Interesting observation, PELLIUS, and most likely the way things happen nowadays.
What's the major cause of this change in morals since the 1950's? Is there any one thing that caused it to happen? Hippies, beatniks, drugs, TV, movies, the internet?
Without a doubt it was the culture revolution that took place in the late sixties early seventies. It took some time for the hippies to infiltrate our colleges and universities, and politics, so it didn't really start to manifest itself until the late 80's early 90s. The trend was there of course. Slowly gaining momentum but it really started to blossom by the 1990s.
So many bad ideas came out of that movement.
-- Malignant narcissism, the preoccupation of self, the "if it feels good -- do it" mentally. It use to be people thought more of what was good for their community, their country, the world. Now it's just what's good for me.
-- The idea that people are born basically good. This absurd notion is what undermined the importance and the teaching of goodness. After all, if one is born good, it is your natural predisposition, then why teach it? Nobody teaches you how to breath. It's natural. Just do what's natural.
-- The glorification of nature. That if something is natural it must be good. The fact is that most of what we do is to over come nature. The clothes, homes, air conditioning, agriculture, cars, indoor plumbing.... An it also applies to our natural -- our human nature. Part of being a civilized human being is overcoming you natural instinct. A man's natural predisposition is to take what they want rather than work for it. To sleep in and be lazy. To eat as much as you can. To lie when it suits you. To act out on your emotions such as anger leading to violence ....
People are always shocked when I say that men in their natural state are rapist. Without cultural, legal or moral restraints men will rape. And it happens every time when the law breaks down, during times of complete anarchy -- such as during war. During those time it's all raping and pillaging.
-- Tied in to the above is the idea to "go with your heart." To do what's natural. That a person does good because he has a good heart. That his heart determines his actions. Maybe, sometimes, but most times no. It's you actions that determine your heart. Your actions not only define you as a person but molds you as a person. What you do ultimately turns you into what you are. I remember the first time I shop lifted, I was nervous and afraid because I was taught it was wrong. But I did it. And when I did it the second time it was easier. And if I continued to do it it would have gotten easier and easier. But acting like a thief I was transforming myself into a thief. No one starts out mutilating little children they start with animals. They become cruel to animals and by behaving cruelly they transform themselves into monsters. They work their way from lizards and rats, cats and dogs, and finally human. There hasn't been a serial killing who tortured their victim that didn't start off being cruel to animals. Conversely, if you are forced to be polite, to behave with manners; so you don't eat with your hands, an insult people, piss where ever you like, you transform yourself into a civilized person. Same with goodness, act good, be generous and compassionate and you become that kind of person. So the reason you walk a mile to return the extra penny to the store is not so much for the benefit of the store but the benefit for you. Mormons go out on their missions to convert people. They're success rate is abysmal compared to the resources put into it. They do it because of what it does to the missionaries. It's a right of passage for them. When a 19 year old goes from Utah to Indonesia he does not come back the same person.
-- As the society has become more secular, people accountable ultimately to no one else but themselves. They are their own God, morality and ethics over time get more and more diluted.
I could go on forever, rejection of authority "Don't trust anyone over 30", but CalvinH is already fuming and I've long past the outer limits of the GetBiggers attention capacity.
Some good ideas came out of the sixties: civil rights, women's rights, minority rights... but even these have become prostituted. Far more harm than good came out of that generation that laid the seed of what we are experiencing today.
