Our Disintegrating Society

The latest assassination attempt on President Trump is shocking only in that it is no longer shocking. Every American should be alarmed at what happened at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner this past Saturday, yet what prevails instead is a “ho-hum” attitude, as if violence against our political leaders—especially against Trump or anyone associated with him—is almost expected at this point.

Yet perhaps our apathy towards violence shouldn’t be surprising, either. Our nation has allowed the murder of tens of millions of unborn babies over the past 50 years, and anyone who speaks out in alarm against that holocaust is relegated to the fringes of our society. As if that weren’t enough, our country has launched multiple wars on dubious grounds over the past few decades, with most citizens becoming immunized to the horrible deaths of hundreds of thousands in other countries. Modern man likes to consider himself more “evolved” than the supposed violent barbarians of the past, yet our society is far more violent and has a far higher body count than any previous generation.

It’s not just our apathy to violence that’s increased. It’s apathy toward reality as well. Our culture calls an immoral union between two men a “marriage” without blinking an eye. A man claiming to be a woman is met with a collective shrug of our shoulders. In the Catholic world, few show concern over the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass—the re-presentation of Calvary—being celebrated with irreverence, as long as it’s “valid.” What gets many upset is not the disrespect shown to our Lord, but those who cry out against that disrespect. 

This apathy has begun to consume our society, moving down the hierarchy of goods even to the most mundane of our affairs. At the risk of sounding like an old man yelling for everyone to get off his lawn, I want to share a few recent experiences that reflect our disintegrating society, experiences that are similar to what I’ve heard from others.

The first was when I took my children to the Opening Day parade in Cincinnati last month. For those unaware, the first day of the professional baseball season is an unofficial holiday in Cincinnati (we proudly claim baseball’s first professional team), so this parade is a big deal, with tens of thousands of people attending. As we walked to the parade route, we were behind another family when I noticed that the father was smoking weed while holding his young daughter’s hand. I began to realize that he wasn’t the only one. I hadn’t been to the parade since 2019, and I do not remember this phenomenon that year. Yet now it was commonplace and no one seemed to care.

My next two examples reflect the sad state of today’s customer service, which is also a symptom of the widespread apathy disintegrating our society. I’ve noticed—and I’ve heard from many others who’ve also noticed—that routine interactions with businesses have degraded substantially in the past decade. 

Last week I had to have a leaking tire checked at a local “super-store.” I arrived twenty minutes after the auto center of the store was scheduled to open, but found the lights off and the doors locked. I went to the main customer service desk in the front of the store, and they had to call to have the auto center open for the day. When I went back to the auto center desk, I was met by a man who seemed barely aware of his surroundings and unable to even hold a basic conversation with me. Without boring you with the rest of the story, the experience didn’t improve. No one even attempted to show the slightest care about whether I was served or not.

Similarly, recently my wife needed copies made at a local office supply store, and while her request was simple (literally just print three pages on cardstock paper), it took four days before it was ready, and when we arrived to pick it up, not only was it not ready, the order—or even the original document!—couldn’t even be found. We eventually had to abandon the whole attempt (I guess, contrary to all the signs surrounding us, that wasn’t “easy,” after all).

Examples of this kind of customer service apathy and incompetence have only been accelerating in recent years (particularly post-Covid), and I’m sure you could share plenty of your own stories.

I’m not claiming that poor customer service or even a father publicly smoking weed is as significant as abortion on demand or political assassination attempts or wars of choice. Nor do they rise to the level of gay “marriage” or trans rights or irreverent Masses. But I do think they are signs that our society is fraying at the edges and coming apart. A society is woven together with many threads, and when a thread is pulled out it can impact the whole tapestry.

It’s similar to the “broken window” theory suggesting that visible signs of disorder and misbehavior in an environment—like broken windows, graffiti, or abandoned cars—create an atmosphere that encourages further, more serious crime. Apathy in the smallest arenas of life leads to apathy in important matters.

Our Lord said that “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much” (Luke 16:10). We as a society are no longer faithful in the “very little” things that keep us together, like common courtesy and caring for others. If people can’t be bothered to help someone when they are literally paid to do it, why would we expect our fellow citizens to care about others as an unspoken societal obligation? 

Our society is clearly disintegrating, so what should be our response? Most of us can’t do anything to stop political assassination attempts, and other than protesting against abortion and unjust wars and other evils, we can’t stop those, either. But we can live lives that strengthen our society in small but real ways, by doing our jobs well, by being courteous and helpful to our neighbors, and by building strong families. If nothing else, these small acts of excellence and caring can be witnesses to the wider world that apathy is a societal cancer and should be resisted.

In many ways, my advice aligns with the “Benedict Option” posited by Rod Dreher years ago—advice that is often maligned (and misunderstood) by “activist” Catholics today. Yet, properly understood, following the path of St. Benedict is exactly what we need to do. The Benedict Option doesn’t mean we stick our heads in the sand, nor does it mean we leave society. Instead, we build alternatives to the larger apathetic society that surrounds us. We start businesses, we support alternative forms of education like homeschooling, and we produce beautiful art, music, and literature.

St. Benedict lived in a disintegrating society as well, and his response primarily entailed preserving all that was good, true, and beautiful for future generations. We can do that too in a multitude of ways, whether that be in excelling at our work or caring for our kids, resisting the apathy that surrounds us and that is unravelling our society one thread at a time.