The Next Generation

[Justinian]

This next generation coming up is sometimes described as "bad." Why? Is it because it really is evil? Or is the reason why it is called evil because it is simply changing?

[mlcole8907]

I feel, that human nature as a whole, is changing for the worse.

Is your feeling on this matter supported by facts?

In sixteenth-century Paris, a popular form of entertainment was cat-burning, in which a cat was hoisted in a sling on a stage and slowly lowered into a fire. According to historian Norman Davies, "[T]he spectators, including kings and queens, shrieked with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized." Today, such sadism would be unthinkable in most of the world. This change in sensibilities is just one example of perhaps the most important and most underappreciated trend in the human saga: Violence has been in decline over long stretches of history, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on earth.
[...]
Conventional history has long shown that, in many ways, we have been getting kinder and gentler. Cruelty as entertainment, human sacrifice to indulge superstition, slavery as a labor-saving device, conquest as the mission statement of government, genocide as a means of acquiring real estate, torture and mutilation as routine punishment, the death penalty for misdemeanors and differences of opinion, assassination as the mechanism of political succession, rape as the spoils of war, pogroms as outlets for frustration, homicide as the major form of conflict resolution—all were unexceptionable features of life for most of human history. But, today, they are rare to nonexistent in the West, far less common elsewhere than they used to be, concealed when they do occur, and widely condemned when they are brought to light.

Check out his lecture:

To answer your question, no, I cannot support it with facts, that is why I said "I feel" to avoid that, haha!

Also, I looked at your link, and I agree, maybe I should've been more specific. There have always been violent individuals thru-out history and, most likely, before history had even begun! The "violence" of our day is nothing more than human evolution.

[McCulloch]

I feel, that human nature as a whole, is changing for the worse.

There have always been violent individuals thru-out history and, most likely, before history had even begun! The "violence" of our day is nothing more than human evolution.

True, but if human nature is changing, the facts seem to indicate that in the long haul, it is changing for the better not the worse.

Grammar notwithstanding.

[ThatGirlAgain]

I feel, that human nature as a whole, is changing for the worse.

There have always been violent individuals thru-out history and, most likely, before history had even begun! The "violence" of our day is nothing more than human evolution.

True, but if human nature is changing, the facts seem to indicate that in the long haul, it is changing for the better not the worse.

Grammar notwithstanding.

I remember something I ran across in one of Robert Ardrey's books (probably African Genesis). He said something like: If we are fallen angels there is not much hope for us. But if we are risen apes we are not doing half bad.

[Kismet]

I'd just like to opine that I don't think, definitionally, that morality is tied down to practical results "out there" so to speak. That might sound a bit strange, but if we simply look at moral "progress" we aren't actually seeing the moral mechanism, only certain results that compliment the moral mechanism, but which don't come about as a direct result thereof....