Is moral progress in society unstoppable?

Question

The moral progress of humanity is unquestionable: From ancient societies based on slavery (when huge numbers of people could be unjustly killed, tortured, imprisoned for no reason), to feudalism (when serfs were given some limited rights and freedoms), to modern societies (in which most people enjoy some basic protections from arbitrary murders, torture, etc. The discrimination against minorities is slowly but surely disappearing in most developed countries. At first, women, then African-Americans and other racial and ethnic minorities, and now gays and lesbians have been gradually moving more and more towards total equality. All of this constitutes moral progress.

So why do conservatives think that they can stop or slow down this moral progress of society? And why do they want such thing anyway?

Answer 1

I hate to do this or say this, but I disagree with your very first statement that moral progress is unquestionable. I would question that.

In light of many of the events in our world today one could easily suggest that it is true, "the only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history."

We still have war. Nations fight from airplanes or from suicide bombers, but the result is that innocent people are killed. How is the moral progress when we haven't changed, not at all? One can point to a dozen or more issues in the news, of fathers tabbing their children, of mothers using their babies like baseball bats, of child on child killings and brutality (all of these have happened in the news in the past two weeks) and can argue that we have made no progress at all.

Answer 2

You pose an interesting question.

I don't think that moral progress by a society is inevitable, but I think that the progress of moral ideas is.

The ancient Greeks and Jews were originally the ones who most clearly articulated the value and rights of the individual. These, therefore, are largely Western ideas. With the rise of Imperial Byzantium and the collapse of most of Europe into the Dark Ages, however, these ideas were in danger of being exterminated. Eventually, Europe restabilized and began to rediscover these ancient ideals - through texts that had been preserved in Irish monasteries.

With the advent of movable type, and given the politically fragmented and competitive geography of Europe and onset of the Enlightenment, I think the triumph of the ancient ideals relating to individual rights became more likely. The final piece of the puzzle that brought a true fruition to the Greek and Jewish ideas was the American Revolution.

The American Revolution was won by philosophers who really codified - in a way that had previously been impossible - the rights of the individual. I think that is the key ingredient to the moral progress you cite: if all humans are created equal and are born with certain inalienable rights, then governments or other actors can no longer abridge those rights and be considered moral.

Even at that point (say, about 1800), I think the ideas could have been lost again: if the South had been able to divide and dismember the Union, I think (as did Abraham Lincoln) that democracy could have once again been lost. The USA was the only democratic government in the world in 1860.

I suppose you are familiar with Churchill's quote that 'Democracy is the worst form of goverment, except for all the others'? Democracies do make mistakes, and the election of Hitler is an obvious example. Luckily, the Allies won and the causes of freedom and individual rights have been steadily expanding from their Western cradle since then.

Economic prosperity and property rights play a big role. As do freedom of the press and respect for the ballot box. Education, and the access to ideas, though, is perhaps the biggest key. And these days, nearly everyone has access to ideas in some way through the mass media. Thus, I think these genies can never be put back in the bottle: no matter how oppressive a government becomes, it is easy to smuggle DVDs and CDs of banned content, it is easy to tune in a satellite TV, or it is easy to look it up on the internet.

Thus, the moral ideas can no longer be destroyed, they can only be hidden temporarily ... and each will eventually be discovered to move forward anew: a gay person can now know what they are feeling, and realize that there are places that accept it; a persecuted minority can understand that there are governments that forbid such persecution; an oppressed woman may some day come across information that lets her know she can pursue a better life somehow. And I think it will be that way forever after now.

And yet, this advancement of ideas doesn't necessarily translate to rapid or continuous social progress. As mentioned above, Germany in the 1930's is a good example. It was a well educated society with democratic traditions, but the humiliation after WWI coupled with economic collapse set them on the path to the Third Reich and all the evil that it perpetrated.

The USA provides many examples as well: even with the Constitution, the US did not grant women the right to vote for over 100 years. Child labor was legal until well into the 1900s. And don't even talk about the rights of African Americans. Just this past weekend, Slavoj Zizek had an editorial in the NY Times pointing out that by allowing torture to extract confessions, the US is backsliding towards the Middle Ages in terms of moral conduct.

Examples of such failures of moral progress or even moral collapse abound all across the globe.

But the ideas themselves are now immortal and can only move forward. And I hope that they will pull the societies along towards progress - unevenly and sometimes with painful struggles - but with moral progess nonetheless.

As for the conservatives ... I think mostly they are afraid. They are afraid of new ideas, new people, new things. So they oppose the changes. It is telling that the right wing in pretty much every country fears immigrants, denigrates the religions/cultures/languages of outsiders, and loves the military. They don't see it as stopping moral progress, they seem to see it as saving their pure moral principles from pollution. It is sad, really, that their fear keeps them from growth.

Answer 3

The "moral progress" you're talking about is mostly economics in disgiuse. Shift from killing prisoners of war to enslaving them occurred only when it became possible to ensure that slaves can produce more than is necessary for their survival. Ancient languages have kept this memory. In ancient Egypt, for example, the literal translation of the word "slave" was "the living killed".

Back in 1960s, Evsey Domar, an American economist born in Manchuria to Russian parents, wrote a now-classic paper (Evsey D. Domar, "The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis," The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Mar., 1970), pp. 18-32), in which he pointed out that if you look at history you notice that out of three things (free farmers, abundant land, and landed gentry) only two, any two, can exist simultaneously for a long time; situations where all three exist are unstable and usually end up either with the gentry enslaving the farmers or the gentry that can't live off the land and actually starts to work for a living, or the land becoming scarce.

So here's your answer: many conservatives either are de-facto landed gentry, or aspire to be landed gentry, or sympathise with landed gentry.

Answer 4

You really think morals is "progressing" in society today? In my lifetime I have seen morals take a huge nose dive. Young people do not believe in absolute truth any longer. Without absolute truth there is no truth. Without truth there is no morals. Whatever feels good to you is the rule of the day. If I am a good person I will go to heaven. We cannot even state views that are different from the masses or we are critized.

Our rights are being stepped on. All groups have "rights" now except Christians. We are the new minority who have no rights. People are allowed to call us names, slander us, hold up God and Country and Flag to ridicule all in the name of morailty.

Where are our freedoms? Do we have freedom of speech when the government tries to pass legislation that would gag our Christian radio programs from informing us of the truth of what is happening in our Government?

Do we have freedom to worship as we please? Not really. Not only has prayer been taken out of school, our children are not allowed to pray in school because we might offend another ethnic group. Also all other groups are able to celebrate Christmas in the way they choose, except for Christians. We can no longer display the nativity, yet Quansa can display their icons, Jewish can display their Minorah, even the Wickens can display their icons. Where is the justice in that? Where are the morals in that?

Morals is not just about inprisonment, torture, and feudalism it is also about ethical behavior, freedom of speech and worship for ALL factions. Freedom to not be inslaved.

Slavery you ask? Oh yes it is alive and well today, but who is fighting for the rights of the modern day slaves?

Please forgive me if I dare say that some behaviors are wrong! In today's society it is live and let live, don't get involved, whatever god you chose to obey, family is whatever you make of it, children are allowed to decide for themselves, with no direction from parents and no consequences for their actions. Even criminals are allowed to sue for frivolous issues.

Morals are not a part of our society any longer. We do what we want, when we want, and we do not answer to anyone. Even the courts are set up, not to defend the innocent and convict the guilty, but to play the game of who has the craftier attorney.

The last time we acted as a society, caring and loving with one another; not seeing color or sex or religion, was after 9/11. Since that time it is back to selfishness as usual.

Answer 5

Moral progress in the society is definitely unstoppable because morality is the only way for the survival of the human beings, which improves kindness towards eath other.

Answer 6

Don't agree. Look at the rise in crime, the growth of the underclass, drug use - for each step forward there is one back.