Morals Essay, Research Paper

The sixties and seventies were a time of peace and love. Sound like something you want now? You?d better think again. Who has fewer morals; the hippies of then or the role models of today? Sure they had Woodstock, they had fun but that was accepted of society at that time. Think what would happen if I were to get caught throwing a huge party with sex, drugs, and rock ?n roll. I?d wind up in jail, not quite the same consequences they had at that time.

As of today, in the nineties, our biggest role models are giving people the wrong impression. The president of the United States decides to cheat on his wife and then lie about it to the American public. If he can?t even keep control of his sexual wants and needs, much less tell the truth about it, then how in the hell can he be expected to run a country? I don?t think this necessarily makes us less moral, I just think it shows how much society can change over the years.

Moral values are part of what holds a society together. Different societies vary on particular issues. What may be considered a moral issue in one society can be thought of as a meaningless issue or even immoral in another society. Think of teenage parents, a few years ago it was completely normal for people to stay home from school to work or raise children, especially the females. Now days it?s considered distasteful for a teenager to quit furthering their education in order to raise a child or work. Don?t get me wrong, work isn?t a bad thing but your education should come first.

Who can the conflicts of morality be blamed on? The way people are raised or the people themselves as an individual? I don?t really feel as though a person?s actions can be blamed on their parents or their background. You come from one place but you only are what you make of yourself. Your parents can instill strong morals in you throughout your whole lifetime but you’re still going to make mistakes, it?s a fact of life. Yes, everyone makes bad decisions at one time or another but that does not make us bad people.

Let?s take a look of how others feel about morals: Mr. Isaac comments, ?I think we are less moral now, but I think morals are what cause ninety percent of the problems in the world, we tend to be self righteous.? To get a teenage perspective on how we view our countries morals I asked eighteen year old Kaite Covert, ?I think that our morals have declined since the past. My reasoning for this is that if you look at television and the news media, the things that they show now and things that go on in the world would never have happened when our parents were children.?

That really brings up a good point. How has the media changed over the past years? I remember watching Sesame Street and Little House on the Prairie when I was younger. Whatever happened to Mr. Rogers? Did the Power Rangers wreck his ?beautiful day in the neighborhood?? How can we expect the children of this generation to be brought up with high morals when they?re hearing and seeing violence twenty-four hours a day? The majority of parents work nine to five and can?t be home with their children right after school. Could this help to contribute to the growing numbers of children and teenage violence in the world today? Don?t get me wrong, I?m not trying to contradict myself here and say it?s an issue the parents need to deal with. I?m just saying that it?s seems like a great big circle: society puts violence on for public viewing, the parents aren?t home to supervise the shows their children watch, the children become violent at school, and the sad thing is the parents get blamed for their ?disruptive child?. Those children are the ones who eventually turn to gangs causing even more chaos for our society. This just doesn?t seem fair, or moral.

What can we do to make sure that our kids don?t wind up any worse? Ban them from the rest of the world, lock them in their room? I think it?s going to take a lot more than that. I think it?s going to take a group effort in order to change the ?accepted? and ?unaccepted? standards of today and to help create a world worth living for tomorrow. The moral to this story is that we should keep a firm hold on issues that we find important to us and not let petty problems keep us from our goal.

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