(RNS) So who is the most clueless?

The hedge fund manager who paid himself $8 billion last year for managing wealth that other people created, thereby affirming a culture of greed that has diverted young talent into careers managing money, rather than making the world better?

The bigoted Florida pastor who burned a Quran and then professed shock — shock! — at hostile reaction from Muslims in Afghanistan? His pathetic 15 minutes of fame led to murder and attacks on United Nations peacekeepers.

Or perhaps Rutgers University, which paid a minor TV talent named Snooki $32,000 for an appearance that encouraged students to “study hard, but party harder,” while paying Nobel laureate Toni Morrison $2,000 less to send graduates off into the world with words of actual wisdom?

There’s also the right-wing zealots in Wisconsin and Michigan who undermine world-class universities by attacking professors suspected of exercising free speech.

And don’t forget the Kansas legislator who wants to shoot immigrants “like pigs.”

It can be hard to choose — so much insanity, so little time to savor it before the next batch arrives.

What all these candidates have in common is profound disconnect: a disconnect between amount paid and intrinsic worth, a disconnect between intention and consequences, a disconnect between values claimed and values lived.

A strange worldview emerges. In the hotly competitive world of state universities, a party-school reputation will attract certain students, but few serious academics will want to join a faculty that has to teach those partiers.

Religious extremists can achieve attention by trivializing the faith they claim to represent, but they only convince younger generations that religious people aren’t to be trusted. And for good reason.

In a world of disconnected actions and consequences, you see, there will still be consequences, just no one stepping up to accept them. Thus will vanish the very morality that right-wingers claim they defend. And the reverence for God that religious zealots claim to value. And the trust and mutual respect that stands between democracy and mob rule. And the inventiveness, entrepreneurial zeal and can-do attitude that create the wealth that financial types exploit.

When the ideas that made America great are trashed by bigots and blowhards, our claim to moral leadership sounds tinny. When the flag is waved as a weapon to take money from the many in order to benefit the few, respect for both flag and nation are diminished.

We can’t have it both ways, or easily. If we want to be a great nation, then we need to pursue great ideas, not shallow schemes of greed. We need to have great dreams, not clever calculations of momentary advantage. If we want to secure our nation for future generations, we need to dial down the financial locusts that consume everything in sight, and make wise long-term investments in a sustainable economy, even if that disrupts today’s irresponsible money machines.

If we want our people to lead decent lives and teach decent morals to their children, then our leading lights need to be doers of good, not yes-men for the mega-rich. If we want our people to have faith, then we need to transmit a faith worth having.

When we systematically dismantle the ideas, values, institutions and norms that made America a noble experiment in democracy, we shouldn’t be surprised when the experiment is deemed a failure and power is seized by demagogues.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus” and founder of the Church Wellness Project. His website is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com. Follow Tom on Twitter (at)tomehrich.)