DeMoralized …
Some of us recall the time when school children were faced with seemingly irresolvable situations and asked to make a decision as to who would survive or not. A simple example: Three people in a boat which is sinking and only two can be saved - how do they determine who is saved, or conversely who doesn’t?
Welcome situation ethics!
Or, to put things more crassly, think of the many instances of divisive foment promulgated by governments, at all levels, with little actual true science, but lots of rhetoric, and media push, claiming authenticity - global warming, sorry that one has been changed, due to lack of evidence, to climate change, racial (dis)advantage based on the degree of melatonin in our skin, or religious “wars” most recently Ukrainian Orthodox Church vs the Russian Orthodox Church rooted in the “war in Ukraine”, …
Is the human condition one of constant conflict? Are we not rooted in a common origin - “the image and likeness of our Creator”? Are we not equipped with a conscience which enables us to go beyond divisiveness, wherever sourced and move towards a compassion of unity, helpfulness and support for others? When we hear of genuine needs in the lives of others, do we not have a deep desire to be instrumental in alleviating their plight?
Vincent Kennedy shared this recent decision from Save America on Telegram May 31, 2022:
“Oak Park and River Forest High School administrators will require teachers next school year to adjust their classroom grading scales to account for the skin color or ethnicity of its students. School board members discussed the plan called “Transformative Education Professional Development & Grading” at a meeting on May 26, presented by Assistant Superintendent for Student Learning Laurie Fiorenza. In an effort to equalize test scores among racial groups, OPRF will order its teachers to exclude from their grading assessments variables it says disproportionally hurt the grades of black students. They can no longer be docked for missing class, misbehaving in school or failing to turn in their assignments, according to the plan. “Traditional grading practices perpetuate inequities and intensify the opportunity gap,” reads a slide in the PowerPoint deck outlining its rationale and goals. Advocates for so-called "equity based" grading practices, which seek to raise the grade point averages of black students and lower scores of higher-achieving Asian, white and Hispanic ones, say new grading criteria are necessary to further school districts' mission of DEIJ, or "Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice.””
It doesn’t take much imagination to comprehend where this trend will lead. Is that where we really want our cultures to go? The death of the pursuit of excellence will have tragic ends unless there is a concerted effort to stand against such destroying tides and trends. Yes, this is a battle for our future, for our children, for the very essence of what is:
“Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [centre your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].” Philippians 3:8 AMP
We seem to be drawn into battles we did not create and about which we know little but feel that something is not what it should be.
Could we say, de-moralizing?
Demoralized - having lost confidence or hope; disheartened. Perhaps our experience has taught us the truth of this definition.
Or, to put it crassly, the “ethics” (ethical response) based merely on one’s perception of a “situation”. This “camel in the tent” mentality led to the erosion of ethics rooted in moral universals and made the individual the source of right and wrong in their situations.
Oh, how far we have come from those early days of “seed planting”!
If you happen to be over 50 years of age, you are probably familiar with the ethos of the culture in which you were raised. If I am correct, it still determines your behaviour.
One of its characteristics was a commonly understood sense of what was right and wrong - regardless of attendance at church or synagogue.
Things like sanctity of life, marriage covenants, importance of family, work ethic, God-centred education, decency, loyalty, morality, modesty, compassion, accountability to God (personal responsibility), honour, respect for others/elders, and value of discipline were behind conduct expectations.– deportment, manners, habits.
Yes, there have always been the outliers, but now it seems they form a majority, and those of such traditional values have become the outliers. We have been sidelined by the very culture we endeavoured to birth.
Succinctly, encapsulating the whole First Testament, memorialized in a few words by Jesus, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12.
Wow! How I wish all of life was that simple!
Over the last few decades you probably observed, as one, then another, of these values with which you were inculcated as a child, were scratched from the molding of childhood.
Media in all its forms, and education in particular, are complicit in this change, as slowly, but with increasing intensity, each moral value was challenged and replaced. The frog-in-the-kettle analogy writ large on memories became the teacher of behavioural acceptability.
In the process of moving from an objective standard on which our living and society was based and to which we were expected to conform, we have transitioned to accept an egocentric basis for all evaluation. Personal choice has become the mantra of acceptability.
Is this progress for a culture?
Am I the only one who sees telling students that everything they do/write/submit is “awesome”, eventually sets them up to being of little value in the workplace where employers have to communicate that their work and attitudes are not? Where does the brazenness come from when a young person, applying for a job, tells the potential employer what they will or will not do in the position for which they are applying?
Such unmitigated gall!
When the writer of Proverbs mentioned this instruction to parents, “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.” (13:24), he opened a door to what some remember as inappropriate parental conduct. Some of us were the recipients of such punishment which lingers throughout life, sadly, and can become a pattern for our own disciplining actions.
But let us not allow mistakes of the past to remain our standard, when we learn what was truly meant in such passages! Punishment appropriate to the character of the child, rather than a one-size-fits-all application of the “rod”.
If we reflect on history for a moment, every empire rose to prominence through a disciplined conquest, an adherence to a uniform morality, a single focus to which all were expected to adhere; and fell, when such standards were relaxed and profligate habits predominated. Are we observing the moral decaying implosion of our 21st century culture?
Roger Scruton is quoted in a Socha Faal commentary on June 1, 2022, “The roots of western civilization lie in the religion of Israel, the culture of Greece and the law of Rome, and the resulting synthesis has flourished and decayed in a thousand ways during the two millennia which followed the death of Christ.”
George Santayana is credited with the saying, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Judges 17:6, “…Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Isaiah 5:20, “You are doomed! You call evil good and call good evil. You turn darkness into light and light into darkness.”
Don’t be surprised if we soon find out that these two mantras have been the catalyst for much of our current shift in morality – transposing the beneficial for the corrupt, the light of creativity for the darkness of conformity, diversity for uniformity, freedom for slavery, denial for accountability.
How can current trends of decline in our world cultures be encouraged to seek the universal good, so in everything, we do to others what we would have them do to us?
Perhaps the currently popular saying, “Some people you cannot tell, you have to show them”, is being played out in 2022.
History seems to be repeating itself - again - and we seem to be slow learners!
De-moralizing is becoming demoralizing!