Pat Moynihan in Slouching Towards Gomorrah, by Robert Bork

On Principles & Values: Defining deviancy down: once-reprehensible conduct now ok

So unrelenting is the assault on our sensibilities that many of us grow numb, finding resignation to be the rational, adaptive response to an environment that is increasingly polluted and apparently beyond our control. This is what Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan calls "defining deviancy down." Moynihan cites the "Durkheim constant." Emile Durkheim, a founder of sociology, posited that there is a limit to the amount of deviant behavior any community can "afford to recognize." As behavior worsens, the community adjusts to its standards so that conduct once thought reprehensible is no longer deemed so. As behavior improves, the deviancy boundary moves up to encompass conduct previously thought normal. Thus, a community of saints and a community of felons would display very different behavior but about the same amount of recognized deviancy. Source: Slouching Towards Gomorrah, by Robert Bork, p. 3 Dec 16, 2003

The above quotations are from Slouching Towards Gomorrah Modern Liberalism and American Decline by Robert Bork. Click here for other excerpts from Slouching Towards Gomorrah Modern Liberalism and American Decline by Robert Bork. Click here for other excerpts by Pat Moynihan. Click here for a profile of Pat Moynihan.
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