To drive almost anywhere these days is to be shocked at the aggressive and reckless road culture. But I saw something the other day that took the madness to a new low.

Angered at an SUV that cut in front of him on crowded I-95 near the George Washington Bridge, the driver of an 18-wheeler loaded with new cars blasted his deafening horn and veered onto the shoulder space on his right. Just as his cab drew even with the SUV, the trucker angled left, cutting off the SUV. Had the SUV not darted into another lane, the 18-wheeler would have crushed it. The driver of the big rig, his crazy move successful, had his spot back. Point made.

“Might makes right” is more than just the ethos of the road in America. As we leave 2006 in the rear-view mirror, the anything-goes attitude of our highways is the perfect metaphor for our culture. We don’t know where we’re going in Iraq or anywhere else, but damn it, we’re in a hurry and you better not try to stop us.

Call me a Gloomy Gus, but I think we enter 2007 facing two mortal enemies: Osama bin Laden and our own decaying moral structure. One wants to kill us from the outside and the other is chipping away at our values from the inside. Sometimes it feels as though they are competing to see which can finish us off first.

Will it be another terror attack on New York? Or will it be a wider acceptance of pornography as mainstream entertainment? Pick your poison, but either way, we may end up on the scrap heap of history. Even if we beat back the terrorists, we cannot possibly remain the leader of the world when calling someone a “porn star” is a compliment.

The immediate danger is that the mastermind of 9/11 has spawned a global movement. As author Peter Bergen wrote, “BinLadenism” is an ideology “that will live on long after he is gone.” We are the target of Islamic fascists from numerous countries willing to blow themselves to smithereens if they can take some of us along.

That we are losing the first battle of World War III is beyond dispute. There are no ties in war, so when President Bush says, “We’re not winning and we’re not losing,” you know we’re losing.

It’s beyond fair game to blame Bush, but that won’t solve the problem. Worse, the blame game obscures the real danger we face around the world. The international order is breaking down as madmen from North Korea to Iran engage in a nuclear arms race. And there are no cops to call when the United States is hobbled and divided and the United Nations is a corrupt paper tiger unwilling even to stop genocide in Darfur.

Maybe a sense of hopelessness about the world explains why Americans have become addicted to what’s been called the “24-hour buffet” of sexual suggestion. When the “family hour” of television is routinely marked by jiggle jokes and “reality shows” are an excuse for celebrating teen promiscuity, we’re careening toward a crash of our own making. Indeed, we may have already hit bottom with the recent rush of trashy young women flashing their panty-less privates. Once upon a time, less was more.

In that sense, things could be looking up. A Web site about Britney Spears is closing because “Britney is unfortunately done,” the site creator told the New York Daily News, adding: “It’s very hard to maintain the respect needed to keep things going.”

As hope goes, that’s a very slender thread. But it’s worth a toast as a potential start for a happy New Year.