Cheating, lying, conning, swindling, finagling, etc.—It’s all startlingly commonplace in today’s society.

People know devious actions they commit are immoral, yet illegal and illicit transgressions are still committed by seemingly normal law abiding citizens time and time again.

Whether it’s stealing, driving under the influence, beating up a bum or ingesting copious amounts of illegal drugs, people are breaking the law with frequency and ease.

It’s no doubt there have always been scallywags, deprecating all over the moral fabric of society, but I’m starting to notice that an astonishing amount of orderly people commit crimes without thinking twice.

Why is it that while I sense the majority of humans are good natured people, who try to treat others the way they would like to be treated, almost everyone possesses the uncanny ability to flippantly ignore mandated laws and act as contemptuous as possible?

It’s a complicated question and one that holds no clear answer.

In my search to discover the root of evil and place blame on whoever, or whatever, is responsible for the endless moral degradation that exists in today’s culture, I’ve found many guilty suspects.

For starters, when individuals subject themselves to countless hours of watching on-screen criminal activity, it can have a reverberating effect on the viewers’ conscious.

Go figure that respected and revered cinematic directors like Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott are glorifying criminals that should otherwise be seen with disdain and disrespect.

Instead of portraying crooks like indigents that can’t properly exist in today’s complicated bureaucratic society, these directors glam-up criminals and show them in a favorable light, making impressionable viewers eager to impersonate and act like villains.

Jeff Cookston, assistant psychology professor at SF State says he believes that individuals can be swayed and affected by what they decide to watch.

An observer’s moral reasoning is questioned when they watch different television shows and movies, he said. If someone sees constant criminal activity, they might be apt to break the law.

It’s no doubt then that individuals who enjoy watching violent films might start acting like their favorite on-screen characters.

Scott’s 2007 film “American Gangster” (an unoriginal picture well suited for Denzel Washington’s predictable overacting) looked at heroin and crime peddler Frank Lucas during the seedy climate of New York in the 1970s.

While the film served as entertainment for the masses, it failed to truly look at the story’s central character with a critical lens. Throughout the movie, viewers were rarely meant to feel that what Lucas did was wrong.

Inspired by the film, and Lucas’ crimes, hip-hop mogul Jay-Z created an entire album of music that was derived from actions in the movie.

Some of the lyrics on the album center around murder and drug dealing, crimes Lucas allegedly committed while serving as drug kingpin of Harlem.

Some could argue that it isn’t safe for individuals, especially youngsters, to intake melodic content that is crime centric.

Committees, like Tipper Gore’s Parent’s Music Resource Center, have been formed in an attempt ban or inhibit the use of lewd and unseemly lyrics in music.

Censoring music is ridiculous, though. Musicians are notorious for talking about their lifestyle, whether it’s law abiding or not. Having a group trying to inhibit free speech is unconstitutional.

The criminal activity in today’s music lyrics might just seem more gratuitous and lewd compared to old standards.

I suppose nothing’s really changed. Fifty years ago, Johnny Cash sang about shooting’ “a man in Reno just to watch him die.” Now we have rappers talking about keeping strapped with a gat and killing rivals.
Regardless of the amount of pop culture that individuals intake, shouldn’t people possess some sort of moral compass that directs them towards fair and just decision making?

Apparently not.

Predominant religions that stress an allegiance to a higher power, forcing practitioners to subside by a certain codes of ethics, have been struggling to find a populace in this day and age.

In “The Decline of Organized Religion in Western Civilization,” Bob Altemeyer discusses at length how religion has been falling out of favor among many European and American countries.

Altemeyer says that because many individuals are not reared in a religious environment they tend to abandon religion, spiritually, and a set of ingrained ethics their entire lives.

Is this to say that people should join established tabernacles so they can claim some sort of moral balance? Hell no!

But individuals should feel some sort of responsibility to hold themselves accountable for their actions, myself included.

As a society, there is really nothing we can do to offset the stampede of rule-breaking tendencies that many of us hold on to.

I wish I could say that everyone could take it upon themselves to be forthright and steadfast in their ability to abide by the law. But that would sound naïve and presumptuous.

I can only say that we now have dwell in this calamitous environment that we’ve created for ourselves.

We are a doomed society. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change.