Last week I was in a LAMS class and they asked the question, "Do you think that morals are higher, lower or the same as they were in the 50's." What does everyone here think?

Most of the people in the class said they were a little lower, but one group said they were the same.

Hobab

Did they separate morals from ethics?

--M

steady decline with a rise in mental illness at the same time, sorry to say!

quote:

Originally posted by asm3driscoll:
steady decline with a rise in mental illness at the same time, sorry to say!

Yes, but the national health care system will medicate those diagnosed... (might as well throw gas on the fire)

--M

Yes, they did distinguish the difference.

Morals-
of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong.

Ethics-
a system of moral principles.
that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.

The thing I found interesting was that a guy named "Kidder" said that morals are always the same, but the priority of them get re-arranged. I disagree, but it is an interesting thought.

Most of the people who thought morality is the same said, "Well these things, ie violence perversion etc, happened then, but now it is just in the open because of the media etc."

I agree, but I think the fact that we broadcast these things shows a decline. We talked about things like in the 50's a couple wouldn't even sleep in the same bed. You would never see anyone in the bathroom or things like that.

I personally belive morality has gone way down. We have compromised many things that we hold sacred like marriage and love only to value the mighty dollar. We have sacrificed our personal lives to feed others addictions or fantasies.

Anyway,
Hobab

I'll give my stock sociologist answer. Morals are neither higher or lower but different. Moral codes consisting of norms, mores and folkways are subject to time and place. Therefore it would be difficult to compare the moral code of one period to that of another.

Hooligan,

That's pretty much what Kidder says.

The thing I find so interesting is the question of where morals come from. I mean who says what's right for you is right for me.

Not to start a new topic, but a lot of the things we do here in the US would never fly in other countries and vica versa. So morals are personal decisions, but we vote a man and gov't in office to tell us what is moral and immoral. Something seems wrong with that. I'm not against the gov't, but it is curious.

Your right you can't compare overall necessarily, but you can hold your personal morals to a magnifying glass and compare them to where they were 50 years ago.

Hobab

I suppose it depends upon your own perception of morals. If it's 50's standards you're looking for........Donna Reed has left the building and she isn't ever coming back. We're just desensitized to so much more these days. What was unacceptable in so many cases then is completely normal now. But the basics are the same. Don't kill, steal, hurt people in general, bang your friend's wife (or husband), etc....

quote:

bang your friend's wife (or husband), etc....

Unless said sexual encounter executed with the mutual consent of ALL involved...

(talk about opening a door for an interesting conversation, eh)

it's gone way down.. I don't care for hoolie's stock sociologist answer..it sounds like something out of a liberals handbook..

we celebrate sodomy, abortion, gambling is rampid..you can bet it's gone way down since the 50's....it's only going to get worse...

quote:

we celebrate sodomy, abortion, gambling is rampid..you can bet it's gone way down since the 50's....it's only going to get worse...

The image that today's generation has concerning the 1950s is artificial and completely based on the Hays Code of 1930.

The morals of the 1950s in actuality was pretty much as it is today. The only difference is that people were more discrete then.

Sodomy and Abortions were committed years ago too. Although no one talked about it. Rape was rampant, no one wanted to talk about it. A woman or girl raped was sure to lie about it unless they got pregnant, somehow they believed they'd ask for it. Sodomy has been around for eons, Abortions were as common, coat hangers were used.
I'm of the generation that would know, my mom knew it and she died 3 years ago at age 93.

A few points to ponder:

I think "Human Nature" remained a constant for the past 10,000 years, but culture does change. Human culture attempts to address and contain our nature , which can be pretty selfish and brutal at times.

The Victorians did a pretty good job of glossing over human nature, and our childhood memories of the 50s would seem to make us feel it was all Father Knows Best, but it wasn't. Once we became adults it was a bit easier to see through the nostalgia. Our parents were naughty too.

Western culture is much more tolerant of past taboos; nudity, sex, language. I keep thinking that civility is dead, but I realize it may have never been alive for long. Take a look at culture from 100, 200 or more years ago. The rules may have been more brutal, but it didn't seem to stop people from behaving badly.

I think that the morals have remained the same, it is the publicity of them that has changed. The news stories that have made them seem different. In the past, if a child was molested, it was usually kept quiet...today it is on page 3 of the newspaper (too common for page 1). This is not a change in numbers, just in reporting.

Yes, an unrealistic yearning for the 50s, when the American presidents were pinnacles of virtue setting the standard for the rest of the country: Like Eisenhower and Kennedy. . .

...gjd

I choose to see the world through Norman Rockwell paintings...

My opinion, morals have gone way down hill.

50's and 60's, shows like Andy Griffith, etc, today, "The Girls Next Door", "Flavor of Love". Many nights I am awake channel surfing and every other channel is a half hour add for "Girls Gone Wild".

Remember Walter Cronkite? Now we have idiots like Nancy DisGrace with her snotty way of treating the guest she invites to her show.

I think about basketball games, when the free throws came the crowd would go mostly silent. Now the fans go into mass hysteria trying to distract the shooter.

Music, I don't recall the "F" word being said all throughout the songs or talk of slapping "ho's".

As far as all the crime, it is difficult for me to judge, I was born in 1964, but it's hard to say whether crime has skyrocketed or if it's simply the easy access to the news. With all the media coverage, do we just hear much more about it than we did back in the 60's. Or maybe now that I am in my 40's, I pay much more attention to the news, therefore I know more than I care to about the bad.

I just get the impression that Morals are definitely going out the window in today's society. Maybe being a dad has me more sensitive than when I was a wild teen.

Don

quote:

So morals are personal decisions, but we vote a man and gov't in office to tell us what is moral and immoral.

I certainly don't vote anyone into office to tell me what is moral or immoral. Frankly, the majority of thise in office hace compromised their's to get INTO that office.

The last thing I need or want is for the government to define morality.

I was one of the toughest little street rats you didn't ever want to meet, in 1958 till 1964.

I NEVER would have thought of mouthing off to a teacher, or if I did, there was Montefiore reform school to be only too glad to accomodate my sorry azz. I never would have given a harness bull ( cop) any crap either they would have beaten me half to death!!

I spent time in orphanages and foster homes and trust me on this, it was no picnic. My mother beat me into entirely new and interesting shapes till I was 15 when I told her if she touched me again I would beat her unconscious. This last included to show that I was NOT from the 50's version of Ward Cleavers household or Father Knows Best the forunners of the family sitcom.....before of course Archie Bunker, a more honest presentation, but without the booze!!!

Gang fights then consisted of fists and if a knife was employed it was a rarity and, I never laid eyes on a gun except to hunt rabbits with my grandfather in Wisconsin.

Chicago was aguably the toughest city in the country along with New york and it was so because we all were EXPECTED to be tough.

The girls were carefull and we were careful of them, neckin' OH YEAH!! but not much more till the age of 18 or so and this is borne out by the teenage pregnancy statistics from those times,( you can check) roughly 6% among whites and 13% among minorities. Today it is not quite 40% for white and 70% for minorities in the inner cities.....Boy that sex education stuff REALLY works don't it!!!

I live in what is arguably the preppy capitol of the world out on Cape Cod and there is no civility here that can be recognised as such among the kids. The use of please, thank you, and, excuse me, by my 12 year old daughter, brings looks of great surprise from adults and approving comments without fail from all who hear her use the terms for polite discourse and commerce between human beings in society. When she is elbowed out of the way by some azzhat from Connecticut or N.Y.C. Or Jersey city, I just tell her not to mind, they're Yankees and don't know any better, and yeah, I'm still big enough to get away with it!! Where I grew up you didn't act like an alligator if you had a humming bird azz, or speak that way either!! Here in the north east they've never figured that out......oh well.

Now are there or more properly is THIS a more moral society you tell me I have lived in both worlds and have seen the stats from both of them and to me it is a long way from what we used to believe was right or acceptable then for moral or "right" behaviour

Be well....Tawodi...out

Ex CG GM,

I didn't mean it the way it came across. What I meant was that we elect people that fit our views, and they tell us what is right or wrong. I'm not saying we vote them to tell us this, but it is how it is. We vote and then they decide and force it on us. That is just the way it is. Even if, and they are, my morals are different then the gov't I still abide legally by their set of morals.
Anywhoo.
Hobab