Specifically I am talking about Western culture and the dramatic changes in morals, values, etc. I’m sure that you all know what exactly I have in mind even if I can’t express it very clearly. How did everything change? Were things much better in the past in terms of how people lived and interacted with each other? I’d like some perspective from those who know more about it.
Personally, there’s much that I can’t stand, and I feel disconnected from most people because of it. The standards or interaction seem so barbaric and depraved. Cordiality and genuineness are almost to be eschewed as a rule. Instead, coarseness of language is vulgarity of subject matter is to be expected. Thus, outside of close friends and family, I have trouble getting along with people and I’m mostly labeled as anti-social.
How does everyone else feel about it? How were things in the past, for instance what could you expect from meeting someone for the first time? And how do you deal with a culture that seems to hate everything that is beautiful?
Dear smndtupidisaftr,
Cordial greetings and a very good day. Thankyou for raising this important topic.
Whilst it is certainly true that we must exercise some caution as regards looking back to the past with rose-tinted spectacles (cf. Ecclesiastes 7: 10), it is equally true that we must not be blindly sanguine respecting the present age. In the last century we sadly witnessed unprecedented moral and cultural deterioration, following the permissive revolution of the Sixties. Sadly, however, owing to the destructive influence of moral relativism, many expend much energy minimizing this moral/cultural declension - including many who identify as Catholics. Many have been negatively influenced even unwittingly.
So great, dear friend, has been the impact of moral relativism that whenever a man appeals to more sober and God-fearing times he is accused of crying up the goodness of the past whilst choosing to close his eyes to its less desirable features. This is usually a straw man and seldom the case anyway, for most reasonable men would freely acknowledge that all ages have been imperfect in some respects. However, what one can say without fear of contradiction is that prior to the permissive revolution of the Sixties and the consequent diminuition of the Christian consciousness men generally did walk in the good way and did not transgress the boundaries of good taste and decency. Incontrovertably, there was not the deplorably bad coarsening of manners, the shameful decriminalization and acceptance of homosexual vice and the spurious egalitarianism that seeks to blur the God-given distinctions between the sexes. Moreover, whilst birth control certainly existed before the 1960’s, its use was accelerated with the advent of the pill, resulting in widespread fornication and unions outside of holy wedlock. Again, what used to be referred to as ‘gentlemanly behaviour’ has also gradually disappeared, such as, for example, opening a door for a woman or offering her your seat on a crowded bus or train, because she is the ‘weaker sex’ and thus deserving of such consideration. Film and television in the decades before the Sixties was, for the most part, wholesome fare and even reinforced the moral virtues. Today the entertainment industry is ever seeking to push the envelope so as to keep pace with the debased tastes of our times Thus it is hardly surprising that our present age and its morally degenerate culture despises “everything that is beautiful” and employs such terms as ‘corny’ and ‘cheesy’ to describe the wholesome films/tv programmes of times past. This only serves to show the level to which we have stooped; we prefer anti-hero’s to the so called ‘cardboard characters’ of the older films and television shows. Men prefer moral ambiguity to moral absolutes and an ungodly mindset where everybody is right and nobody is wrong. Moreover, what is so very sad is that men actually believe that we are more enlightened and grown up and no longer need the values and taboos of the older world!
Perhaps, dear friend, in light of our tragic moral and cultural deterioration we ought to covet the undoubted goodness of former times and lament its passing a great deal more than we are wont to do. It is fashionable to focus
exclusively upon racial and female oppression when speaking of the past but this is leads to unbalanced discussion and eclipses the very many merits of former times. Within Catholic circles, especially amongst the youth, there is a morbid fear of being ‘overscrupulous’ as regards morality and standards and this can be a lame excuse for not having to live up to the arduous demands f our most holy religion. Moreover, there is a knee-jerk reaction against ‘Puritanism’ or Jansenism (its Catholic equivalent), which distorts thinking about all moral standards of the past. Again this has more to do with the sad fact that many of the faithful have succumbed to the secular drift and lowered standards of our age.
Finally, dear friend, let me say in closing that I greatly fear for our youth because the avante-garde generation of the Sixties have discarded the good traditions and morality that were informed by a healthy Christian consciousness. It admits of no serious no doubt that these wholesome traditions engendered a more God-fearing and civil society. How unfortunate that there is an assumption nowadays that if something is old then it must necessarily be suspect or worthless, which not only evinces a closed-mind but also is clear evidence that the past is seen as something to be feared as it plainly rebukes what men now find acceptable and normal.
God bless.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait
In Christos
, amazing response, thanks for your insight. 