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Show Volume II , Issue I Page 7 The OGDEN VALLEY NEWS October 1999 the creation of additional substitute social units – is the answer to many of our modern problems. This message, of course, is obvious. The family is the basic unit of society and must be strengthened. But the fact that this message is obvious has not prevented us from ignoring it. During the past 50 years, American and other societies have been much more preoccupied with the individual and the individual’s rights than with the basic social unit within which individuals survive and thrive. The consequences are now becoming apparent around the globe. Justice Georg Fr. Rieber-Mohn, a member of Norway’s Supreme Court, recently gave an address at the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies at Brigham Young University that traced the close connection between decline of the family and the decline of society. Because the Justice’s remarks vividly captured many of the root causes of modern social decline, I will quote from his remarks at some length. Justice Rieber-Mohn began his remarks by noting that, at the conclusion of World War II, Norway (along with other Scandinavian countries) set out to create the ultimate “bonum commune.” According to the Justice, Norway had a very good start. As he stated: If one looks back on Norway’s near postwar period the 1950’s - we had a homogeneous and stable society. The Labour Party had a clear majority in the Parliament, we had full employment, and a slowly rising prosperity in the wide stratum of the population. A modern welfare state with increasingly better social security was beginning to take form. * * * Criminality was under control, the police and the courts were soundly entrusted, mother was at home taking care of her children, and marriages usually lasted a lifetime through. By the conclusion of the 1950’s, the Justice recounts that poverty was virtually eradicated, medical care was extended to all, and education essentially became universal. Did Norway, therefore, enter Social Nirvana? Not according to Justice Rieber-Mohn: From around 1965 to around 1995 the criminality in Scandinavia is more than quintupled * * *. In this thirtyyear perspective, displacements have also appeared on the criminal front. Thefts and burglaries played an even more predominant role in the beginning of the period. Violence has later increased in dimension, even though thefts are still dominant. It is also my impression that within individual crime categories there has been a transition towards a steadily harder criminality. Violence is more brutal than previously. More often, it is unprovoked, affecting completely innocent and coincidental victims, and, increasingly with use of knives and firearms. * * * But it is not only the development of crime that agitates in this period. Also a series of other alarming tendencies increased, especially among young men. From 1970 to 1988 the frequency of suicides in Norway doubled. * * * And if we look at the divorce frequency, it is quadrupled from 1960 until 1990. * * * [Moreover,] thirty-nine percent of the children born in Norway in 1995 were from informal cohabitations. It is undoubtedly known that this type of relationship is less stable than ordinary marriages. Justice Rieber-Mohn, of course, describes Norwegian society, but parallels with the rest of the world are obvious. Indeed, the Justice himself noted that “this dismal development in Scandinavia is maybe just a pale shimmer of much worse signs in the development of the United States.” As a resident of the United States, I can affirm that Norway’s “pale shimmer” is indeed an intense reality in 1998 America. What explains the abrupt negative developments noted by Justice RieberMohn? The Justice suggests at least two possible answers. The first involves the failure of a social theory. The second, and more fundamental answer, however, involves the failure of a social institution. The first cause of modern difficulties, according to the Justice, is the basic failure of “the classic Marxist’s analysis and understanding of society that was so popular until just a few years ago.” According to the Justice, “[i]f one removes poverty, social differences, unemployment and social insecurity, one does not at the same time remove criminality, anguish, mental agony and malice among people.” Many at this conference would agree with the Justice, and I will not further explicate this point, which has been handled by several able presenters at this conference. The second cause for the decline of modern Norwegian society noted by Justice Rieber-Mohn involves the basic breakdown of the Norwegian family. It is a breakdown being repeated in far too many societies around the world today: There can be no doubt that the contact between parents, and especially between mother and child, has been substantially reduced in our society in the course of a thirty-year period. In short it has been expressed like this: “Mothers left the homes, and the fathers did not come home.” * * * [W]omen left the home in the course of few years. The time was right. I find it difficult to not see that many homes made a sacrifice for this. They sacrificed time - that is indisputable. But they also sacrificed nearness, security, love, and procurement of values from adults to children. The brunt of the breakdown of the modern family has been born by those least able to bear it: our children. As Justice Rieber-Mohn notes: Children were to a great extent entrusted more or less to improvised solutions before kindergarten-facilities gradually became better. But common for these solutions, also kindergartens, is that parents transfer the responsibility for major parts of a child’s upbringing to a larger extent to people whose values and function as models they know very little about. Most people in Norway will be very unwilling to loan their new car to a relatively unknown person, at least over any length of time. But one loans ones children to strangers for month after month and year after year, already from their second year of life. One is anxious for damages on the car, but one closes ones eyes to possible unfortunate influence on children - unless it concerns something as drastic as violence from a childminder or sexual abuse in a kindergarten. What, if anything, can be done to halt the trends noted by Justice Rieber- Mohn? A definitive answer is well beyond the ken of this simple law professor from Utah. Nevertheless, I offer a few initial suggestions. First of all, the family must become a central part of our social discourse. A valiant, world-wide struggle for individual rights over the past 50 years has led many to assume (or at least presume) that autonomy is the fullest reality anyone can hope to achieve. But our collective faith in this modern chimera ignores the homely reality that, as the poet said, “no man is an island.” FAMILY cont. on Page 18 3 6 7 5 Ri ve rrda da le Rd. Riv 3 9 4 -2 6 4 7 WE’RE M OV I N G T O: OCT. 1 ST 1893 N. W ASHINGT ON BL VD ASHINGTON BLVD VD.. NOR TH OGDEN , UT NORTH New Phone 737-4781 HOME OF THE EXPRESS LANE SERVICE $10OFF $5OFF $20OFF ALIGNMENT OIL CHANGE Most Cars, Trucks Extra. Not valid with any other special. 1893 N. Washington Blvd. North Ogden store Only. Expires11/15/99. Most Cars, Trucks Extra. Not valid with any other special. 1893 N. Washington Blvd. North Ogden store Only. Expires 11/15/99. COMPLETE BRAKE SERVICE Most vehicles. Not valid with any other special. 1893 N. Washington Blvd. North Ogden store Only.Expires 11/15/99. 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