Has America lost basic morality?

[annem]

Our society has rejected the idea of moral absolutes.

We are also poorly catechized and Bible literacy is extremely low.

We have become increasingly dumbed-down by the educational systems and the media.

We don’t know history, philosophy, theology or science.

Most people seem to have a lot of facts in their heads and at their fingertips, but they seem to lack the ability to synthesize it into a philosophy, or analyze it critically or draw connections with the past.

Also the rates of anxiety, depression and substance abuse are in the rise, which can interfere with a person’s ability to think clearly.

And we can’t delay gratification.

You are so right, and it is truly heartbreaking.

When DID America have “basic morality?” And how do you define the term?

True morality grows from a belief in God in Christianity; but of course there has never been a time when the majority of any nation, anywhere, were truly fully practicing Christians.

 

[Peeps]

When DID America have “basic morality?” And how do you define the term?

I don’t know if “basic morality” is quite the right term. Perhaps a better term would be “common civility.” E.g., a man always opened the door for a lady, and allowed her to enter first. E.g., children always obeyed their school teachers, and if they sassed back or acted up, they were punished immediately and the parents didn’t always hear about it (shock! and lawsuit!" .

These kinds of expectations are largely gone now.

 

[phil19034]

Do the looters represent all demonstrators?

No one is saying that everyone who peacefully demonstrates is part of the looters. They are not.

Peaceful protest is fine.

But then you THOUSANDS of looters and rioters. These people are not out all day, they come out later, ready to start havoc.

I’m fine with PEACEFUL protest.

I’m not OK with (but recognize it is legal) protest with profanity and/or angry protests.

HOWEVER, throwing bricks, attacking police officers, using guns, burning cars, attacking people, robbing stores, etc is NOT protest. That is anarchy and those people should be arrested.

If the “evil police” were really evil, they would open fire (with real bullets) into the crowd when they start doing these evil acts.

This is the evil head of the devil and the warning of Russia’s errors from Fatima. Anyone who thinks the Communist threat the Blessed Mother warned us of about Communism died with the Soviet Union is going to have a rude awakening.

The WEST right now is experiencing a communist uprising, and in the United States… this is just the start.

Lord, have mercy on us.

 

[EssentialBeing]

And there have been many police who’ve been killed in the past.

Was anyone decrying America’s lost morality then?

Very true, just like the slogan of black lives matter should be consolidated to read ALL lives matter.
There is only one small difference, in that police officers choose the career knowing full well the dangers that come with a badge & have all the latest training & gadgets to better protect their life. On the other hand the people they serve & protect don’t choose to be detained in a way that threatens to extinguish life.

And I am not saying that one is any more or less important than the other, only that police officers almost always have the upper hand & have to be seen to have the highest of morals to be more in control & prevent death.

 

[blackforest]

Well, that’s tangential to this thread, but I couldn’t agree more! I’ve traveled to countries where people still give up their bus seats for senior citizens and pregnant women and wish we shared a similar spirit in our culture.

But on a broader scale, if we had more civility in our culture and treated each other with kindness, we wouldn’t have all of the racism, riots, etc. Sigh. Maybe we should be asking about basic kindness instead.

I just took issue with the article’s implication that we once had “basic morality” and have now lost it. There’s no such thing as The Good Old Days.

 

[Pat_Albertson]

Some of our basic immorality has irrupted into the outer world in which we share, but tens of millions of babies have already been aborted; we lost our basic morality decades ago, it’s just becoming a bit more visible now is all.

If God does not punish this sinful society severely, then He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.

 

[otjm]

I am inclined to thing that the majority - meaning better than 50% - hav not; but the two extremes opf the polar ends have. I simply know too many good people who are trying to do the right thing.

Part of the the difficulty of “doing the right thing” is that we have become a nation (and we are not alone in this) of “instant sound bites’” which come at us so rapidly and constantly that there is little if any time for reflection and critical thinking.

And so it becomes far too easy to speak the sound bites we have heard, rather than stepping back and determining if the possible scintilla of truth in the sound bite has been spun for a purpose other than the simple facts. In short, altogether too much of our “news” media has turned into our editorial media - and this is both sides of the spectrum.

 

[otjm]

On the other hand the people they serve & protect don’t choose to be detained in a way that threatens to extinguish life.

And in the extreme majority cases where people are detained, no one’s life is threatened.

This by no means should be taken to indicate that excessive use of force - that beyond what is necessary to the specific situation - should ever be tolerated.

 

[Lea101]

When did America have basic morality? I don’t think America is less moral than before because of these riots.

There has always been great evil, it just changes forms. Slavery, Jim crow, lynchings, etc. Saying America is somehow less moral and then throwing in Democrats is just a cheap shot.

 

[Polak]

a man always opened the door for a lady, and allowed her to enter first.

These kinds of expectations are largely gone now.

Oh not only are some of them gone, it might even be considered improper to open a door for a lady now, because you know, men and women are the same and this plays into gender stereotypes.

 

[Peeps]

police officers choose the career knowing full well the dangers that come with a badge & have all the latest training & gadgets to better protect their life.

I’m not sure about that. I think a lot of men and women join the police force because they see the ads on TV and think, “Hmm, I’m in pretty good shape. And the pay is good and the benefits…I could probably do that. AND THE ONLY EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENT IS A HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA?!! Wow! Why am I working at three fast-food restaurants to make a living?! The police get to drive great cars and wear cool uniforms, and I would learn how to shoot! And even though there is some danger, most of the time, it’s just patrolling around and talking to people–I like talking to people! I think I’ll apply!”

I know there are all kinds of tests and interviews to rule out people who have various weaknesses (like drug addiction) or racist attitudes, or a tendency to glorify violence, or a “TV view” of what the police do. Hopefully these interviews weed out people who are not suited for the career of law enforcement.

One of my friend’s husband was a cop for 30 years, retiring when he was only 51 years old. He ended up taking another job as head of security at a local junior college. He is a rabid conservative and Republican, committed to the military which he was not able to join (I think he was too short?), and he had a high school education. Anyway, he was a good cop, never got in trouble. I think there are a lot of young men and women like him who enter the police force and generally do a good job serving.

However, I’m guessing that there are not a lot of liberals, BLM supporters, social justice advocates, etc. who are interested in becoming policemen. Democrats,yes–I believe that there are law enforcement unions or at least collective bargaining organizations for police. And a lot of Democrats are conservative in many of their viewpoints about various moral and religious issues. So yes, plenty of Democrats in the police force.

Perhaps if some of the liberal, BLM supporters, etc. were to join the police force and work from within, they would have more success in bringing about the changes that they are striving to see in law enforcement. It’s easy to call out for change when you’re on the outside looking in. But put on that blue uniform and work with real people living in real neighborhoods–I’m sure it’s a challenge moment to moment. And a lot of stereotypes might fall by the wayside if some of the protesters see and experience what the beat cops see and experience every day.

 

[Peeps]

Part of the the difficulty of “doing the right thing” is that we have become a nation (and we are not alone in this) of “instant sound bites’” which come at us so rapidly and constantly that there is little if any time for reflection and critical thinking.

We also have a public school system that is staffed by teachers who have received their education at the hands of extremely liberal professors, and who are members of extremely liberal unions. These teachers are forced to stick with a liberal teaching syllabus that strongly slants towards the liberal POV what the children, teens, and young adults hear and see day after day.

And of course, there is little if any mention of traditional religion, especially Christianity, in the public school arena. It’s not allowed. So the children and young people have no filter with which to interpret the liberal viewpoints that they are force-fed.

Some students do speak up in support of traditional teaching, but they don’t have the scholarship of an adult to be able to defend their viewpoint. And many of them have parents who were raised in this same liberal school system and they can’t be of much help. I think that many conservative families end up sending their children to church-sponsored schools or homeschools. It’s really hard to be a child who is “different” than all the other kids and who is constantly on the firing line from their teachers and school administrators and their student peers. Better to be raised in a more loving and accepting environment (ironic, isn’t it, that the “liberal” schools, for all their cries to accept everyone, will not accept a conservative family/child).

 

[oliver109]

Perhaps if some of the liberal, BLM supporters, etc. were to join the police force and work from within, they would have more success in bringing about the changes that they are striving to see in law enforcement.

Perhaps if some of the liberal, BLM supporters, etc. were to join the police force and work from within, they would have more success in bringing about the changes that they are striving to see in law enforcement. Indeed but how do you know that many liberals may have tried to join the police but failed to get in? Nepotism is still quite common in many rural police forces at least and most state police forces(those that are responsible for patrolling highways and remote areas) along with county sheriff departments are overwhelmingly white northern European in origin, they are not under pressure to recruit left wingers let alone ethnic minorities. Something has to change when it comes to police recruitment, it has to change fast.

 

[Peeps]

Nepotism is still quite common in many rural police forces at least and most state police forces(those that are responsible for patrolling highways and remote areas) along with county sheriff departments are overwhelmingly white northern European in origin, they are not under pressure to recruit left wingers let alone ethnic minorities. Something has to change when it comes to police recruitment, it has to change fast.

Minneapolis is very liberal and is definitely not rural or remote. So is NYC, LA, Chicago, etc. I cannot imagine a police force in these cities getting away with nepotism or turning away minorities. It would be a scandal in these cities.

I think it’s possible that many liberals find guns so detestable that they cannot bring themselves to pursue a career in law enforcement. I’m not criticizing this–I respect the peace-loving attitude that rejects guns and other deadly weapons. But it means that these people will not become police officers. There are other careers that help law enforcement, though, that liberals populate; e.g., many lawyers hold very liberal views (at least in public), and of course, many lawyers end up involved in politics.

Our city has a respectable number of African American police men and women on the police force. They vigorously recruit African Americans, Latinos, and Asians. I see a lot more African American cops than white cops, at least in our city in Northern Illinois.

There is a reason why there are many white cops in rural and remote areas–there really aren’t a lot of African Americans who live in these areas! It’s not prejudice by the police departments–it’s practicality! However, we have a fairly large number of Latinos who have moved into the farms and small towns–one of the farms near my family’s farm is owned by a Mexican family who raises prize horses.

Keep in mind that many cities and towns have requirements that their police actually LIVE in the city or town (or at least the county) where they serve as officers. Our city has this rule, and many of us think it’s a good rule, not likely to be changed.

Another thing you have to keep in mind is that even though television makes it appear that there are large numbers of African Americans, they are still a minority–around 19% of our population. So it’s not always easy for cities to recruit African Americans because there aren’t that many of them.

Finally, sadly, at least in our city, 50% of African American young men DROP OUT OF HIGH SCHOOL. I have not heard the statistics for African American young women. This means that all of these young men are NOT eligible to apply for the police force, as the educational requirement is a high school diploma or equilivent. They could go for their GED, or they could go back to school and finish high school at our city’s excellent Adult Alternative High School (which features a day care center and other amenities that make it more feasible for younger and older adults to go back to school). But they won’t be eligible to apply to to be a police officer until they have that diploma or equivalent.

 

[oliver109]

The officer in Minneapolis was a bad egg, he just happened to be white and other police in the video were clearly not north European in ethnicity, many of the other instances involving police brutality were in areas where the police force was largely white in makeup such as that incident where the man was shot while lying down in a hotel corridor, the policeman was related to someone on the force! It is true that many African Americans don’t live in rural areas, especially in the north and west but those areas often have large Hispanic communities and they remain unrepresented in Sheriff departments.

 

[Peeps]

the policeman was related to someone on the force! I

I think a lot of people who are police are related to other police–it just runs in families. A child that grows up with parents who are police is likely to be interested in following the career, certainly more so than children who never see a police uniform, never see a gun, never hold a gun, never see their parents volunteering for a school program or a neighborhood children’s program, never take part in some of the ceremonies that police attend.

Of course there are smaller towns where the police force and possibly the entire city government is corrupt, ruled by a few families who punish those who dare to cross them. My personal feeling is that those who are aware of this and despise it should do everything they can to leave that town and move somewhere where they feel safe and protected. There are plenty of small towns in our big country that welcome people of all colors and nationalities and that are often cheaper to live in than a town that is run by thugs.

I realize that some people are “stuck” in a locale because of their family situation (aging parents? a sick child? etc.) or because of their good job that they can’t afford to give up. I have no answer for this, although I tend to think that if my life or my family’s life was in danger, I would leave in spite of the difficulties. After all, a dead child can’t take care of aging parents.

 

[Johann_du_Toit]

This kind of looting and pillaging happens just as often (more, in fact) in South Africa than in the United States. With the rise of Antifa this type of “protesting” is being seen occurring worldwide.

It would be more accurate to say that the entire world has lost basic morality.

 

[oliver109]

A child that grows up with parents who are police is likely to be interested in following the career, certainly more so than children who never see a police uniform, never see a gun, never hold a gun, never see their parents volunteering for a school program or a neighborhood children’s program, never take part in some of the ceremonies that police attend.

I think most children would fancy the idea of becoming police officers, it is a varied job involving a lot of action and variety and it is easy to access too without having to migrate or be stationed overseas for a long period. The problem with nepotism in police departments is that it denies other people the opportunity to serve and to do a job that they want to do, i defend nepotism but not in a job that is highly subscribed for.

 

[Shakuhachi]

No one is saying that everyone who peacefully demonstrates is part of the looters. They are not.

Annem stated that, “Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds thousands of violent arsonists, thieves, and and brick throwing leftists…”

 

[goout]

What has happened to us?

We chose to deify personal license in the lip service of freedom. Especially sexual license. And that kind of absolute license opens the door too rampant self-license in all areas. We deify license in an infantile way in this country and others.