I find it amusing and distressing at the same time that people seem to have little to no knowledge of history, and the way people lived in older times. For some reasons a lot of people equate older times with some sort of simplistic Utopia, where there were no murder, rape or immorality. Or at least very little.
We believe our societies have become more violent and immoral than throughout history. I beg to differ!
If history is studied in detail, including really old history of thousands of years ago, the history of all the world's societies and cultures that existed, it is evident and plain that people in today's modern societies are MORE moral than they have ever been before.
In olden times, rape was common and there was no recourse for a woman afterwards. In olden times, murder of any but the nobility was common, with little to no recourse for the family of the victim afterwards. In olden times, all societies had slavery which encouraged fellow humans to be treated like filth which included random violence, murder and rape. In olden times, animals had no rights at all and was mistreated, tortured and killed at will and randomly. In olden times there were no human rights, women's rights, animals rights, environmental concern, and so forth.
In modern times, we have the Charter of Human Rights. In modern times we have the Rule of Law. In modern times we care about the environment, we have animal rights, slavery is abolished, progress of humanity through scientific inquiry and exploration is encouraged.
Yes, my modern times also sound like Utopia, I know this is how it should be, but is not. I am aware of all the violence and crime in the world, all the conflict and hatred. Yet today, in our modern world, we are AWARE more than ever. We can envision a future where these atrocities will no longer hold sway. We have moved forward from our savage roots. Or most of us anyway.
Lastly, many people fail to realise that a rising world population will also give rise to more crime. Did the percentage of criminals really increase from say 150 years ago? Or did the percentage stay the same, it is only the population that has increased exponentially? I do not have this answer, but perhaps some statisticians do?
We are not on a downward moral slope, we are for the first time aware of morality, and how it may be applied to all the earth and its life. And that means we are busy climbing the upward slope towards a better morality, and hopefully, a better world.
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