by Doug Clore

Created on: November 17, 2009   Last Updated: November 18, 2009

Our question is this: "are changes in society always better?". Several clarifying questions come to mind: "what is meant by better", "better than what?", and "better for whom?". A reasonable definition of "better" in this case is "morally superior" . "Better than what?" can be answered by the suggestion that change in society involves change in the status quo, "better for whom" is best answered by "better for the majority of individuals in society". Do changes in the status quo always result in a morally superior position for the majority of individuals who make up society.

It is obvious that many changes do indeed result in a morally superior position for the majority. Abolishing slavery changed the status quo and improved the moral position of slaves by abolishing a status quo where slave holders and non slaveholders alike were encouraged to abuse and attempt to dehumanize individuals who were just as surely created in the image of God, and just as surely created by a God who loved them, as any other people on earth. Abolishing slavery also began the first step of removing a dark stain on the souls of the men who had become so hardened to the truth as to allow themselves liberty to participate in the cruelty and inhumanity found at the heart of all slavery, or to allow themselves liberty to turn their heads as if they saw no wrong.

Many changes in the status quo of society have likewise brought about a morally superior condition to the majority in society, among them women's suffrage, and child labor laws. Other changes are not so clear, like Roe vs Wade, as there is debate over whether the change from the status quo has brought about a condition that is morally superior, or morally inferior.

While many changes in society have brought about a morally superior condition for the majority, all we need is one example that does not, and the answer to our question ("are changes always better"), must be "no". I submit just such a change, the increase in divorce. In each decade since the 1940s, increasing divorce rates have definitely not improved our moral situation. Adults have learned that society will no longer expect them to honor vows that they make before God and man, and our children have learned that there is nothing sacred about marriage, or parenthood for that matter, nothing that should make a couple honor their vows to love only each other, til death do us part. In addition, divorce has caused all manner of havoc among our children, who learn that their own happiness and their whole world for that matter, can nonchalantly be ripped apart for the most petty of reasons, by people should love them most, but who simply have no morals. For every legitimate case of abuse or infidelity, there are hundreds of cases where a mother or father decides they must abandon their spouse, their children, and their moral obligations, for no better reason than "I have to go find myself", or "I'm just not happy, and I owe it to myself to be happy". What a shameful result has come from the change to the social status quo where divorce was rare, rather than common. Unless a case can be made that our society is better off for indulging itself in higher and higher divorce rates, it cannot be said that changes in society are always better.

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