Late at night, I hear the sound of vehicles racing on the highway a mile from where I live.  In the morning, I sometimes read reports of crashes, some of them fatal and some just blocks from the entrance to my community.  I grieve for these people, most of them young men, others innocent victims struck by those racing at 90 or 100 miles an hour or more, or in a recent case, two young men traveling 199 mph.

I remember a case from long ago of a car that left a narrow road near my home and stuck a large tree at speed.  All four young men in the car were killed instantly.  Every Sunday, as I jogged past that tree, I reflected on the lives so senselessly lost.

It’s not just cars, of course.  Today young men and women are more likely to die from drug overdoses, especially fentanyl, though tomorrow it may be some other trendy drug.  Though different from car racing, the underlying cause of death is the same: the heedlessness and overconfidence of youth within a society that in nearly every media venue glamorizes speed, drugs, and sex.

If only the young would recognize the dangers of life and their own limits — in other words, if only they would become conservative and wise beyond their years — then little of this would happen.  But of course, they do not, and in 2022, there were 105,452 deaths from drug overdoses and 42,795 deaths from car crashes.  Altogether, there were 218,064 “unintentional deaths,” so approximately 70,000 accidental non-auto deaths unrelated to drugs.  In addition, there were 49,449 suicides in 2022.

I suspect that most of those dying in these careless and destructive ways do not value their lives as they should.  The underlying cause is not just that the young are heedless — the young have always been so — but that they have become increasingly heedless, and dangerous to others, in recent years.  According to one credible source, there has been a surge in street racing in America since the beginning of the pandemic.  The same goes for drugs, gun violence, and suicide.

The Guardian believes that this is because the young have more time on their hands, but that does not explain the bad choices being made.  Increasingly, the young do not seem to respect the sanctity of life, perhaps because they have not been taught it.  Their lives are sacrificed because, unlike traditional religions, our culture itself does not believe in the sanctity of life and therefore does not teach it.  It’s not surprising that hundreds of thousands of young people should be sacrificed each year on the altar of cynical disbelief.

One can learn the sanctity of life in a conservative church, but just 36% of young adults in America attend church regularly, and less than one third of that 36% attend conservative churches.  In one survey, 66% of those who do attend church rarely hear anything said of the right to life.  Where else can one learn that life is inviolable?  Not in most films, music videos, television programs, or talk shows.  And not in newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post.

A good indication of any society’s values lies in where it spends its money.  According to BLS, average American household spending in 2022 was $63,036, with $39,590 of that going to housing, transportation, and food.  Of the remainder, most went to insurance, health care, and entertainment.  The average for charitable giving was only $2,514 per household, excluding high net worth families, which donated nearly ten times that amount.  More money was spend on entertainment than charitable giving, and among the young, that ratio was even more lopsided.

And the average American spent just $34.55, or 0.000548% of household spending, on physical and digital books.  This is not an indication of a very thoughtful society.

Just from these figures, one can begin to form an idea of the nature of modern society.  We are not a reflective, careful, disciplined population.  We spend on average only two hours a week being “physically active.”  And we spend more on one meal out than on books year-round.

Given the materialistic nature of our society and what is taught in public schools, it’s not surprising that a majority of teens and young adults grow up with little respect for the sanctity of life, with 74% of those under 30 supporting nearly unlimited abortion.  If one is willing to terminate the life of a nine-month-old child, one cannot have much respect for one’s own life.  Street racing at 199 mph might seem reasonable when one is willing to look the other way as one million abortions are committed each year in the USA alone.

But the sanctity of life is an ultimate, non-negotiable value.  Even those who sacrifice their own lives in a noble cause do so to protect others.  But if life is an ultimate, perhaps the ultimate value,  it is not regarded as such in our society.  Every life is precious, and every moment of every life is precious, but the present epidemic of risky behavior doesn’t reflect that.

One doesn’t need to go farther than Matthew 10:29 to find the traditional teaching.  “When birds are sold, two small birds cost only a penny.  But not even one of the little birds can die without your Father’s knowing it.”  It’s not just Judeo-Christian tradition, but all major religions that teach that life is inviolable.  “Nor take life which God has made sacred, except for a just cause” (Koran 17:33).  “The starting point for Buddhism is the value and sanctity of life.”  “To the Hindu people, all living beings are sacred because they are parts of God and should be treated with respect and compassion.  A great many Hindus are vegetarian because of this belief in the sanctity of life.” 

A devout believer in any of these religions cannot go about endangering his own life or those of others.  And a society that fails to teach the sanctity of life is not a civilized society worthy of respect.

And yet every weekend I hear the cars and motorcycles racing, especially when the wind blows from the South, as it did last night.

Jeffrey Folks is the author of many books and articles on American culture including Heartland of the Imagination (2011).

Image: Michael Theis via Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0.