Saturday, January 10, 2015

Myth buster: Values are worse today than ever before

Many people like to think that things, during the times they are alive in, are worse than they have ever been before.  Sometimes that's true, as we have never seen terrorism the way we are seeing it today, particularly from a non nation.  But in most cases, it is not true.

Consider that some people like to say things like: "The values of our kids is worse than it ever has been."

Something interesting that should blow the socks off people who say that is that people have been saying this, generation after generation, since the beginning of human existence.  Consider the the first person to say this in writing was Plato, and he was born in 428 B.C.

Plato said:
"What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets, inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaying. What is to become of them?"
A few hundred years later, in AD 1274, Peter the Hermit joined the chorus.
"The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint ... As for the girls, they are forward, immodest and unladylike in speech, behaviour and dress."
You see, it's nothing new for people to think that morals and values are worse during their lifetimes than ever before.

The truth is that if Plato and Peter the Hermit said this, then it was probably said by philosophers before them, and it was probably said by people going all the way back to the beginning of civilization, and maybe even the beginning of time.  Proof of this comes from an inscription, saying basically the same thing, in a 6,000 year old Egyptian tomb.

So morals and values, particularly among the youth, are not worse today than they have ever been before.  People who say such, people who truly believe such words, have not studied up on their history.

No comments:

Post a Comment