Gresham's Cultural Law?

A while back I had a thought on Gresham's Law and looked at it in relation to the delinking of currency to precious metals. Today, I came across this rather interesting take on Gresham's Law "What's Wrong with Twinkling Buttocks?" by Theodore Dalrymple in the summer issue of City Journal.

I find it to be a very interesting argument. We know and have proven that Gresham's Law does in fact function in metal-based economic structures. And I have to admit that Mr. Dalrymple has put forth a pretty good argument for it holding true in cultural matters as well. But I don't think that it holds as true as the article might indicate.

The problem that I have is the basic premise that has to hold true in order for Gresham's Law to hold true in cultural matters: that man is incapable of recognizing problems and changing for the better.

To put it another way, Gresham's Law would indicate that bad behavior would gradually crowd good behavior out of existence, as the bad behavior becomes the generally accepted behavior. Or, our standards continually drop until society fails from a lack of social mores or constraints.

And all of the examples that Mr. Dalrymple expounds on (plus many many other examples he doesn't mention) all point to this type of decline happening. And I don't disagree that the dumbing down of morals is straining the very fabric of society.

But I think that we (meaning society) can recognize the decline and its roots. We can alter the course that we're on. Gresham's Law points to the decline being inevitable so long as there is bad behavior. I don't believe that that's true. I believe that there is enough goodness in the soul of society to avoid a complete collapse.

It won't be easy to change the moral course of society. Just because we wish it to be so, doesn't mean that it will happen. But we can make it happen, if we want to.

Mr. Dalrymple discusses at the end of his article using censure, since we can no longer censor. This has always needed to be the way of dealing with issues that strain the social fabric. More pressure of censure needs to be applied to those who are truly straining the social fabric with anti-social behaviors.

Making something illegal will not stop it from happening; it may in fact only succeed in promoting more lawlessness (Prohibition ring a bell here?). Societal censure won't stop it either, but it will make it much less attractive as an option.

Censure can help to reverse some of the decline that has taken place in society. Gresham's Law says that any attempt is doomed to failure, as bad behavior will eventually push out the good behaviors.

But I have more faith in the goodness in man's soul.