Is there a perception of a moral decline because we don't whitewash history anymore?

Answer 1

Yes. If we believe that *everything was so great back in the good ol' days* then comparing today to the sanitized nostalgic view of days past makes today look filthy.

An example, Christians like to say we're losing our morals now that prayer has been taken out of school. They forget that before prayer was taken out of school, our morals included Jim Crow segregation, Lynchings, slavery, Chinese and Japanese internment camps, killing off friendly native Americans with the gift of small-pox infested blankets, driving them off their land by force, witch hunts/trials/ and executions, AND doing all of the things we do today.

If anything, our morals are better today than they ever have been. The only people who don't think so are those that wish to go back to being able to do all of the things we've since grown out of. They not only white-wash history, they change it to make it suit their views.

Answer 2

The supposed "whitewashing' of history was never done at any level of academia above the basic grade levels.
The information was always out there for anyone who bothered to look. One reason that it gains so much publicity these days is that our society, as a whole, is far more educated than it ever has been, combine that with the amount of leisure time that the average person has to read and research these things.
Society is now in a period of communication overload, where anyone who can type can declare themselves an expert on nearly any subject. Opinion is recorded as fact, fact is twisted by opinion, statistics are interpreted to the convenience of the researcher. Political Correctness dominates our education and our recording of history, and the victors are made to feel guilty for having won.

"Whitewashing" is a PC term that smacks of the ignorant rantings of talking heads of the popular media.

As to moral decline, morals of a given population swing from side to side as if on a pendulum. For every moral decline there follows an era of moral excess.

Answer 3

No, it would be the other way around: the more we know about true history, the more it shows that morals are getting better. On the other hand there are many moral systems so an evaluation of decline or rise would have to be evaluated in reference to on or more given systems as it could be rising in one but declining in another.

Edit:
Perception is not reality, but I'd think that not whitewashing the past would help generate a more true perception.

Answer 4

i think of by using monetary challenge being undesirable that maximum persons have became offended and have been too worried with reference to the pressures of retaining a activity and a roof over their heads than they have the morals of coaching their babies what's perfect and what's incorrect. Our government used to yell "terror" daily on the television and scared a million/2 the folk to dying. Terrorists have been with us constantly and could constantly be with us, American or otherwise. We discovered approximately water-boarding which became into outrageous, the states have been separated into pink and blue states, the super wigs have been getting fat bonuses jointly as a million/2 of usa became into ravenous. people don't experience the want for morals while they see their own government doing each and all of the crooked issues that have been executed and then robbing us blind. stable examples could desire to be set extraordinarily by utilising our government besides as mothers and fathers, and the government has shown us that they are morally corrupt, so why could desire to we be any diverse? it quite is not in basic terms youthful people i'm speaking approximately the two.

Answer 5

who's perception do we follow when speaking moral decline... lets look at some non religious changes that have occured in the past 30 years... equality between the sexes... acceptance and respect equal for all races and cultures... consideration for those with less money.. people in poverty... it use to be that poverty was automatic slavery.. but human rights are to be extended to them all... Look at what is holding these changes back... notably christianity... although all religions have their moments in participating.. but only through religions is there a
"wait a minute here there is no god involved in these changes" and offense is taken... the white wash of history comes from christians and catholics..for they need to hide their actual intent for they seek to keep humanity in slavery to serve only them, the few.. so every freedom we gain outside religion is a step closer to freedom of religion on earth.....

so one could only learn that morality is REAL only outside religion and never because of it..for once we win.. these things must be practiced by the religious or they loose credibility...

Answer 6

It's these same people who wish for 'happier' days of the fifties brand of "Leave It to Beaver"...it never was, it was simply a manufactured reality that was broadcast to the masses still recovering from the devastation that was the first two world wars. "Moral decline" is simply an acknowledgment that people can and do whatever they believe is correct at the time they're doing it...and may come to regret...IMHO.

Answer 7

I think that an objective and accurate view of history actually illustrates that there wasn't much morality (in American history at least) to decline from. Witch trials, the 400-year genocide of the Native American race, slavery, land wars, segregation, oppression of women, robber-barons, internment of Japanese-Americans in WW2, McCarthyism, denial of basic civil rights to just about everyone except white, protestant males.
So I wonder...When exactly were those good old days of superior American moral character...?

Answer 8

I think the perception of moral decline it due to idiotic religious dogma that some people actually believe is important.

Society, as a whole, is not more immoral today but the religious fanatics think it is because they are sexually repressed and ignorant.

Answer 9

Perception is simply the ideas within any one individual's mind. To know the causes and conditions why they perceive something as such is usually based on what they've been told about an over-glorified past that wasn't really all that glorious. So I'd agree with your question's base.

_()_

Answer 10

Absolutely... the more historical myth is explored and the hsitorical facts presented, the more people seem to perceive that it is either "revisionist" and unfactual, or representing the decline of morality in the world...

It's alot easier when the victor's write the history... ignorance is bliss.