Those of us born in the past are still running the nation.
What is hard for younger people in America to fully grasp is that we American Boomers were born on a different planet than you were born on, a different planet than this one.
It's hard to grasp how dominating racial segregation was in America if you weren't there. I, personally, was in middle school before I ever knew a white kid by name. Most Boomers older than I were in the working world before they ever knew someone of the other race by name...if then.
There were three movie theaters where I lived. One was for blacks only, one was for whites only, and in one blacks could sit in the balcony. We had separate swimming pools, separate schools, separate play ares in the park.
Go to YouTube and watch some television programs prior to 1964. No black people in those programs, particularly not in any children or family programming. There were no black people on The Jetsons or on The Flintstones. There were no black people in Leave it to Beaver or Ozzie and Harriet. There were no black people in The Andy Griffith Show or Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie. There were no black people in commercials and no black people in the backgrounds of the sets.
The vast majority of white kids growing up in the late 50s and early 60s grew up in a segregated world. He didn't see black people in his daily life, he didn't interact with other black kids. He didn't even see black people on television. The idea that it was okay for black people to be around him isn't what he was taught as a child.
"As the sapling is bent, so grows the tree."
"Raise up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."
And those kids are the adults still running America today. Those are still the people controlling industry, media, law, and politics. When John Lewis looks across the aisle, he's looking at the same individuals who were opposed to him in 1963.
Now, for sure, many of them have overcome their childhood teaching--when they have determined themselves to do it. But that's not most people.
We Boomers were the last generation raised in racial apartheid. It was inculcated into us as children. We are locked into an unending combat that began on an entirely different planet like Autobots and Decepticons. The racial situation in the US is not going to change until we Boomers are dead.
We just have to die, because clearly we haven't changed as a generation, and we're going to stay in control, influencing younger generations, until we are dead. After we are dead, there will be a chance.
They have no authority to enforce or punish.Like the Westboro Baptist Church does?
Now this is kind of unique take on it.I think it was inevitable with the age of enlightenment. This has led to modernism which ironically rejected enlightenment but also religious belief. This has also led to postmodernism where people have become skeptical and everything is relative and subjective. But I think as a result religious belief is one of the big casualties because overall there is still a tendency towards atheism and materialism.
One thing I don't actually agree with is that loving neighbors versus one's self isn't mutually exclusive.The sixties were probably the last decade where true belief in the agape love God promoted was a driving force among youth. Certainly there were those who viewed it carnally but for the most part as the song goes, 'All You Need is love" reflected the will of God. What happened after that was decline in agape yet a rise in evangelical political aggression at the end of the 70's. The tables had turned.
Now here is the point. The concept of morals is different between secular and true Christianity. One is based on loving neighbour as self, the other is predominately about self. So Christians putting the will of God ahead of their own, would see with the demise of agape that morals were declining, while the secular world would see improvement as self serving rights and opportunities rose at the cost of responsibility. The troubling part is if the Christian community is still as large as it claims, why are they taking the secular viewpoint now and worse yet following, not the difference between Kingdom and world of man, but political division within the world of man? So many Christians, so little agape.
If morality based upon agape is to make a comeback then Christianity needs to rise above the world once again rather than join it. Christians need to unite the world (ironically against itself) and remind it that the agape of the Kingdom will overrule the self serving world one of these days, so they might as well get with the program and switch allegiance now.
I think that is why so many young people are moving away from belief. If you listen to young people everything is relative, there is no right or wrong and everything can be challenged. But it is not really an open and unbiased inquiry that critically analyses things and is open to new ideas and ways of thinking. There is a skepticism and an anti establishment and authority underlying thought even to the point of hate. So modern thinking is challenging truth. In that way people can rationalize a lie into the truth or the truth into a lie, its all relative.Now this is kind of unique take on it.
I think that is why so many young people are moving away from belief. If you listen to young people everything is relative, there is no right or wrong and everything can be challenged. But it is not really an open and unbiased inquiry that critically analyses things and is open to new ideas and ways of thinking. There is a skepticism and an anti establishment and authority underlying thought even to the point of hate. So modern thinking is challenging truth. In that way people can rationalize a lie into the truth or the truth into a lie, its all relative.
I think in the 60s it was sexual freedom and experimentation especially with drugs. Then came the women's liberation so people have expanded their thought and pushed boundaries to be able to create a free thinking society. Along with that technology has given people a sense of power and a belief that humans are godly. So in some ways people are believing they are gods unto themselves and we can make the rules and determine our destinies.
In western cultures people are more individualistic so there is a lot of emphasis on individual ability and self importance. With that we are challenging everything. I think to be moral you have to acknowledge a moral code that is outside yourself but many people do not want to feel bound by any set of rules especially young people.
What fallen morality? Treatment of minorities is better. Violent crime is down. Divorce is down (so are marriage rates). Interracial marriage is accepted by the vast majority. What's the problem?
I agree even many who claim to be Christians can go along with worldly ideas of rationalizing the truth away. Yes Gods son is the way, the truth and the life and for Christians that is the only truth that morals can be based on. But this is not based on good works alone but by being born again and becoming a new person who is able to overcome the power of sin.What is truth, in your definition? Asking on account of how Christians fight with each other all the time, arguing over this and that. I think just about the only thing we agree on as truth is that God so loved the world He gave His own begotten son.
I think that is why so many young people are moving away from belief. If you listen to young people everything is relative, there is no right or wrong and everything can be challenged. But it is not really an open and unbiased inquiry that critically analyses things and is open to new ideas and ways of thinking. There is a skepticism and an anti establishment and authority underlying thought even to the point of hate. So modern thinking is challenging truth. In that way people can rationalize a lie into the truth or the truth into a lie, its all relative.
I think in the 60s it was sexual freedom and experimentation especially with drugs. Then came the women's liberation so people have expanded their thought and pushed boundaries to be able to create a free thinking society. Along with that technology has given people a sense of power and a belief that humans are godly. So in some ways people are believing they are gods unto themselves and we can make the rules and determine our destinies.
In western cultures people are more individualistic so there is a lot of emphasis on individual ability and self importance. With that we are challenging everything. I think to be moral you have to acknowledge a moral code that is outside yourself but many people do not want to feel bound by any set of rules especially young people.
This guy gives a broad overview of Western philosophical thought about morality from before the enlightenment through the present day, including the influence of Marxism. I think it's pretty good. It's long but I'll post it anyway in case you ever have 2 1/2 hours to kill.It is because America was founded as an experiment based on the principles spawned more-or-less from the era of liberal enlightenment to begin with. So ironically, I wonder how that directly started this sort of decline that started in earnest around 60 years ago.
Yup. This is one area where morals have improved. We're now willing to admit that sex has several purposes, and we're getting away from basing it on the natural supremacy of the male. However we haven't agreed on what the new standards should be.The sexual revolution did affect Christianity. Before 1960, the view of sexuality was that its purpose is procreation: contraceptives, anal/oral sex, homosexuality, masturbation, etc. were all equally condemned as "crimes against nature." Even having a women on top during sex was occasionally seen as violating the "natural supremacy of the male."
The sexual revolution did affect Christianity. Before 1960, the view of sexuality was that its purpose is procreation: contraceptives, anal/oral sex, homosexuality, masturbation, etc. were all equally condemned as "crimes against nature." Even having a women on top during sex was occasionally seen as violating the "natural supremacy of the male."
This would be a lot easier to discuss if anyone could actually identify what sort of decline they are actually talking about.It is because America was founded as an experiment based on the principles spawned more-or-less from the era of liberal enlightenment to begin with. So ironically, I wonder how that directly started this sort of decline that started in earnest around 60 years ago.
They know it when they see it!This would be a lot easier to discuss if anyone could actually identify what sort of decline they are actually talking about.
I wonder if there ever was a time when people didn´t think morals were declining.I think morals is something that cannot be measured by statistics on crime. Immoral acts are not always illegal. Today's view on morality is subjective so it is hard to pin down what is exactly declining. So the best source of whether morals are declining I guess is to ask people themselves and it seems that most surveys show the majority of people think morals are declining.
I wonder if there ever was a time when people didn´t think morals were declining.
Btw. there is a difference between "declining morals" and "declining moral behavior" (in your country) - which was the keyterm of the survey.
Safe, medically supervised abortions have always been available to the rich and well-connected and always will be. I can remember back when I was in high school, well before Roe v. Wade, the working class girl who got in trouble had to leave school and have the baby, her chance at an education ended. The rich girl took a couple of weeks off school to visit previously unmentioned relatives in, say, Sweden and her life went on as before. Make no mistake: the push for abortion laws is about the working class and no one else.Sure there was always a certain group of people in previous eras that thought morals were declining, but some of it has a point. Today it's just a lot more commonplace per capita than before a certain period.
A case that sounds interesting is "Old Hollywood" celebrities stars have been having abortions decades before Roe v. Wade declared it was a right for all women.
Classic Hollywood’s Secret: Studios Wanted Their Stars to Have Abortions