Why is it that?

Question

We are at a point in time when divorce, single parents, general animosity and greed are at their highest point in history? Although wars were more common before, nearly always the internal society was much stronger, so why now are we so bad and immoral? Does this scare you?

Answer 1

I don't think you are right, in the past thing were a lot worse. We had children working in horrendous condition 16 hours a day.
12 year old girls forced into marriage.
There were 10 times more prostitutes in Victoria times as there are today.
Alcoholism was rife in cities.
The ordinary person had very little freedom and rights.
There was one law for the rich and another one for the poor.
Life expectancy was about 45 years old!

No, give me today anytime.

Answer 2

I feel this is a false premise: using the UK as a model, common law marriage was greater in Victorian times as indeed were single parents. Because we have more access to information nowaday the situation can often seem more intense.

I think you would need to consider carefully terms like 'bad' and 'immoral' since both these terms are defined by the society they exist in.

For example the conduct of the average noble in Czarist Russian circa 1860 would be considered nothing less than psychotic by modern day standards.

Equally the morals of many of the 'gentry' in Victorian London would have had the papparazzi drooling were it to happen now.

History and sociology are tricky beasts to pin down and in doing so students need to look at the picture holistically.

Answer 3

Society.......if there is such a thing constantly evolves as time and technology moves on. Its not suprising that things are as fragmented as they appear. Families are spread far and wide as indeed are cultures. The support mechanisms that we all took for granted like extended and nuclear families were always close at hand. Now tho thru the very transient nature of the way we live, those support mechanisms are very much provided by the state.......social services etc etc. Value systems which are an integral part of ones family have also changed.......people have become far more focussed on monetary gain as indeed they have been encouraged to do.
All these reasons contribute to a changing and what sometimes appears to be a breakdown in society.However......these things have been around for many many years.......and yes it is scarey!!

Answer 4

Things aren't as bad as they seem.

When I was a kid, everyone thought nuclear war with the USSR was inevitable, unavoidable. Some people built fallout shelters and stocked them with food and water. Certain public buildings had shelters in the basements. In school we had drills where we would 'duck and cover' under our desks in case bombs blew out the floor-to-ceiling windows along one side of the classroom. I had horrible, scary dreams about it.

When I was in high school, Vietnam was raging. High school kids were very politically aware in those days. Every boy in high school knew all about the war and had an opinion about it, because we all had the draft hanging over our heads! Vietnam lasted eight years and tore our society apart much worse than Iraq is doing. Nixon got elected based on a promise to end the war (I never trusted him) but kept it going another four years by widening the war to Laos and Cambodia.

Politicians and religious leaders always try to paint things worse than they are, for purposes of promoting their own careers. TV news operations compete with each other trying to scare you to get your attention. In real terms we aren't doing that badly. Not yet anyway.

Global warming threatens us and so does our rapidly rising national debt. Health care costs 70% more than when GW Bush came into office, and it was considered a crisis even before that. Gas has doubled in price, and that means inflation is just around the corner. But these are threats that might turn out never to become problems, like that nuclear war. If they do become problems, we'll deal with them one way or another.

Answer 5

Intolerance and lack of trust are the basic causes of the first two maladies mentioned. The next two spring from great expectations and unlimited desires. If individuals keep themselves at peace without being swept by the tide, we can maintain our sanity. That is all we can do and wailing about the state of affairs[which all of us would invariably resort to--we are after all imperfect human beings] is not going to be fruitful. But I am sure that awareness and these individual conscientious efforts would slowly bring about a change.Little drops of water make the mighty ocean.Isn't it?

Answer 6

It seems that Western society has relaxed so many rules lately, in an effort to accept every code of behaviour. Each tiny splinter group is being given a say, and has rights. While this is a good thing, it also has many different consequences.
We need to ride through this turn in our mind-set, and hope that good and decent people will keep the world in balance.

Answer 7

I'm curious as to your statement > We are at a point in time when divorce, single parents, general animosity and greed are at their highest point in history? < and how you measured these factors to arrive at this statement?

And, should they get worse in, say, the next decade, would your present statement be seen as invalid and require a re-issue?

Sash.

Answer 8

Ancient Europeans wrote about Ages of Man:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ages_of_Man

There are also many other references to
various types of world ages or Ages of Man in
Hopi (worlds), Mayan (suns) and other
cultures of antiquity. Giorgio de Santillana,
the former professsor of the history of
science, mentions approximately thirty
ancient cultures that believed in the concept
of a series of ages and the rise and fall of
history, with alternating Dark and Golden
Ages.

More details of the Ages are given in the
Yuga theory of ancient Hindus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuga
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Yuga

At present, we are having Kali Yuga (age
of darkness).

Yuga theory also describes sub-cycles
within cycles.

I am not scared because Hindu astrologers
wrote that evil in the world will reduce to
40% of its present level in about two
decades from now:

"From 2010, winds of spiritualism will blow
across the entire world, awakening more and
more people in its wake. Where limits of
(modern) science end, spiritualism begins.
.... Along with scientific progress,
intellectuals will start recognizing the
importance of spiritualism. .... From 2050, a
new era will begin...."

Swami Dattavadhut, Prophecies 1998 to 2100, Vanita Books, Mumbai, 1997, pp. 33-42.

Answer 9

I'm not certain society has ever been much healthier than it is now. Think witch burning, Henry the eighth murdering the clergy and beating disabled people to remove their demons.
People en masse are often cruel.

Answer 10

1: Why isn't it this?
2- and your question is?
3) Perhaps it was those very wars, the presence of an outside enemy which satisfied our need to hate.
4. definitely.