No

by Valentine Logar

Created on: September 09, 2009

Are we truly a moral society, have we ever been so and are we more or less than in years past? This is the question that has plagued every generation and one that is nearly always answered that we are less so today than in previous decades. What changes so dramatically between generations that would cause this marked decline in the perception of our morals? Is there some specific function or behavior that can be pointed at within each generation that could be said to be the indicator for the downward slide to perdition? These are the questions that we must ask about the generation of our children and that our parents have asked about us. What though is the barometer for a moral society, the basis by which we judge?

Let is take a short walk through the history of this nation to determine for ourselves the morality of each generation and draw our own conclusions. It is only by seeking our answers in history that we are truly able to answer the question at hand, are we morally in decline. First, it is important to define the span of time between generations, for the purpose of this article twenty-five years is the span used. Where historical periods span greater periods than a single generation it will be noted.

The discovery and founding of the continent of America spanned nearly 200 years, beginning in 1607 with the founding of Jamestown, Virginia on May 12, 1607. Now of course it is well known that Virginia was inhabited by indigenous people, in fact several different tribes called the Virginia territories home. The settlers were kept alive by trading with the Native peoples for food in their first hard years. Overall, from 1607 to 1619 it might be said that the colonies were so focused on survival they had no choice but to behave in a moral fashion. In 1619, this would change though with the introduction of the first slaves sold in the Americas. From a moral perspective, the argument could be made that this represented a sharp departure and decline in the moral fabric of the nation that lasted for approximately 246 years.

Of course, one shouldn't forget those wonderful Puritans and the Salem Witch trials of 1692 and 1693. This was a very moral period of our national history indeed by all accounts. Yet and one that we should all use as a cautionary tale of a religious extremism, political rhetoric, and judicial overstepping. The results of this morally "right" period of our history was the arrest and imprisonment of 150 innocent people and ultimately the death of twenty, nineteen by hanging and one by crushing.

As the nation grew and expanded, fighting a war of independence and defining a secular and democratic government other people immigrated attracted by the freedoms promised by the Constitution and the availability of land. The promise of religious freedom, the right to worship without interference by the government was particularly attractive to those who had been persecuted in their European homes where religion and state were so closely mingled. Obviously, a new start, the abundance of available land was an attraction hard to ignore.

The expansion of the nation focused primarily on what are now known as the Southern States. Commonly referred to as the Age of Manifest Destiny, the period from 1812 to 1860 was the most prolific in expansion; however, the period just prior to the Civil War saw some of the most heinous acts against the tribes by the military expansionists. While George Washington and Henry Knox proposed cultural transformation of the indigenous people of America, Andrew Jackson was the first President to propose and pass legislation to remove them from their ancestral lands, by force if necessary. Beginning in 1831 and through 1837, the native peoples were forcibly removed from their homes and lands with little but the clothes on their backs. They were herded into camps to await their removal to the new Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma; these camps were unsanitary and breeding grounds for disease. Ultimately, approximately 46,000 Natives from many different tribes were removed from their lands, held in horrific conditions then forced to march over 1,000 miles under brutal conditions to land that could not sustain them. This march was called the Trail of Tears and it is believed that up to 10,000 people, primarily Cherokee and Choctaw died along the trail from exposure, starvation, and disease. Another sharp departure from the moral high ground, the abuse of the native peoples of the Americas for no reason other than avarice that is the desire for their lands.

Let's leap ahead to history that is more recent, evaluate the moral standards of the nation, and discern the variations where we might be slipping. This moral slippage seems to be the hue and cry heard throughout the land, one that each successive generation takes up with fervor so there must be some small kernel of truth to it, mustn't there. Thus far from a historical standpoint we have witnessed the introduction of slavery, the Witch Trials resulting in the death of several innocent men and women, and forcible removal of the indigenous people from their lands which also resulted in several thousand deaths; all of these things have a distinctly immoral taint.

From 1919 to 1933, we had Prohibition, which along with prohibiting the manufacture and transportation of liquor saw the rise of some of the most vicious criminal enterprises in US history. The FBI refers to the years between 1921 and 1933 as The Lawless Years because of the rise of violent and organized crime, the complete disregard to the Prohibition laws by both the common man and the criminal and the limited scope of federal jurisdiction. Moral? It seems that this was a period where even those usually law-abiding citizens were walking on the wild side of the law.

Skipping ahead not to far to 1942 we find Executive Order 9066 which brought about the forcible removal and interment of approximately 110,000 American citizens of Japanese descent. The attacks on Japanese Americans had begun long before WWII, but increased after the attack on Pearl Harbor led by Earl Warren, the Attorney General of California and Lt. General John L. DeWitt, head of the Western Command and who would later administer the internment program. Was this a moral program based on moral standards? One need only examine some of the edicts issued during this time including the designation that they included all persons who were "as little as 1/16 Japanese" could be placed in internment camps.

With a speech on 9 February 1950, Joseph McCarthy forever stamped his name on an era of political skullduggery that would eventually bear his name although begun several years before his official involvement. The period known as the Second Red Scare, immediately following the end of WWII was spearheaded by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, with support from the FBI and unpaid informants. Known for the malicious attacks based on all too often unsubstantiated evidence, the primary targets of the Committee were educators, union activists, government employees, and those in the entertainment industry. To even be called before the Committee usually meant job loss and frequently your name on a blacklist and the ruination of careers. Moral? It seems the law was taking the moral low ground during this era, petty and without thought destroying people's lives.

Skipping ahead again to the 1960's we find ourselves in another pendulum swing decade. Vietnam is an unpopular war, music is changing, and with it so is how we listen to it, Rosa Parks had sat down on the bus, Martin Luther King had a dream that resonated, and three greats are assassinated John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X. New drugs, called recreational, mind altering have become part of our world, and things that were once hidden are now openly discussed, such as sexuality and women. New morality? New immorality? Certainly, the world is changing before our eyes at a rapid pace; the complexities of the questions of morality are getting more difficult. A generation is turning on and tuning out.

As the time machine whirls by we look in on the decade of greed, the 1980's. Politically 1981 ushered in 12 years of Republicans in the White House beginning with Ronald Regan. This is the decade that saw deregulation of the stock market, big business, imports, and savings and loan, which ushered in many of the economic failures of today but saw the first S&L scandal that ultimately cost US taxpayers $1.4 trillion in bailout. This was the decade that brought us the movie Wall Street and the infamous quote, "Greed is good". Moral?

Now we have entered the twenty-first century and we question whether society is less moral than at any other time in our history. There are those who rail against the removal of "God" from schools claiming this is a certain sign of the loss of our moral center. Others who claim we are moving away from the Christian Nation our Founding Fathers intended us to be, yet nowhere in our founding documents is Christianity or the Christian God mentioned as a framework for governing our moral behavior as a society. Humans are frail and susceptible to all sorts of temptations but ultimately humans are mostly good. Ultimately, humans make mostly good choices and in a complex world full of increasingly complex choices where it is far easier to be selfish humans continue to do more good things than bad. Are personal morals decaying, I would say no they are not however, the basis of our evaluation is changing and so it should.

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