Moral Decline (morals, tradition, evolution, America, pagan)

[Kungfuzed]

Do you think morality in general has been declining over the decades? Today I was reading an article in the April 2007 issue of Awake! magazine. The article is titled "A Worldwide Moral Breakdown". It states that in 1914 World War I triggered the beginning of a worldwide moral breakdown. Soldiers were behaving as though they would die tomorrow and even those living back home excused their actions because a war was going on. Then came the women's liberation movement and then the sexual revolution, and the whole world has been sinking into "Western debauchery". What's the world comming to?

In your opinion, has there been a worldwide moral decline over the past century? If so, what time period do you think the world was at it's moral peak? If you could rewind the world's moral clock, where would you set it to?

And by morals, I mean the whole sense of right and wrong, not just sexual morality.

[lombas]

I deem morality something personal and as thus there can be no "peaks" or "lows". It is true that morality changed and that this has not only brought benefits, it is merely "different". If it doesn't succeed, it will change again, and since it always changes, there is no "right" or "wrong".

There are, however, individuals and associations, who might have a different view than the "mainstream" thought. It is always good for those people to give themselves something of a higher authority, like "eternity". By claiming that what they stand for has been a tradition for centuries, they achieve a kind of superiority. Among historians, the jargon is "invented tradition or history". A lot of those who now claim society suffers from a moral breakdown support on these invented traditions.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, because it is, of course, part of history itself. But it does say something about how discussion can be possible between those in favor and those against "mainstream" morality.

[lunamoth]

I would bet the milk money that people today on average are exactly as moral as people were on average thousands of years ago. I don't think that overall adherance to the mores of society fluctuates all that much over long spans of time and globally. When times are hard people may do things like lie, cheat, steal to survive...but is that really immoral if it's a matter of life or death?

I think that our adherance to what our culture deems moral depends mostly on our general physical and mental health.

[Mike182]

people's perceptions of right and wrong have changed dramatically, but people still adhere to that perception.

in my opinion, you can't say morality has declined. to say morality has declined is to say that less people are doing the right thing, which doesn't give any indication as to what the right thing is.

[jamaesi]

Every generation has said the next had no morals since.. the beginning of time. :P We seem to be doing fine, despite the naysayers.

[Quagmire]

I think people these days feel less compelled to put up a moral facade than they did in the post Victorian era, or as Americans did at the begining of the cold war when their whole value system was based on American vs Un-American.

If anything, I think Western Civilization has become slightly less hypocritical than it used to be, which I'd say is a step in the right direction.

[Sunstone]

I'm under-impressed with talk of "moral declines". Most of the talk I've seen of "moral declines" has hardly been informed. Instead, it's been full of irrelevant claims, poor or incorrect assumptions, and ambiguities. To take one example: is it "moral decline" that society is significantly less tolerant of racism today than it was pre-World War I?

I suspect talk of "moral decline" is mere propaganda.

[jacquie4000]

How far back in History would you like to go? Durring Roman times a father could kill his children if they did not obey his commands. Gosh I hope we have better Morals then that now.

[Kungfuzed]

On the one hand we had the sexual revolution but on the other we had Martin Luther King and the whole desegregation thing happening too. Women now have the right to vote and get a good job. No more slavery or segregation, at least in the US. Are sex and drugs a fair trade for freedom and equality?