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Most people today are in a state of "betweenity,' " says Marquette University Sociologist Wayne Youngquist. "They are caught between the new morality and the old. As long as they're not asked to make a statement, they'll ignore what's been going on. But they don't want to legitimate it." Youngquist also feels that while people are freer about private morality, they are becoming more conservative about the public and commercial exploitation of sex. Says he: "It's not that we have no rules, we have new rules. Kiddie porn is not free speech, it's exploitation. When you can't move down the streets because of prostitutes, it looks like hell. Do your own thing, but don't violate my space. A society that can't draw the line opens the way for normative collapse."
Columbia University Sociologist Amitai Etzioni agrees that the weakening of traditional standards could have dangers. Says he: "No political society has ever survived without its nuclear family intact. We can't go on becoming more and more liberal. We can't go on becoming ever more tolerant and pulling the nuclear family apart."
It is hard to determine exactly how a society acquires or changes such attitudes about itself. The processes of legislature and law move slowly. One unmistakable new element on the scene, however, is President Jimmy Carter, whom 53% of the Yankelovich respondents regarded as providing "strong moral leadership" (13% found him "too righteous"). Carter's influence may take some personal twists, like urging Government employees "who are living in sin" to get married (four of his top aides have done so since his election). On the other hand, the President's personal views can have major political significance, as in his opposition to Government funding for elective abortions a view that has been widely denounced but is supported by a majority in the Yankelovich survey.
"Carter is not the final answer, but at least he gives us a glimpse of a direction," says Dean Francis B. Sayre Jr. of the Washington Cathedral (Episcopal) "In him we have a President of balance and of conscience, and that has an immediate effect." Peter Bourne, a psychiatrist who acts as White House special assistant for health issues, describes it as "a ripple effect." Says he: "When Carter talks about the positive aspects of marriage about developing welfare programs that reinforce the family . . . it makes people look at marriage differently." Sociologist Etziom agrees: "We don't have a king or a queen to invest our identity with, so the President's position on these issues is of enormous importance. It will be the largest single force in American society."