I point out that New York City's Hall of Fame for Great Americans attracts only a few thousand visitors each year, while Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame draws over one million. The hero of High Noon, Will Kane, is a U.S. Marshal. The hero of Unforgiven, Will Munny, is a reformed killer and alcoholic reduced to pig farming. I offer some reasons for the disappearance of public heroes. Athletes have given up on being team players and role models.
Popular culture is often irreverent, sometimes deviant.
Revisionist historians present an unforgiving skewed picture of the past. Biographers are increasingly hostile toward their subjects. Social scientists stridently assert that human beings are not autonomous but are conditioned aby genes and environment. Nothing to Admire Radio, television, and computers offer news wich such speed that newspaper and magazine circulation has plummeted, and readers have smaller vocabularies. I recently wrote an op-ed piece syndicated in several newspapers.