor and the integrity of the legal system explain this apparent mendacity? How could a man brought up in some of our nation’s most storied institutions — Georgetown Prep, Yale College, Yale Law School — dissemble with such ease? The answer lies in the privilege such institutions instill in their members, a privilege that suggests the rules that govern American society are for the common man, not the exceptional one… No wonder that, when the poor lie, they’re more likely to do so to help others, according to research by Derek D. Rucker, Adam D. Galinsky and David Dubois, whereas when the rich lie, they’re more likely to do it to help themselves (Khan).

Despite having the privilege of attending some of America’s prestigious educational facilities alongside other perks of being white and wealthy, Kavanaugh never developed into a morally correct man. The controversial discussion regarding whether or not Kavanaugh is lying punctuates signs of his flawed intellect.  This “upbringing” in the title of the article not only implies the upbringing of a privileged man but also the upbringing of the United States itself. In this nation, there is a clear prioritization of the wealthy, disregarding the majority of America’s population: the common person who lacks privilege and is typically poor. The epitome of this predicament are the political figures that are not involved for the U.S. government and the health of society but more so their own pride. Morality comes down to right and wrong. To succeed as a powerful figure in the name of your own pride defeats the purpose of this power at all. Kavanaugh and other controversial and ostensibly unethical political figures are not why America is morally corrupt, they are the result of a flawed society that has been corrupted for centuries. Since the beginning of time, people have struggled to succeed in a society that values reputation so heavily. Due to this heavy weight on reputation, people began to become extremely private. However, doing bad things to create an outwardly moral and just appearance has existed since America’s origin. Kavanaugh’s attempted deception is a perfect example of lying to create a superficial perfect outward appearance to the public for personal gain. The author asks the same question that every person involved in this political controversy is asking: Why is he lying? The answer is simply for success. The success that the American dream depicts is one with money, power, and a good reputation. He is lying for his own selfish success because America was built as a society where a good reputation with a powerful foundation is vital for success. This good reputation has always been forceful motivation in America, but for a political figure, the audience has grown to be that much more important. The more powerful and toxic this shallow motivation becomes, the less moral the action.

No action can be truly morally correct if the motivation for it is defective. Distorted motives have been a flaw in the people of Puritan society and unfortunately in modern American society as well. The importance of the motivation behind any action, sinful or pure, is clearly depicted in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne which is a novel set in Puritan times and developed in response to the strict Puritan ideals: “But this had been a sin of passion, not of principle, nor even purpose” (196). Sinning as a response to passion or falling under pressure holds a dirtier value than an act committed with logical reasoning behind it. Hester, the main character in The Scarlet Letter, cheats on her husband with a man she falls deeply in love with named Dimmesdale. When she committed adultery, it provided benefit for no one but herself. This solely personal reward at the cost of someone else’s happiness is what made her sin so harsh. For a modern example, the current American government treats murder differently based on the situation, more specifically, the motivation. To kill to protect yourself or another, or to kill for the nation’s pride in a war is seen differently than to kill for money or malicious urge, which is treated as outrageously cruel. In the eyes of America’s government, the motivation is what holds the weight of the action. Motivation is the true decider in a righteous action versus a sinful one. America’s government has judged people upon the purpose of their actions over the action itself since Puritan times. Additionally, the reason Americans sin has stayed just as selfish and immoral as well. People are constantly searching for a reward for their generous acts which is an immoral and unjust mindset. However, this natural greed for personal pleasure will never cease to exist.  Aiming for an outcome including compensation has stained the moral compasses of Americans and established damaging customs in the way people treat each other.

Social aspects of America have been greatly altered in the individual actions between one another due to the reality of human flaw; the reason that America has not become more moral since Puritan times lies in the ignorance of natural human imperfection. In a play titled The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor admits to his natural human behavior of sinning and the way the knowledge gained from that experience affected how he treats other people in society: “I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it” (141). To understand that mistakes are a natural part of being human is what makes this quote so important. Many people in The Crucible, a play representing people of Puritan times, are extremely cruel and not understanding of one another. To this day, understanding others’ mistakes and imperfections still prove to be a great challenge in the way people react to these inevitable occurrences. For example, in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, adultery caused Hester embarrassment for the rest of her life when in today’s society it is simply frowned upon, but that is still not the level of sympathy that should be mutually felt in everyday society. Aside from what is seen in the public reaction of these mistakes, national morality is still horribly corrupt because the judgment is still unforgiving and apparent. The methods have changed, but the morals behind it have not. For example, the use of technology to learn potentially false information while avoiding confrontation has trapped America in a state of immoral ignorance due to lacking the benefits of true understanding through debate. John Proctor from the play, The Crucible, proves this ignorance to be an issue as it highlights the importance of acknowledging imperfection. This realization becomes a pivotal event in the novel because it deserves to be common knowledge. Unfortunately, this complex concept is still uncommon wisdom as the common public still struggles to act with this idea in mind. This is essential knowledge to achieve mutual understanding. America’s lack of acceptance concerning human flaws has set society up for an inability to gain pure moral perception; this shortcoming persists in political and mundane social aspects of civilization.

The Puritan history that the United States was built upon has been negatively affecting how American society treats natural human behavior in its past, present, and even its future. Matthew Hutson depicts the last effects of society during Puritan times that are still prevalent in America today in an article called Still Puritan After All These Years,

Whatever these Americans explicitly believed (or didn’t believe) about God, something like Puritan values seemed to be guiding their moral judgments. Protestant attitudes about work may also influence how Americans treat their co-workers. Calvin argued that socializing while on the job was a distraction from the assignment God gave you. The psychologist Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks has found that Protestants — but not Catholics — become less sensitive to others’ emotions when reminded of work, possibly indicating a tendency to judge fraternizing as unproductive and unprofessional. He and collaborators have also found that Americans have a culturally specific tendency to view family photos and other personal items as unprofessional presences in the office (Hutson).

America is overwhelmingly unforgiving when it comes to others’ personal expressions. Since the beginning of America’s existence, people have been turning a blind eye to the reality of human behavior.  People judge one another for basic human behavior. Not just any human behavior, but affectionate, positive, and natural human behavior. This insensitivity originated in a disregard for the private aspects of life back in the colonial era. During Puritan times, private things were exactly that, private. Nowadays, a lack of openness is still seen through judgements of things undeserving of it. Seen in more than just mere traces, this can be observed in all aspects of American society, from the government as a whole to a social life at work. How did Americans become so unaware of the functioning of their own human behavior?Ignorance and selfishness originating from the birth of America created the lack of righteous motivation, inevitably distorting American society’s view of right and wrong permanently. America started off ignorant and never grew to change. The most basic morals should be obvious due to the way humans naturally behave, but America was set up for failure due to social habits developed early in Puritan times that disregarded this fact. America has remained with corrupt morals since then and it has been harmfully affecting the moral maturity of the United States from a governmental scale down to the individual perspective of each other and the rest of the world. The everlasting and consistent poor morals of American society can be traced back to the ignorance that began to develop as a cultural habit during its infancy and lack of growth moving forward.