Amongst the multitude of topics and views contained in this writing are the following;
"I proffer the thesis that, over the past generation, since the time Erikson wrote, the amount of deviant behavior in American society has increased beyond the levels the community can "afford to recognize" and that, accordingly, we have been re-defining deviancy so as to exempt much conduct previously stigmatized, and also quietly raising the "normal" level in categories where behavior is now abnormal by any earlier standard."
... and ...
[NY Times Excerpt]"Thirty years ago [1963], 1 in every 40 white children was born to an unmarried mother; today it is 1 in 5, according to Federal data. Among blacks, 2 of 3 children are born to an unmarried mother; 30 years ago the figure was 1 in 5."
... and ...
"From the wild Irish slums of the 19th century Eastern seaboard to the riot-torn suburbs of Los Angeles, there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: a community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future – that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, unrestrained lashing out at the whole social structure - that is not only to be expected; it is very near to inevitable.
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Well worth re-reading and to realize how far Moynihan's beloved Democrat Party has departed from his views expressed here!
Moynihan was not centrist at all, he was a proud leftie.
But he was a reasonably honest one, possibly the last reasonably honest one in the USA.
His Senate seat was defined down, that’s for sure. Defiled too.