The cover of today’s am New York newspaper caught my eye. It said, “Washing their words, Rap mogul Russell Simmons to artists: Clean up your lyrics.” Like other people, I have an opinion on that topic. Hip Hop and rap have come a long way since its origins in the 80’s when Run DMC, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Mele Mel, the Sugar Hill Gang, the movie Beat Street and others had a more positive message. Now days rap lyrics can be explicit, full of the words “bitches and hoes” and the images of women used for promotional purposes can be degrading. It seems as if everyone is taking their clothes off and using sex as a sales tool these days. The images of drugs, guns, money, and bling can be starteling but so are other genres of music. It is now acceptable and commonplace for musicians to use violent images and references to violence to promote their music. What has happened to the language of respect? The terms, killer, murder, slayer, fight, punch, slap, kick etc; are often used by musicians and advertisers market and promote this content on their television programming to program, websites, print and media campaigns only adding to the phenomenon. This current debate about rap lyrics getting bad is only a small part of the bigger picture of the collapse of morality in society as a whole. Everywhere, the standards of social behavior are declining. Is there a worldwide moral breakdown? In the past blatant immorality and decadence has been pointed to as a contributing factor in the fall of civilizations, such as the Roman Empire. Are parents neglect a part of this western debauchery? And are the Churches contributing to this moral decline? Before in society we had a sense of right and wrong. Now we can do whatever we want. Pornography has planted itself firmly in the mainstream. Material that was once considered safe for an 18 plus audience is now often essential family viewing. Clearly, over the past few decades, morals have deteriorated and declined rapidly in many places worldwide. Where is this social decline pattern coming from? Are the slaughters of wars debasing the value of human life? If politicians and generals can treat millions under their care like animals dispatched to the slaughter, then what canons of religion or ethics can inhibit men from treating each other with the ferocity of jungle beasts. Where can one turn? Where is is world headed? And what does this have to do with a No Police State?
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