Philadelphia's skyline. Photo: IC.

A woman was raped on October 13 night by a stranger on a commuter train in suburban Philadelphia in the presence of other riders who a police official said "should have done something," ABC News reported. The report cited a police officer who said that the entire episode was captured on surveillance video that showed other people on the train at the time. Other people riding the train showed a lack of empathy - they watched, failed to intervene and did not call 911. Some of them were recording video or taking pictures while the rape took place, according to media outlets. 

Security in the US is a mess. Anyone who lived in the US is aware that due to poor security, residents are afraid of going out at night in some regions of the US. The country has a big problem with its own social governance. Philadelphia, in particular, is a chaotic, underdeveloped and ethnically uncoordinated city, with the crime rates among the highest of all US cities.

Raping a woman on a train in full view of other passengers is a crime in any civilized country. It should be spurned. However, other passengers at the scene didn't stop the rapist or call the police; instead, they filmed the brutal crime. This shows that the pursuit of individualism in American society has become far beyond what we can understand. 

Individualism upheld by American values can, under some circumstances, stimulate innovation. But in this Philadelphia case, such values have gone out of hand. For the sake of their own comfort, safety or private interests, some Americans have lost basic human ethics and social responsibility. It's a sign that American values are in crisis.

Many netizens thought the rape was in India the first time they heard about it. They couldn't imagine such a case happening in the US, which claims to be the world's most developed country. But in terms of social governance and the practice of values, the US has done even worse than many developing countries or underdeveloped countries. Such a crime in public view without being stopped shows US' real social governance doesn't meet the standard of a developed country claimed by the US. US moral rules also do not match what the country has clamored as developed and orderly.

The US is advanced in technology, military and economy, but not ethics, morality and social governance. Washington shows serious underdevelopment on these aspects. This is a very important reason why the US cannot be regarded as a fully developed country. Moral standards, to a great extent, are the touchstone for a country's degree of development. Moral degradation and confusion of values are the great challenges the US faces now, and a problem that the US elite should attach great importance to.

Non-Americans are far more concerned and surprised by the Philadelphia rape case than Americans. When reviewing the reports on this case from US media outlets and comments from American netizens on Twitter, they tend to focus on the indifference of other passengers, instead of why such a crime could take place in the US.

People in the US, especially those in areas with a relatively bad security condition, have already become accustomed to such a crime. Problems like robbery, gun violence and police brutality happen so often that none of them is newsworthy to Americans. However, what is normal in the US is shocking and frightening for people from other countries, especially those in good order and with good morals. This is yet another example of the degeneration of US society.

The article was compiled based on an interview with Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations of the China Foreign Affairs University. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn