Parents must also teach their children right from wrong. No child is born knowing right from wrong. Children have to be taught the difference, which means (in this context) accepting instruction as authoritative truth. And authoritative teaching requires authority.<\/p>\n
When parents abdicate their authority, they set their children adrift. Kids need firm guidance. When their parents don\u2019t provide it, they look to peers or social media or the Internet. What they find is Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Akon, Eminem, Nicki Minaj, Kim Kardashian, and Lady Gaga. It\u2019s a confusing m\u00c3\u00a9lange of sex, selfies, and the endless striving for popularity and attention. What really counts in that world is who\u2019s sexy and who has the most followers on Twitter and the best photos on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Legitimate authority establishes a stable moral universe for children. It provides an alternative to the popular culture that has become a culture of disrespect: disrespect for parents, for teachers, for one another. This culture of disrespect leads young people even to disrespect themselves: hence the growing propensity of American teens to post photos on social media of themselves in various states of \u00c2\u00adundress. This new norm\u201d\u201dthe \u00c2\u00adcasual obscenity of \u00c2\u00adsexting\u201d\u201dwould have been \u00c2\u00adunthinkable even twenty years ago. \u201c\u00c2\u00adEverybody does it\u201d\u009d is what kids tell me, with a shrug. \u201cIt\u2019s no big deal.\u201d\u009d Without clear adult \u00c2\u00adauthority to guide them, they live in an unstable moral universe in which everything is relative, in which self-worth is \u00c2\u00adcontingent on the opinions of same-age peers.<\/p>\n