Do morals, ethics and integrity matter in today's society?

I was recently the victim of a fraudulent transaction and then I began to think about how much I have been screwed over by different people in the past 5 to 10 years.  As a result, this article is part one of a three part series of articles.  This article focuses on morals.

According to Encarta Dictionary, the word moral an adjective and is defined as: “one; involving right and wrong, two; derived of personal conscience, three; according to common standard of justice, four; encouraging goodness and decency, five; good by accepted standards, six; able to tell right from wrong and seven; based on personal conviction.”

Have you noticed a trend here with the word moral?  Basically speaking, morals are the ability to judge or decide right from wrong.  If this is the definition of morals than why do we have over crowding in prisons? Have we lost our ability as humans to tell right from wrong when it comes to our behavior towards our fellow man?  I mean really, think about this, is it right to take someone else’s life with or without cause?  Is it right for anyone to sexually abuse anyone else man, woman or child?  Is it right to walk into any store and take what is not yours?  Is it right that people like Bernie Madoff and corporations like Enron and Lehman Brothers can bilk the American people out of their life savings and homes and still get away with it?  These are just a few examples of the horrendous things we humans do to ourselves and others.

I also noticed that it is not just person against person; it is country vs. country, north vs. south, black vs. white, etc.  When did this first start happening I wondered. So I looked it up and here is what I found.  “It has been reported violent crime nationwide nearly quadrupled between 1960 and its peak in 1991 according to Crime in the United States.[i]

Well now that I have that information it makes sense to me.  The sixties generation with their free love, war protests, rebellion against government and drug abuse was at the helm, those big corporations stole our nation and our moral values and it has continued right up until 2008.  In case you are wondering, I was born in 1959, so I do not consider myself to be a product of the 60’s generation.

The 70’s came along and everyone was “disco dancing the night away” so to speak. Want to see this in action, just watch “That 70’s Show” or visit the shows web site at http://www.that70sshow.com

Then came the 80’s and MTV; according to one web site that I visited at http://www.liketotally80s.com/ I found this statement.   “Aaah, the 80s - that happy little decade between social activism and self-loathing grunge. Back when the Corey’s were king and Kirk Cameron hadn't been left behind. When Cabbage Patch Kids spawned Garbage Pail Kids, and we liked it”. 

Next up is the 90’s also referred to as Generation Y, anyone remember Y2K? “Members of this generation are also called Echo Boomers, due to the significant increase in birth rates through the 1980s and into the 1990s, and because many of them are children of baby boomers2, now it makes sense why children of the 90’s are so hooked on drugs and alcohol. 

Now, here we are in the early part of the 21st century and we are trying to put the “genie back in the bottle” so to speak.  We wonder what is going on in the world, why is this happening; well folks if you read this entire article you know my opinion.  What is yours?  What do you believe?

Next article in this series will be on, you guessed it, ethics.  Until next time, stay safe and remember my favorite saying; if you cease to learn, you cease to live.