# Is society getting better or worse?



## Jnmcda0 (Nov 28, 2003)

On the whole, is society getting better or worse. Are people less honest, less civilized, less classy, less polite than in the past?

Here are a couple of quotes to consider:



Hesiod (about 700 BC) said:


> I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on the frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words. When I was a boy, we were taught to be discrete and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly wise and impatient of restraint.





Col. Robert G. Ingersoll (late 1800s) said:


> Any old man in Boston will tell you that fifty years ago all people were honest. Fifty years ago all people were sociable--there was no stuck-up aristocracy then. Neighbors were neighbors. Merchants gave full weight. Everything was full length; everything was a yard wide and all wool. Now everybody swindles everybody else, and calls it business. Go back fifty years and you will find an old man who will tell you that there was a time when all were honest. Go back another fifty years and you will find another sage who will tell you the same story. Every man looks back to his youth, to the golden age, and what is true of the individual is true of the whole human race. It has its infancy, its manhood, and, finally, will have an old age. There are more honest men, good women, and obedient children in the world today than ever before.


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## NVU (Jul 1, 2010)

Decietful people are as honest as they were hundreds of years ago, we've warred for centuries etc. I think it's becoming more dangerous though. Though the world looks more organized and efficient, it's actually just a bunch of men sitting on thrones still, more or less. But things are more complex, like the media basically controls people. If we were to have a crisis and they shut down the internet (it's been done in China and they're looking to be able to do it in the states) we'd be lost. People have lost each other, everything is done digitally. I think the more dependant we become on things like the internet, the more dangerous it becomes.


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## millenniumman75 (Feb 4, 2005)

Worse. People don't care about themselves, in general, so they don't care about other people.


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## Your Crazy (Feb 17, 2009)

Turn on any news station right now and you'll get your answer.


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## leonardess (Jun 30, 2009)

I think the same is happening with humans as happens with rats, when you get too many in a small confined space.


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## Cleary (Nov 10, 2007)

millenniumman75 said:


> Worse. People don't care about themselves, in general, so they don't care about other people.


or, generally speaking, people only care about themselves and don't care if they screw other people over.

but we're people. We've always been manipulative and selfish.


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

Humanity? Well... it's the same as it ever was.


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## Resonance (Feb 11, 2010)

I predict that 'worse' will massiely outweigh the other choices. All conservatives and old people constantly insist that society is getting worse, as they have always done since time immemmorial. If you look at records from Roman times conservatives and the elderly were always insisting society was in some kind of moral decline even then.

Then there is the fact that is in the media's interest to portray society as rapidly degenerating into barbarism - it sell's papers, nobody wants to read a story about, say, crime declining - but if some guy throws a tomatoe at an elderly woman this story will be featured and contextualised as indicative of social collapse.

Then the liberatarian right types who constantly insist that the state is getting bigger and more powerful, even as it evidently continues to shrink and become increasingly privatised, so I guess the libertarian vote goes on 'worse' too.

Finally, I think leftists are gonna vote for worse too, because of the aformentioned privatisiation of the state, because there are several wars going on, and because they are quite defeatist in general - no political faction ever seems to say "actually, things are going pretty well right now".

As for myself, I have no idea - I do not have the necessarily facts to make an accurate judgement. Better or worse in comparison to what/when? We have better medicines and suchlike than we did in the past, an less aggressive warfare - and indeed less murder and theft...but then we also have nuclear bombs and other hugely powerful weapons. Also, surely "better" is subjective - one person may define "better" as to do with, say, politeness, others may define it as related to personal freedoms.


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## drealm (Jul 7, 2009)

Broad question with an infinitely broad answer.

In a nutshell, I'd say technology is getting better. Technology may even be accelerating and perhaps we're on our way to singularity.

But every technology brings unforeseen social changes. I hate the current social era I live in. I feel I'd be happier in a pre WWII era.


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## NVU (Jul 1, 2010)

Neptunus said:


> Humanity? Well... it's the same as it ever was.


I think I need to get high and re-watch that video. Mad trip.


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## anonymid (Oct 16, 2005)

Neptunus said:


> Humanity? Well... it's the same as it ever was.


Good answer.


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## Neptunus (Oct 29, 2007)

^ Thanks! :b


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

Civil rights are improving and the violent crime rate has been plummeting to lower levels than ever seen before, while the standard of living keeps improving. I think it's insane that anyone would say society is getting worse, but I understand humans throughout history have always had this power of nostalgia which makes them irrationally long for the past.

_Are people less honest, _

Absolutely not, there's objective proof that corruption is on the decline.

_less civilized,_

Assuming civilization means keeping order and advancing technology, no, we're obviously more civilized.

_less classy,_

Yes. Class differences are less distinct. That's a good thing to me. Less formalized interactions are the result of people not having to play rigid roles anymore.

_less polite than in the past?_

Yes. With greater freedom comes the freedom to not be as polite. People will take advantage of that. Used to be you could get beat up or lynched for a failure to be polite, especially if you were a minority, so of course people were more polite back then. People living under taliban rule are unfailingly polite.


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## Scrub-Zero (Feb 9, 2004)

Worse.


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## BetaBoy90 (Jan 5, 2010)

I couldn't make an accurate guess. I don't know how to properly judge it, and I also know far too few events that have taken place past and present to speak for the entire planet.


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## Glacial (Jun 16, 2010)

I would consider the answer to this question to be both.

In one aspect society is getting better--technology, medical advances,etc.

In terms of ethics and treatment to hummanity, I believe society is getting much worse. For example, crime is really high, people are rude to each other out in public, children are disrespectful to their parents, people curse much more freely and express anger without self-censorship, parents don't stick together to raise their children anymore. So I generally believe society is getting much worse socially. In addition, "social networking" sites are not good imo. Facebook for example is all about appearance...who looks better, who is having the most fun etc etc--so superficial. 

A few weeks ago I was in Wal-Mart and a woman was on her cell phone yelling at the person she was talking to screaming the F word probably 15 times...come on, there was families, children and elderley people all around in the store...people just don't care and respect other people at all it seems. And just last night I was in Wal-Mart again and this young mother was saying "god damn it" to her four year old son. Doesn't she realize this could be highly offensive to people of religion? Parents my age seem to really not care about protecting their own children from the ugliness of society. Parents complain about how their children treat them when they are teenagers, but why don't parents consider how they treat their children when they are young--I am mean this women is cussing out her four year old--now what kind of issues do you think this mother is going to cause for her son when he is older? I think that is one of the reasons my SA is so bad--sometimes I kind of wonder if I was born say 100 years ago when society was different and everyone was poor and humble (everyone seemed to be on an even playing field), would I even have SA? I kind of think, why was I born at this point in history? I know we are living in a time of great technology and health care and things are generally "easier," but I wonder if I would have been better off living in a different era.

Anyway, that was my rant and 2 cents for whatever it's worth.


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## huh (Mar 19, 2007)

Overall, society is getting better. Take a look at any modern society. People are more tolerant, there is less violence, significant progression of women's rights, education and health care is more easily obtained (for the most part), among a whole host of other things.

I do think that as society has grown it has made people a little more uncaring in some respects, but I think this is mostly due to the population sizes in which most people live and interact. Lots of people we meet we never meet again, and this makes it a lot easier for people to defect in certain situations because there are little or no repercussions for doing so. It messes with the decisions we make, often for the worse. Biological evolution simply can't keep up with the pace at which our culture/society changes.

Regardless, I still think things are improving.


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## shadowmask (Jun 22, 2009)

Better. It still sucks, though.


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## Paul (Sep 26, 2005)

Saving Face said:


> For example, crime is really high,


[citation needed]


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## Shauna The Dead (Jun 16, 2005)

worse for sure. I don't see how anyone could think it was getting better!


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## this portrait (Jul 18, 2009)

I think it's been about the same, for a long time, if you really look at it.


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## Narcissus (Aug 28, 2007)

Short term, here, worse. Long term, better.


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## carefree (Nov 16, 2008)

i say worse...but only because we are abusing our environment like never before. We're over consuming and overpopulating our earth.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of people and companies that are "green" but most people are informed on the effects of destroying our environment and we don't do enough...me included. i think case and point can be found in the bp oil spill, production and profits were considered more important than the safety of workers, the environment etc and now we are left with a terrible ecological tragedy.


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## VIncymon (Apr 16, 2009)

I wish there was a "society has moved on" option.

People have not changed, but our capacity to do damage has grown.
People have always been greedy, big businesses have always been greedy .... but at least in the past they did not have the capacity to in one swift act of negligence, cause a massive oil spill that could affect the whole Caribbean.

Its like Hitler with a sword, or Hitler with a grenade. It is the same man, but the latter is more dangerous.

FYI don't take this too mean I hate technology. I just wish we could be more responsible with it.


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## Jnmcda0 (Nov 28, 2003)

Saving Face said:


> For example, crime is really high


Actually, according to the site below, total crime was at its lowest point per capita since 1969 and violent crime was at the lowest rate since 1973.

http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

Granted, the stastics are only through 2008. The rate may have gone up given the recession.



VIncymon said:


> Its like Hitler with a sword, or Hitler with a grenade. It is the same man, but the latter is more dangerous.


If he only had one grenade, the former could potentially be more dangerous. You can kill more people in a single attack with a grenade, but with a sword, you could kill people indefinitely. That didn't really have anything to do with your point, I just thought I'd point that out.


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## Toad Licker (Nov 2, 2007)

About the same just more people is all.


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## moxosis (Aug 26, 2009)

It's the same, we now just get more info and news about the bad things.


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## JEmerson (Mar 25, 2010)

I'm actually going to say Better and I'll tell you why. If you look at issues like civil rights, equality, tolerance for others, it's the younger generation that is becoming more and more accepting of others. As the older more bigoted people die off, the younger generation coming up now "taking their place" is more open-minded to people who are different than they are. So as time goes on, society is getting better in that way. A lower and lower percentage of people dislike those who are different than they are and that's a great thing.


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## Dane (Jul 27, 2009)

I read this poll as "Is your anxiety getting better or worse?"...lol


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## tlgibson97 (Sep 24, 2009)

It really depends on where you live as to how you perceive it. In the city people tend to be ruder than those in rural areas. I think it has a lot to do with just the amount of people. I find myself just ignoring most people like they aren't even there. That is rude of me to do so but it is a lot easer than acknowledging everyone I come into eye contact with. I just want to get from point A to piont B without bothering anyone or anyone getting in my way. It seems typical of everyone else also. But, in the city people tend to be more tolerant. As long as I am not bothering them they don't care what I do. I can be black, white, gay , straight, whatever and nobody cares.

Rural areas tend to be more polite but less tolerant. It is their reluctance to change. They like things the way they are and they want them to stay that way.

Overall, I don't know if society is better or worse. It depends on who you ask. It is just different. Those that don't like change will think its worse. Those that accept change will think it is getting better. The media perpetuates the negative so if you watch/read the news it would seem like the apocolypse is upon us all the time.


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