(3)
Recently a questionnaire was distributed to some undergraduates and that 40 percent refused to acknowledge that they believed that cheating on examinations to be reprehensible. And it was reported that five out of six people surveyed on the street said that they would to take part in a rigged television quiz for money. Yet more of these five, like most of the college cheaters, would probably profess a strong social consciousness. They may cheat, but they vote for foreign aid and for enlightened social measures.
The two examples exhibit a paradox of our age. It is often said, and my observation leads me to believe it true, that our seemingly great growth in social morality has oddly enough taken place in a world where private morality-a sense of the supreme importance of purely personal honor, honesty, and integrity-seems to be declining. Beneficent and benevolent social institutions are administered by men who all too frequently turn out to be accepting “gifts” The world of popular entertainment is rocked by scandals. College students put on their honor, cheat on examinations. Candidates for the Ph.D hire ghost writers to prepare their theses.
I’ve no way of making a historical measurement. Perhaps these things are not actually more prevalent. What I do know is that there is an increasing tendency to accept and take for granted such personal dishonesty. The bureaucrat and disk jockey say, “Well, yes, I took presents, but I assume you that I made just decisions anyway” The college student caught cheating does not even blush, he shrugs his shoulder and comments: “Everybody does it, and besides. I can’t see that it really hurts anybody.”
Jonathan Swift once said, “I have never been surprised to find men wicked, but I have often been surprised to find them not ashamed.” It is my conviction that though men may be no more wicked than they always have been, they seem less likely to be ashamed. If anybody does it, it must be right. Honest, moral, decent mean only what is usual. This is not really a wicked world, because morality means mores or manners and usual conduct is the only standard.
—Adapted from “The New Immorality” by Joseph Wood
What does the “gifts” (in Beneficent and benevolent social institutions are administered by men who all too frequently turn out to be accepting “gifts.”) refer to? What is the figure of speech employed here?
According to the author, what is the paradox of our age? Explain it in your own words.
The paradox of our age is that the social morality is increasing while the private morality is decreasing
How are the standard defenses and assumptions concerning the new immorality?
Taking presents has nothing to do with making decisions; cheating in the exam is common behavior and it doesn’t hurt anyone.
What is the writer really worried about the new immorality?
If everyone loses his morality and thinks it’s not shameful then the society will lose its standard.