Society at the Crossroads: Choosing the Right Road

Society at the Crossroads: Choosing the Right Road, Steven Cord, Aurora Press, 2002

In some ways, America has never had it so good. There is more prosperity, less discrimination and great scientific advances. But, America has to deal with involuntary poverty, crime, drug use, violence in the media and falling school standards. While these problems have surface causes, the fundamental cause is a radical change in attitudes, specifically ethical relativism. It asserts that what is right and wrong depends on the person and the day of the week, that ethics is little more than personal opinion.

According to the author, it cannot be proven valid, because it asserts that "no ethical standard" is an ethical standard. Also, any society which preaches that ethical standards are personal opinions has to expect social problems, since it imposes a weak restraint on people who disrupt society.

How to prove that everyone has a right to life, liberty and property (equal rights)? We should treat things as they are, as an end in itself. Since we have the right to be free to do what we should do, then we have the provable right to be free. Once that happens, we can prove everyone's equal rights to life and property. The author also shows how this can be used to change American society for the better (it starts with totally changing the tax structure, to tax land value instead of production).

Be prepared for a mental workout. The book is written for the layman; I would change that to "the layman with more than the usual amount of knowledge of ethics, and philosophy in general." It is very thought-provoking, and well worth reading.