Concluding thoughts on moral evolution

I started this by asking whether someone who traveled in time from 1800 to now would see unambiguous progress. My answer was no. I’ve tried to avoid specifically defining what I consider to be moral – the point is to focus on earlier generations’ views of morality. Would they see modern society as more moral?

Actually, I believe that an intelligent observer would be surprised by the incredible scale of progress in only a few areas (perhaps consumer electronics and military technology).

My thesis is this: each generation believes itself to be the most moral generation ever. It "proves" this by re-defining morality every generation. In our times, the argument goes something like: previous generations were racist; therefore, our generation is the most moral. Perhaps you could substitute pollution or whatever for racism, but generally racism will suffice to prove our excellence.

Economic growth solves many problems, however, immorality is not one of them. In fact, economic growth beyond a certain point seems to create immorality. We’re now rich enough that we consider it a "right" for people to do nothing for 2/3 of their life (the first third in school and the last third in retirement). A surprising number of people manage to do nothing in the middle third as well.

Our hypothetical time traveler would marvel at our cell phones and our airplanes and our advanced in medicine. He would be stymied by our inability to translate these technological improvements into better governance and better morality.

Have we taken these technological advancements and reached a pinnacle of civilization? Our ancestors created the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution without telephones or typewriters. We create mockeries of them.

Yesterday in my neighborhood, less than 1.5 miles from the nation’s Capitol and in broad daylight, a guy mugged a pregnant woman. If the guy is caught (unlikely), he’ll be fined and let go. Or perhaps he’ll be locked up for a year, which will cost the taxpayer a bit more than the annual median family income. Order and justice are openly mocked. They cannot be mocked in this manner forever.

Virtue is dead. If you don’t believe me, try acting virtuously.

The cornerstones of civilization in 1800 – church, marriage, and family – are destroyed or in the process of being destroyed. This would, of course, be fine if they were being replaced by something better. They’re not. They’re being replaced by pantheism, a crude form of polygamy, abortion on demand paid for by others.