Is the United States going the way of ancient Athens?
Margaret Thatcher once wrote, paraphrasing the legendary historian Edward Gibbon: “More than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything — security, comfort and freedom. This was because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them. The freedom they were seeking was freedom from responsibility. It is no wonder, then, that they ceased to be free.”
Consider the Aug. 6 ruling of New Mexico Judge Bryan Biedscheid finding Facebook and Instagram owner Meta a “public nuisance” in significantly contributing to a teenage mental health crisis. No teenager, however, is required to use Facebook or Instagram. Parents can punish wayward teenage children. From the beginning of time, the way to resist the irresistible is by resisting, not surrendering. Teenagers need to be taught accountability. It concentrates the mind wonderfully.
Judge Biedscheid was no aberration. In March, a New Mexico jury returned a $375 million verdict against Meta for violating state consumer protection laws by misleading users about platform safety and failing to protect children from predators.
On March 25, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury found Meta and Google-owned YouTube negligent in a landmark social media addiction trial. Jurors awarded $6 million in damages ($3 million compensatory and $3 million punitive) to a 20-year-old woman whose compulsive childhood use of Instagram and YouTube exacerbated her severe depression, anxiety and body dysmorphia.
Suppose a teenager visiting a zoo breaks into a lion’s cage and sticks his head into the beast’s mouth. The lion predictably decapitates the youngster. Should there be a lawsuit against the zoo’s owner for negligence?
In a case from the 2000s, Pelman v. McDonald’s Corporation, a group of New York City teenagers sued McDonald’s in federal district court for causing their obesity. The plaintiffs, Ashley Pelman, 14, and Jazlyn Bradley, 19, among others, insisted they were clueless that fast food was fattening and associated with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, among other ailments. One plaintiff, a 600-pound 15-year-old, acknowledged gorging at McDonald’s daily but was stunned by his rapidly expanding girth.
The Pelman suit was ultimately dismissed after a journey to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The fact that it was brought at all, however, speaks volumes about the decay in our cultural norms or expectations.
But maybe this is nothing new under the sun. Escaping from responsibility seems endemic to the species.
If the United States is to deserve the accolade of “exceptionalism,” we must do better. The fault lies not with AI or social media. The fault lies with us.
Bruce Fein was associate deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and is the author of “Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle For Our Constitution and Democracy.” His website is www.lawofficesofbrucefein.com and X feed is @brucefeinesq.
