American society is morally and spiritually bankrupt?

Answer 1

Not just American society. Have you looked at the rest of the world lately?

Answer 2

I am US borne, I lived in Miami-Florida for seven years, before that, I lived in south America and recently move out of Florida for good to the UK, and now I look back to these past 7 years and even though I did my professional career there, I felt it was the 7 worst years of my live (social wise), because of this capitalistic systems I did not have many friends, everybody was busy, did not have a real girlfriend cause I did not have money to show and people saw me like I was a rat because I was poor “the more you have, the more you are” . And in the US, you can not pursued a university degree unless you come from a very wealthy family or live in debt for the rest of your life and if you become sick, you either have to have an insurance (very expensive if not paid by employer) or lived in debt for the rest of your live.



I think in the US, there is a culture to work but not culture to socialise with others, for example Drs see you as a number $ more than as a patient, i don’t want to generalise but i think the US system changes people into machines and blocks their mind form what is outside, most of the people I meet there, think that the US is the best country in every single way, without even visiting other countries, well I don’t blame then , with the little time off we had in Florida as listed on linked below, there is not time to visit any other countries,



Well, something else I realize when I was travelling Europe and south America, I noticed that most of Americans did not make any effort to a least speak the most common or used word in other languages and expect everybody to speak english as once a girl from Chicago told me “we are leaving the a globalisation world so everybody need to speak English”



In the other hand I think that economically wise US is great , my parents are doing financially very well so is my brother and most of the people I know, but unfortunately all the money they make and have, cant not even be enjoyed. I truly respect you opinion but I think that WE as “Americans” should see the world equally, change our minds, not because we are richest and have the economical power we have the right to abuse others and impose our system, ethics, morals as every country has their own and we should respect that.

Answer 3

Well..... A society ruled by a Bill of Rights, guaranteeing freedom of speech, assembly, press, worship (even for screwball beliefs), gun ownership, due process of law, freedom from illegal searches (at least after Bush is out of office), and the guarantee of a speedy trial... doesn't sound too morally bankrupt to me. As for spirituality, that's a private matter. Morality is in the eye of the beholder; personally, a country that puts corporate profits and investor dividends ahead of its neediest citizens might indeed be morally bankrupt.
However, I still say our freedoms and the rule of law make us one of the better places on the earth to live and grow up. Anyone wanting religion-enforced morality needs to move to Iran.

Answer 4

The US has plenty of "spiritual" garbage left, but no moral values. And that's the whole problem. The US was begun with the intention of a democracy, with the separation of church and state intended to _protect_ the rights of all, _including_ the religious.

Instead, over the past 230 years, idealism turned to ideology and now to idolatry. The US once _was_ a bastion of freedom, now it's a bastard against freedom; it overthrows democracies, supports friendly dictators, and worst of all opposes any self determination by other nations that does not benefit itself. The US has reached the nadir of selfish depravity, opposing anyone else having what the US wants for itself.

In all the talk about Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Pakistan, the UN, etc., the one thing you hear over and over again is "US interests". The seeks by hook or by crook, by threat or by debt, to bend the will of every other country to do what the US thinks is "right", regardless of what the nation in question wants.

And equally notable is US hypocrisy: when another nation or groups within actually _do_ what is in their own best interests, the US labels them "communists", "terrorists", and other false names. Two good examples are Iran and Nicaragua.

Iran, until 1953, was a DEMOCRACY. But Iran refused to sell oil at below-world prices (sound familiar?), so the US and UK aided the Shah in overthrowing the Iranian democracy. The Shah's 25 years of dictatorship led to the rise of islamic fundamentalism and 9/11, which probably would NOT have happened had the US not interfered.

Nicaragua's Sandanista party gave up absolute control in the 1980s and permitted democratic elections which were monitored by other nations. Unless one believes that Australia, the UK, Canada, France and Germany know nothing about democracy, their reports of free and fair elections gave legitimacy to TWO elections of Daniel Ortega.

Unfortunately, the US does not believe in democracy for othernations, so they armed and trained the terrorist group, the Contras, to harass and murder Nicaraguan citizens; when US-sponsored terrorism did not work, the US resorted to economic terrorism, nearly destroying the Nicaraguan economy until right wing party were elected in the next election.

The Nicaraguan right-wing party won further elections until 2006, despite the rampant corruption. But the corruption was so bad and so often that most of the right wing party abandoned their party and supported Ortega and the Sandanistas in the recent election.

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Answer 5

My answer is:
If you mean this question seriously, it doesn't really dignify an answer. The statement that "American society is morally and spiritually bankrupt" means absolutely nothing when you think about it and is really just an evangelical catch-phrase to rally the "Christian soldiers" in the US against an ethereal athiestic "enemy". American society isn't morally and spiritually bankrupt--have you seen the number of churches going up? Has there been a lull in American missionary work? Isn't the battle to discredit mainstream science still raging (though pretty unsuccessfully as always)?

Answer 6

Statements like this crack me up.
They assume that there was a time in the past when American society was all peace & light, love & justice, everybody happily living together in harmony and all following the same moral code (usually assumed by the writer to be a moral code based on a particular religion).

That has never been the case in America. If you think it is, you really should go read some real history, and educate yourself. While we do have new versions of problems because of the larger number of people, modern technology, and the evolution of society...they're just new VERSIONS of the same problems that have beset every society in the history of the world, and have certainly been with the US since its inception. Do you think slavery was "moral?" No? And yet it was standard practice in the US for over 200 years, and was practiced even by our founding fathers (enthusiastically). Do you not know that crimes such as pedophilia, incest, adultery, etc. have been going on forever, and at about the same rates as today? We hear more about them now because of a vast and quick media, but the acts themselves are no more prevelant than they always were. Benjamin Franklin had 2 children by 2 women not his wives, and his sons did the same.

As for "spiritually" bankrupt -- that larger numbers of Americans are finally throwing off the shackles of superstition and ignorance locked on them by religions is a good thing, not a bad thing. Living lives of reason and logic is the best chance for improving moral and social life in the US, continuing religion's legacy of bigotry, intolerance, hatred, and adherence to outdated dogma is a sure path to destruction. Reason is our best hope, religion (and other "spiritualism") the nightmare of our past that we must shake off to thrive and grow.

Answer 7

The simple answer is yes. The hard question is "Why?". One reason that I can think of is, we have been raised to "blame" instead of taking responsibility for our actions. It used to be, when a child got in trouble at school, the child would be taken to the office and given a few licks with a paddle. When that child got home, the child would be given a few more. Not anymore, if a child is verbally reprimanded in school, his parents come in with lawyers trying to sue because "little Jimmy (or Jackie) wouldn't/couldn't do such a thing" or "you are (substitute your favorite derogatory statement here)" or some other like minded statement that boils down to, you can't blame my child for his trouble or you will be fired/sued/etc. This teaches children that they can do anything they want as long as they can blame someone else.

Answer 8

Drugs: I don't see how we are any worse with drugs than, say, Columbian immigrants (whose country makes and exports large amounts) or Russia (who has gotten just as bad, if not worse, than the US). The only difference is the average American tends to have more money to spend on drugs than most other countries. Gangs: I think you will find the gangs in Russia and South America just as bad as American gangs. Sex: Not sure what you mean there. If you mean teenage pregnancy or disease, I think there are plenty of other countries that are worse (South America, Africa). If you mean with how we flaunt it, Europe is much more casual about sex than we are. Violence: There are countries still where beating your wife is still legal, where the dictatorships snatch people away to never be seen again, where "freedom fighters" routinely kill or kidnap people. I think all you have to do is look at South America, Africa or the Middle East to see worse violence than we have. I don't think we are more morally bankrupt than anyone else. It is just rhetoric spewed by extremists fighting for their cause. Here is an example of the hypocracy: Did you know that Mexico treats illegal immigrants to their country from other South American countries just as bad, if not worse, than the U.S.? Funny how they don't mention that when they are flaming our immigration policies.

Answer 9

WTF? No! Only people can be morally or spiritually bankrupt. A country is only as bankrupt as the individuals that make it up. You're asking whether a majority of the people I know are morally bankrupt? Nope, not by a long shot.

Answer 10

Is this a question or a statement? Morals are personal opinions and spirituality is personal as well. I'd rather be here than in some country that preaches pure hatred, like Muslim countries.