There is much talk these days, particularly at church, about how evil and nasty the world seems to be getting. Hardly a Sunday goes by with warnings from the pulpit about how bad the world is now compared to what it was before. In some narrow ways, I suppose this is true. It is certainly true that the mass media seems more crass. There is also more widespread access to smut and porn than ever before. Sexual mores have changed, probably being more permissive now than before. If you believe, as I do, that morality is related to these sorts of issues, then in that sense things are indeed going downhill.
Overall, though, I don't think it is true that the world is getting worse. The world is a better place now, morally speaking, than it perhaps has ever been.
Many people think that the pre-1960s era was the pinnacle of human morality -- before all that sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll stormed across the world. But it isn't too hard to see that planet earth from 1900-1960 was, in reality, the most depraved time imaginable from a moral perspective. Human beings butchered each other by the millions during the World Wars. They sent each other to gas chambers, dropped poison gas, unleashed fire bombs and nuclear weapons on women and children. There was widespread rape, mass slaughter, and cruelty on a scale the world has never seen before. This alone is enough to prove that the pre-1960s era was hardly the "good old days." 1900-1960 was perhaps the most barbarous period in world history.
Apart from world war and genocide, we should also consider America before the 60s. Black men were being lynched and burned alive, while almost everyone turned a blind eye. We had a brutal system of injustice and apartheid in the American South during the Jim Crow years. Meanwhile, the interests of women and children were routinely ignored. Women were often beaten with impunity. Child abuse (physical, sexual, and mental) was often covered up, and kids were beaten in schools. Workers on strike had their skulls bashed in with the clubs of hired tough guys. We poisoned the air and polluted the water with little fear of retribution. Again, the good old days were really something of a dark time.
What are things like now? Well, true, porn is a problem. Overall, though, it seem to me that we treat each other better than we did before. We protect vulnerable minority populations. We generally take better care of the poor, the elderly, the mentally ill, and children. Families are supported in ways that they never were before. People, even strangers, seem ready to serve in their communities and lend a hand when necessary, and my family and I have directly experienced this generosity. Plus, we are not starting as many wars as usual (see graph). Violent crime is down over the last 20 years. Property crime is down.
Why do I care about this? Well, first, it just seems historically wrong to say that things are getting worse. Second, I believe we commit something of a moral crime (a sin) in failing to recognize the good that is being done in the world. To condemn the world in this way is to show a lack of respect (and love) for our fellow human beings. So we really should stop doing this.
4 comments:
Perhaps those who are most likely to claim that things have gotten worse are also those people who benefited most from the injustices of yesteryear (such as benefits from white privilege, guaranteed jobs through the boys club, etc.) and those who least needed assistance from others (either as charitable help, public aid, or other simple kindnesses)? I suppose that in some ways, things have become worse in the eyes of those folks insofar as life is no longer as easy and may feel polluted by the demands (admittedly for justice) of minorities.
Now if only we could shift their point of view to consider all of the improvements experienced by other people. Then perhaps we would have a more collective sense of things being better today.
I agree. Well written and thanks for saying it. I've been saying the same thing for awhile and its good to hear someone else express it.
Naomi and I were listening to Fareed Zakaria's Post-American World, and he was saying the same thing, but mostly from a global economic point of view. The proportion of people living in the poorest conditions is at its lowest in modern history.
This also reminds me of one of my favorite recent Daily Show segments: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-5-2010/even-better-than-the-real-thing
I appreciate this post Bryan. I do think that there are lots of reasons to be optimistic about our world. President Hinckley always found and focused on the good.
One indicator I think we should look at though when considering this topic is divorce rates and the breakdown of the family. Infidelity in marriage is higher than it's ever been. How many fatherless homes are there in the U.S.? That percentage may be at an all-time high. The effects from this alone have yet to be told in future generations.
It is often difficult (for me at least) to be optimistic without crossing over into the "all is well in Zion" category. But there is a lot of good in the world that should be recognized, I agree.
Kyle
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