The Age of Cheating: To What End?

Donald McCabe has conducted massive surveys of college and high school students to determine the scope of cheating for almost two decades. A former businessman who now teaches business at Rutgers University, McCabe has surveyed 165,000 students at 160 colleges and universities, 18,000 faculty at 110 institutions, and 35,000 students at high schools.

The results are staggering. Almost all students admit some form of cheating. Even worse, most of them find easy rationalizations for cheating. _Cheating2.0

Where do children and youth learn to behave ethically in today's society? They don't. By the time a youth attends high school or college, they are assumed to have been taught basic rules of honesty and self-responsibility. But that assumption is wrong. Whatever ethical codes today's youth may learn, they learned from their peers and from a ghoulish popular culture and media.

The old ways of learning ethics -- classic fables, allegories, myths and archetypes -- have largely gone the way of the dinosaur. Modern ethical rules are learned from song lyrics, teen flicks, and social networking. No wonder everyone cheats. No wonder shoplifting has become so popular. No wonder dishonesty is becoming the basis for most political, academic, and journalistic careers.

Perhaps the growth of cheating suggests an even more intractable problem, mirroring a larger breakdown in social order. When the community does not make an active effort to maintain order, more people are emboldened to violate rules. (ibid)

The mirror reflects both ways. A positive feedback system of behaviour. No rules leads to disorder which leads to even less teaching of rules, etc. In a multi-traditional society, where the old order has collapsed and a new order has not taken its place, the lack of an "organising principal" opens the door to chaos and accelerating centripetal force.

Dumbest Generation Also the Most Dishonest?

According to a nationwide survey of over 29,000 high school students, the current generation of late teens and early adults may add another superlative -- most dishonest -- to its previously awarded title of "dumbest." Shoplifting is very popular with this age group, as is lying and cheating.

Other findings from the survey:
# Cheating in school is rampant and getting worse. Sixty-four percent of students cheated on a test in the past year and 38 percent did so two or more times, up from 60 percent and 35 percent in a 2006 survey.
# Thirty-six percent said they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment, up from 33 percent in 2004.
# Forty-two percent said they sometimes lie to save money — 49 percent of the boys and 36 percent of the girls.

Despite such responses, 93 percent of the students said they were satisfied with their personal ethics and character, and 77 percent affirmed that "when it comes to doing what is right, I am better than most people I know."

..."What we need to learn from these survey results is that our moral infrastructure is unsound and in serious need of repair. This is not a time to lament and whine but to take thoughtful, positive actions." _Source

What we are likely to see, is a great deal of excuse-making instead. It is not surprising to see a rise in unethical behaviour among younger people, given the lack of any substantial ethical teaching from either the homes or the schools. Certainly the influence of religion has diminished significantly over the years, and can only continue to diminish with time.

We are living in a time between the ethical reign of religion, and the reign of anything credible enough ethically to take religion's place. Naturally, a huge gaping hole exists in children who have never learned ethics or morality. It does not happen by itself.

In the meantime, generations without ethics are likely to elect more "messiahs of the teleprompter" such as the narcissist-elect. Blank screens upon which dumb and ethically challenged young academically lobotomised humans can project their own poorly formed fantasies and dreams. This generation is also academically weak, shying away from difficult but vital professions such as engineering and math-intensive sciences--hoping for the "quick score" instead. Many of these impatient whiz kids no doubt found their way into the financial sector, and assisted in the downfall of financial markets recently.

Large numbers of this generation will find themselves dependent upon something or someone, to bail them out of problems they will continually find themselves causing. They will give lawyers a lot of business.