I didn't say anything about morality declining or nothing meaning anything anymore.
I feel like I'm just repeating myself in every one of these replies.
People are no better now. Morality is definitely not worse now. Overall, humans are more accepting of each other now than they have been in most of human history.
My comment is only on the perceived value of a vow. And how that is tied to the perceived value of one's word.
This isn't generational, nor is it me saying the kids need to get better, because in fact I think the kids are doing very well all things considered.
However, these kids are also growing up inside a system that feels like it's under collapse. Where the only true physical rewards in life come to those who easily break their word or do not consider a vow to be beyond all circumstance.
Just considering the demographics on this website, there's a fairly decent chance you're not older than me. Our experiences may differ.
But just by reading this, it's pretty clear that we have a different definition of a vow. I'm not sure why you're so up in arms about this.
I called you contrarian because you're in here arguing a point I didn't even make. I didn't say that I would hold you to a vow nor that I would judge you if you broke your vow.
I said that over the last ~50 years of me watching people I have seen a general pattern of the lessening of the value of these intangibles.
That's correct. People have always been people. In my short time on this dirty ball in space I have noticed that people I know, and people I work with, and people I interact with on the street, all put less and less value on intangible things like honor, respect, and your personal word being worth something as time goes on.
I'm in no way saying people were better in the past. I'm saying that the value assigned to these intangibles is currently worth less than it was in recent cultural memory.
I didn't say anything about a divorce or murder. Maybe I was bad at getting my point across.
The point I'm attempting to make is that putting value on your word, and by association giving extra value to a vow over another type of promise, is a lesser respected or necessary part of being a human in the late stage capitalist society that we live in.
This can be evidenced by people saying that a vow can easily be broken if the circumstances change.
A lot of people in the current culture we live in do not place any value on their word or honor. I don't really blame people for this since the system we live in almost exclusively rewards exactly the opposite behavior.
But it does make it very hard to communicate with people when you don't have the same vocabulary.
It seems like you and I believe a vow is something that you make and would hold yourself to regardless of circumstance. But the nature of our capitalistic society teaches us from very young age that if it will improve your standing, your finances, or your situation in some way, then it is okay to break your personal code.
With that rambling paragraph in mind, it's not surprising when we find out that most folks don't have a personal code and vows mean nothing more than a pinky swear.
Partakes in text-based medium. Refuses to read well written and polite comment that is four whole paragraphs. Proceeds to think they are the intelligent one in the conversation. Are you huffing glue right now?
Israel committing genocide, the US rounding up citizens and shipping them off to Africa, Russia claiming Ukrainian land and killing innocents in the process, The fucking Netherlands marking antifa as a terrorist org...
Better get up and go to work like nothing is wrong and glad-hand the executives making this shit possible.
I didn't say anything about morality declining or nothing meaning anything anymore.
I feel like I'm just repeating myself in every one of these replies.
People are no better now. Morality is definitely not worse now. Overall, humans are more accepting of each other now than they have been in most of human history.
My comment is only on the perceived value of a vow. And how that is tied to the perceived value of one's word.
This isn't generational, nor is it me saying the kids need to get better, because in fact I think the kids are doing very well all things considered.
However, these kids are also growing up inside a system that feels like it's under collapse. Where the only true physical rewards in life come to those who easily break their word or do not consider a vow to be beyond all circumstance.