A Look article raised the question, “Can we still be shocked?” The author, William K. Zinsser, pointed out that gusts of outrage swept this country when the movie Gone with the Wind came out in 1939 and Clark Gable spoke his final line: “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” To use such language in a movie in those days was considered morally objectionable and sinful. Now, however, such language is commonplace and goes almost unnoticed.
How times have changed! Today strong language, nudity, sex, and violence are taken for granted. Perhaps all of us need to wake up to the fact that our tolerance level has eroded without our even realizing it.
Can we still be shocked? The inability to be ashamed or to blush is a sign of national decadence. The prophet of old described God’s people at their lowest moral ebb when he said, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush” (Jeremiah 8:12). Nothing is worse than when sin becomes bold, arrogant, and unashamed.
We Americans are as shockproof as the watches we wear. We are too easy on evil. We’ve taken this matter of tolerance too far. With people we need to be tolerant, but with sin, evil, and wrong we need to be intolerant. In short we need to hate things, but not people.
What can you do about the evils of racism, slums, lawlessness, violence, nudity, and profanity? For one thing, you can stop being so tolerant. You can get some spiritual antibiotics for your moral laryngitis and yell a little bit. By letter, by vote, by voicing your opinion, you can take your stand on the side of decency and good.
It doesn’t take many people to change the world. Just a few people with courage and convictions can do it. Remember this: the man who stands neutral stands for nothing.