Since 1914, why have morals and values been on a steady decline?

[Charles Watson-Wentworth]

No group of men has ever created a "golden age," and never will.

That's why we have to look to Christ.

And look to Christ I shall. Thank you friend. You've proven to me that humanity was never great and that Jesus was the only great one. Thank you friend. I learned something.

 

[VCR-2000]

It's a tough one because while I believe standards and morals have declined I also don't want to go too far back or be too much of a killjoy by telling people that viewing something immoral on a physical format in your personal home is bad no matter what the circumstances are.

If that's the way things are supposed to be, we could've become like the Borg from Star Trek.

 

[Wrangler]

why have morals and values been on a steady decline?

Oswald Spengler wrote The Decline of the West in the 1920's, stating the height of Western Civilization was in 1780's when Beethovan wrote the 5th Symphony. In 1976 Sir John Glubb wrote The Fate of Empires, which details several dozen empires throughout all of human history that going through stages of life like any living organism. The same with Scottish economist Tytler.

IMO, America is between Apathy & Dependence, quickly approaching Bondage. The only way to avoid it is a Spiritual Revival.

 

[Tanj]

I want you all to read a few pieces that I had read and that is really worrisome to know and even more worrisome once I realized that it is true and that people are "losing their marbles" and not adhering to morals and tradition.

I too yearn for 1914, when the uppity blacks knew their place (literally at the back of the bus), women could be imprisoned for the crime of getting pregnant out of wedlock, and people were allowed to put "No Irish allowed" on job boards and entrances to buildings.

Boy, how morals have fallen since then. Woe is us.

 

[VCR-2000]

While key morals have declined, others have improved. I don't believe that the trade-off needed to happen, though. I'd rather we'd had the improvement without the decline.

My take has to be that there had to be a trade-off. I guess part of it depends on which specific values you put a higher priority on.

 

[Charles Watson-Wentworth]

I too yearn for 1914, when the uppity blacks knew their place (literally at the back of the bus), women could be imprisoned for the crime of getting pregnant out of wedlock, and people were allowed to put "No Irish allowed" on job boards and entrances to buildings.

Boy, how morals have fallen since then. Woe is us.

Woe is with you apparently. My great-grandpa toured the entirety of the United states in 1914 and never wrote about any of that in his diary. You sound sensitive really. And you want to know something? My great grandpa was Irish, but he didn't fill the book up with "those whites don't like me, I'm an immigrant" for 20 pages. He didn't even mention it once despite being in New York city looking for a job while he was fresh off the boat. I wonder why? There must be a flaw in your logic. By how you wrote it, everyone must've been complaining about the issues that "plagued" America back then, but everything usually takes 100 years to fix, huh? I guess it's not that big of a deal, huh? Down goes your argument like a B-12 bomber in flames. Oh! you just hit the Atlantic ocean from 32, 000 feet. It seems like you're the only one digging up old graves that were forgotten to begin with and making a hype out of it to degrade the older times when you weren't even there to understand it and experience it. I don't think you should even talk about it if you don't know the times. You must have the morals to understand what you type dear boy. Problems exist everywhere. 100 years from now, some other person born yesterday is going to degrade 2019 for some issues that their progressive teacher had told them and they'd "hate" to live in 2019 or even do research about it when it might have been such an insignificant issue to most of everyone and they didn't care. Dear boy, you're comparing apples and oranges with the times, but I compare the good in those times because they are actually both apples and the times are always good despite the bad. The culture, the beauty, the music, it was beautiful. And you hate it all just because you did a quick Google search on the decade. How sad.

 

[hedrick]

I think moral standards have in many ways become stronger. In some ways the strengths are the reverse side of the weaknesses.

While abuse of wives and children was never allowed, the tendency was not to deal with them, but tell wives that they had to remain in a bad situation. This changed during the 20th Cent. Divorce rates increased, in part, because we have higher expectations for what a marriage should be, though that surely isn't the only reason.

The current emphasis on informed consent in sexual relationships is also to some extent new. Again, rape was never acceptable. But "me too" has made it clear that we were ignoring too many problems.

I consider the widespread acceptance of women and minorities in leadership a good thing. However other changes have made it necessary for both people in a marriage to work, which is not a good thing. That doesn't appear to be connected with the first thing, but with general economic problems of the middle class.

I consider acceptance of gays, transgender and other people in non-traditional roles an advance, though I know most here don't. Indeed one problem is that what I consider advances others consider decay, and visa versa.

 

[VCR-2000]

I enjoy movies, but I enjoy God much, much more. And this wasn't compulsory attendance. They were consumed by their own love for God.

Note: watching soccer is not thought of as a sin, per se. It is just a pale thrill to watching God move!

If God says that his ultimate desire is for people to love him more than anything else that's not evil or sin, than your God sounds like a dictator and a fun killer.

 

[VCR-2000]

"Just uncalled for?"

Well, prior to 1950, blacks died from lack of blood transfusions because the Red Cross kept blood supplies segregated and there often wasn't enough for black patients.

Was that immoral or merely "uncalled for?"

Keep in mind that over all human history or even just the last ~300 years of it's existence, the "blacks" weren't the only single group that was unfairly hated.

 

[holo]

That's quite sad to hear. I used to be an avid hater of humanity for those very same reasons well before I was a Christian and now you have proved my previous theory correct - that humans were never morally great. I was trying to justify the greatness of some humans or some greatness in time but I guess I cannot, even with my best arguments... It really makes me just hate humanity all over again honestly knowing that there was no "golden age" of anything and it's always been the same confused hell that I see today. How very sad. And your point also proves that morals are ever-changing and nothing will remain the same. Why hold onto anything then if it will never last I wonder? Why have a kingdom of rock when the walls like to fall? It makes no sense. But, I guess.... there was no great kingdom after all and it was a myth (to put it into poetic terms.) Nothing is great and nothing lasts. What a depressing sentence I wrote to respond to yours, but it's true. I was hoping that you wouldn't have reached that conclusion but you did and I can't disagree.

Well I think if you zoom way out and look at history, you'll find that morality has evolved and improved. Like other have mentioned, there's stuff like slavery, being allowed and even encouraged to beat women and children, killing people solely based on their sexual orientation and so on, not to mention the colossal advancements in animal welfare. Sure you can think that, say, gay sex is immoral, but it is surely better to let them have sex than to persecute and imprison them. There are a few setbacks along the way, but generally speaking we are steadily moving toward more rights for more people and less persecution of people based on religion, race, sexuality, gender etc.

So when people whine about how awful it is that people are having sex out of wedlock and think it's fine to drink alcohol, I just shake my head in disbelief at the narrowmindedness and historical blindness. The world as it is today, even with all its troubles, is by far the best time humanity (as a whole) has ever had.

 

[VCR-2000]

Why don't you explain any civil war in literally any country? They faced a moral clash as well. My point in this post was not to talk about slavery but why morals have gone away. You seem like you disagree with what I say, but I feel like were all becoming less American and we're not distinctive anymore like, let's say, the Japanese are with their manners. What are Americans? Christians. The great compromise allowed slavery, none of those who disagreed with it liked it, but it stayed until 1865.

Perhaps to answer your question then, the best times for America would be the 1700's. I can list any year and anyone will say it has some negative thing in it, but what year does not? In the 1700's people mostly have their heads screwed on tight but no year is perfect. I prefer rules, morals, customs, where the men dressed and so did the ladies, where manners were a thing, etc. Today that is all gone. It's bland and boring. Sure, everyone is equal, but that's just that... Equal, but not different and distinctive. Causal clothes for example is what everyone wears and it's so boring. I wear a suit everywhere like I'm about to get buried. I like morals, I like my Bible, I like rules. I like being different like people should be. Society should be distinctive and how they act, not progressive in how everyone thinks. There's a difference. In the 1700's people were distinctive. In 2019 people are progressive. One is quite annoying and one is quite elegant.

Society still has "rules" today in so that it's only the side of the "rules" that were inverted and flipped in the last decades.

 

[Charles Watson-Wentworth]

Well I think if you zoom way out and look at history, you'll find that morality has evolved and improved. Like other have mentioned, there's stuff like slavery, being allowed and even encouraged to beat women and children, killing people solely based on their sexual orientation and so on, not to mention the colossal advancements in animal welfare. Sure you can think that, say, gay sex is immoral, but it is surely better to let them have sex than to persecute and imprison them. There are a few setbacks along the way, but generally speaking we are steadily moving toward more rights for more people and less persecution of people based on religion, race, sexuality, gender etc.

So when people whine about how awful it is that people are having sex out of wedlock and think it's fine to drink alcohol, I just shake my head in disbelief at the narrowmindedness and historical blindness. The world as it is today, even with all its troubles, is by far the best time humanity (as a whole) has ever had.

Whenever I hear someone mention that the planet is moving towards uniting together I always think of a world power that can easily take over and enslave everyone and that is very bad. That is why I am so against just letting gay people have sex like you mentioned. It's a deliberate push in the opposite direction because America doesn't need to share anything with the world because it's dangerous to trust enemies who preach peace and acceptance but don't practice it themselves and who go against America and it's values. It's dangerous to say that anything goes and anything is allowed because all it's doing is going more and more progressive until no one fears any law and there will be chaos and destruction. The world will fall into a black despair and poverty because some world power took over and killed everyone and then people will realize the importance of laws and then the planet starts over again. The beauty of humans is that we're tribes, not nations. We united in villages, not in cities. We unite by country, not nationally. Our differences protect us from being like the enemy which is progressivism and globalism. We do not need to be like them. Because if we all think the same and have the same morals then we all will be brainwashed the same and equally screwed. Therefore, it is deliberate to think differently regardless of logic. Christianity being against homosexuality is one aspect of why the religion has made America united as ever and unlike any other nation and as strong as ever.

 

[hedrick]

I'm actually not seeing any trend towards a unified world government. We're just as fragmented as ever.

 

[Charles Watson-Wentworth]

I'm actually not seeing any trend towards a unified world government. We're just as fragmented as ever.

The Eu my friend. The EU.

 

[Tanj]

While abuse of wives and children was never allowed

What now? Spousal rape wasn't a thing in most countries till the 1960's or later.

 

[hedrick]

What now? Spousal rape wasn't a thing in most countries till the 1960's or later.

Yeah, you're right.

 

[Sketcher]

My take has to be that there had to be a trade-off. I guess part of it depends on which specific values you put a higher priority on.

A trade-off would not have been necessary had there been proper repentance.

 

[RDKirk]

Keep in mind that over all human history or even just the last ~300 years of it's existence, the "blacks" weren't the only single group that was unfairly hated.

This thread isn't about all those other places and all those other times.

 

[RDKirk]

The Eu my friend. The EU.

The EU is no more unified than the US--why didn't that cause eschatological terror?

 

[RDKirk]

I'm actually not seeing any trend towards a unified world government. We're just as fragmented as ever.

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. -- Luke 4

The nations of the world have been unified under one ruler for at least 2000 years.