JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Songwriter Message Forum Where is the morality of the young people going?

Hi there

Saw this thread in the 'what's going on'' box and it intrigued me!

Adolescents don't have any morality, other than that which is imposed upon them - and morality itself is a shifting sand, dependent upon which set of codes a society (or its moral arbiters) currently works to. But the fact that the rules say you can, or (more likely) you cannot do this or that means nothing if the society itself doesn't work to those rules.

Teachers certainly don't seem to get much respect these days - but a large part of that seems to be due to the fact that kids are no longer taught, but treated as consumers of education; and the function of that education is to reach a pre-determined standard in order to pass exams. Actually learning (and being taught to teach yourself, which is the greatest aid to gaining knowledge and understanding that anyone can possess) has become irrelevant.

However, I don't think society (or at least the western capital economies) have become any more or less moral - simply less controlled. Nor is the answer to this to impose more control on society; the evidence of the rapid collapse of the eastern european bloc shows how effective that is the long run!

Human beings seem to flourish best when they experience true liberty - and when they respond to it responsibly. Encourage people to think, and refrain from moral judgment, and there is more chance that society can function without control, since each individual is equally a rational member of that society. Perhaps that's a rather a utopian idea - but if you have faith in the better part of people as a whole, then at least you have a starting point.

Interesting topic.

Dan