The Question: Is the following quote true?
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised." Marilyn Manson
Don't let the source throw you. Is it true? I have been raised on a firm belief in perpetual moral decay - that everything is steadily getting worse. Every day we grow more and more immoral. Every year we have less and less regard for the value of human life. Certainly modern horrors like genocide, school shootings, abortion (depending on your beliefs), rampant crime and corruption seem to support this.
But consider the past. War, hate, murder, and racism are not new. On Sunday morning my pastor told how 6,600 followers of Spartacus were crucified along a road by Roman general Crassus. Try to imagine that happening today. Imagine if we were to equip the ancient armies of Rome, Greece, Egypt, or Sparta with the military technology of today - can we really say nuclear holocaust wouldn't be the result? What about the gladiators? Or the widespread practice of slavery?
It just so happens I found the following TED talk today on this very subject. It is characteristically eye-opening, and sheds a wealth of skepticism on the widely held belief that we are more violent now than we ever were. Steven Pinker argues the opposite is true.
Now certainly there is more to morality than a lack of violence, and more to immorality than murder. But I don't necessarily see why the likelihood of murder isn't a good measure for the immorality of a society. If laying down your life for your brother is the ultimate act of love, why shouldn't taking his life be the ultimate act of evil? If violence has steadily decreased over recorded history then can we really say immorality has increased? It seems there is a lot to be said for civilization.
I encourage you to give Pinker's lecture a listen if this topic interests you - he provides a lot of interesting theories as to why we believe violence has gotten so much worse. One of the theories is Manson's - thanks to the media we know more about the violence in our world.
Then there's the trouble of implications - if things are getting better all the time, what does this mean? Specifically, what does it mean for my faith?
Something to think about.
"I have seen the future and it works" - Lincoln Stevens.
ReplyDeletei think it really is important how you view the slope of the current arc of history. i believe that we're in a long, extended story of redemption, not decay. and more specifically, we're to work for that redemption.
It's posts like this that make me love blogging, thanks Justin! I think Rob sums it up nicely, redemption not decay (in both morality and wealth).
ReplyDeleteRob - Nice quote. I suppose you've seen its opposite which I posted a few days ago. I agree that our job here on earth is to work for redemption. But I (and I believe, most Christians I know) have been taught that the world is steadily growing more and more immoral. People I love dearly taught me this. At this point I'm not sure it's true or biblical, but it must have come from somewhere.
ReplyDeleteHarrison - Wow, what a compliment! I had a feeling the "contrary to popular belief" nature of this post would excite you.
Rob and Harrison - I'm curious - you guys are both Christians. Were you not taught that the world is getting more evil all the time? If so when did you decide it wasn't true? What influenced you to believe what you do?
Hmm, I'm not sure if I've ever been explicitly told that the world is always getting worse, but I think I have at least at one time believed it. I probably officially moved away from it when I got really into economics and realized how much better off we all are since the Industrial Revolution. Now whether we've all gotten more immoral is another thing. Not sure if I ever believed that, but I think we've all heard the story of how technology has made people less empathetic. Do you think this is just a christian thing? Doesn't it seem like all kinds of people complain about how great the "good ole days" were?
ReplyDeleteI think part of the christian side of this may be from the book of Revelations. It predicts (whether symbolically or realistically) about how chaotic things will get near the "end times".
My wife reminds me that some look back to the 50's as a time of idealistic morality. But in fact their sin may not have been less, just different. Also this is a very cultural question. My bet is that many non-industrialized countries haven't really seen much change.
I'm confused by your use of "better" in contrast with less immoral. I agree we've gotten richer and because of that we have less poverty and higher standards of living, and this is "better." But I would say having less immorality and therefore less violence would be "better" too.
ReplyDeleteI would think technology has made us more empathetic, not less, by connecting us.
I do think most older people complain about how things were better when they were younger. But that's not really what I'm going for here. I'm talking specifically about the belief that the world is in a state of increasing moral decline which a lot of Christians I have met (and been taught by) believe. Like this guy. This particular belief is most definitely a Christian thing.
I absolutely agree that passages about the end times describe a time of rampant sin and corruption and that has contributed to this belief. What do we do with this? If things are going to be bad then does that mean they're getting worse now? I don't know.
The idea that the 50's were not a time of idealized morality is a sentiment John Stewart expresses a lot - citing how there was less sex on TV but black people drank from different water fountains. I think he has a point.
I think the decline in violence is definitely less noticeable in other countries but after viewing the TED talk, I think the data may show it has declined globally, though certainly more in industrialized areas.
Thanks for your thoughts, brother. I know you grew up Methodist. I have another friend with a Methodist background who said he was taught the world is perpetually getting less and less moral. This must vary by church. Very interesting.
There is of course the idea that we are getting more immoral but our immorality is changing forms. However, this means whatever immorality we have now must be worse than horrendous violence. That's hard for me to envision.