Bad influence

 As a father, I probably am not alone in being aghast at the conduct of former American television teen star Miley Cyrus and the great disappointment and confusion she has caused the millions of young girls all over the globe, including my own, who religiously followed her as Hannah Montana.

Good if her tv shows are shown only in America as American kids have been raised in a culture that is more suited to sudden changes in character and the social environment. But her shows are seen in Asia as well, where the culture is more conservative and family values remain strong.

From the sweet if bubbly Hannah Montana character that had millions of young girls tuned to their tv sets, and spent millions of dollars worth of Hannah Montana merchandise that kept her franchise well entrenched for some time, Miley Cyrus has spun out of control and has come out exactly like her song "Wrecking Ball."

I cannot forgive the big unsettlement she has given these millions of girls who idolized her as Hannah Montana, including my own, and I keep wondering why her own dad, one-hit-wonder singer Billy Ray Cyrus has not been able to rein in his wayward daughter.

Good if Miley Cyrus can be isolated from peddling her now-pernicious influence over young girls. But there is no keeping these things from being viewed by any device. Her ghastly antics are everywhere, thanks to technology, and a media that thrives on anything that sells, including bad influence.

Miley Cyrus has morphed from being an angel into an ogre, and the sad thing about it is that she is making tons of money with her antics. The democracy and freedom of expression that gives her license to tear at the very core of good taste is driving the nail at what redemptive value remains in childhood innocence.

Miley Cyrus has plainly and simply become a bad influence on impressionable young girls who still have full lives ahead of them. She is even worse than Justin Bieber, who at least spent no time playing sweet and desirable characters of inspiration to many.

Bieber just burst into the scene one day, unlike Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana who spent years keeping children away from modern evils such as illegal drugs. Hannah Montana was a constant companion of girls in school -- her face on their bags, notebooks and book covers, and in the apparel they wore.

Hannah Montana made it possible for young girls to think that life can remain cute and beautiful and fun even without the bad habits of the generations older than they were. All these girls passed through girlhood safe and in line, thanks to Hannah Montana.

Then all of a sudden, all that changed. Suddenly there was Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana (to the girls who grew up on the tv show, they were interchangeable) doing everything a father would not want her daughter to do. She was twerking and getting naked and showing her "kigol and bugan" to everyone.

What was she doing? What was she trying to prove? What was she telling her legions of fans -- that it was perfectly all right to transmogrify from being a sweet girl to someone who acts like a slut? What happened to her? What went wrong in her family?

We will probably never know the answer to the great personal and public transformation of Miley Cyrus. But I can surmise that it has something to do with the great confusion that has descended upon America with regard to its earth-shaking social choices.

 All of a sudden, the great model society cannot propose a single model worth emulating. There is now in America a great free-for-all. It is anything goes there now. No wonder American influence is waning everywhere. America has simply lost all that is good.

 And what is that good? It is that which is good everywhere -- children. America has lost the grip on its children. They are taught they have the freedom and are within their rights to have and do anything. And so they have and do anything, from marrying a tree to shooting up a school.