Corey Feldman

Switching from media power to political power, we must learn to be as suspicious of our government as we have become of our clergymen. For starters, urge your Congresscreatures to raise the age of consent in DC to 18 as proof of their commitment to moral rectitude. Should this result in multiple arrests of lawmakers, fear not—plenty more where they came from. The House of Representatives Page Program has thankfully been shut down; urge the Senate and White House to follow suit.

If we are involved in any pursuit oriented toward young people, it is not enough to simply increase our vigilance over the teachers, coaches, Scoutmasters, or priests in charge of them. We must rededicate ourselves to the ultimate goals for which these programs exist—be they academic, sporting, character-building, or religious. All of our institutions have drifted over the past decades from their original purposes, in part because those wielding power are constantly attacking or undermining those purposes. But sportsmanship, learning, and the Scout law are very good things—traditions that corruption by those entrusted with passing them on should not be allowed to obscure.

Mixing our basically Calvinist national psyche with the sexual revolution has created a culture at once amoral and moralistic. Not only do we tolerate our leadership’s moral failings to a degree unheard-of in years past, we either passively accept or actively endorse what they consider moral crusades, be they against smoking, fur, or p”té. Given that it’s the holiday season, the studious avoidance of the word “Christmas” by so many in power is particularly galling.

We need to rededicate ourselves to common decency and try to obliterate within us the double standard—the tendency to ignore ill-doing on the part of those we respect—that is so much a part of our humanity. But let us also oppose evil with positive good. That way, we will have some grounds on which to complain.