Speaking of Moral Relativism...

[Tarheel]

I just posted an interesting review of the new, disgusting book by Penn Gillette in the Chapel in which I mention moral relativism.  I found this article regarding the riots in London last week to be particularly timely.  The UK Prime Minister also mentions moral relativism as the chief cause of the riots (I thought that this was more political though than religious).

Here's an excerpt from the article from The Christian Post, all emphasis is my own:

Moral Relativism Won't Cut It Anymore, Says UK Prime Minister
Mon, Aug. 15, 2011 Posted: 11:10 AM EDT

LONDON – Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to address the “moral collapse” that led to widespread looting and violence across English cities last week.
 
In a speech to his Oxford constituency today, the prime minister outlined plans for a shake-up of social policy as he seeks to assure that he can “take on and defeat” the nation’s social problems.
 
He has pledged to “review every aspect of our work to mend our broken society, on schools, welfare, families, parenting, addiction, communities, on the cultural, legal, bureaucratic problems in our society; from the twisting and misrepresenting of human rights that has undermined personal responsibility, to the obsession with health and safety that has eroded people’s willingness to act according to common sense.”
 
...
Rejecting the Labour’s call for an inquiry into the violence, Cameron said: “We know what’s gone wrong.”
 
"These riots were not about race," he said. "These riots were not about government cuts ... And these riots were not about poverty."
 
"No, this was about behavior ... people showing indifference to right and wrong; people with a twisted moral code; people with a complete absence of self-restraint."
 
The prime minister acknowledged that some may dismiss his comments as a lecture from a politician. But he noted that “politicians shying away from speaking the truth about behavior, about morality” has “actually helped to cause the social problems we see around us.”
 
“We have been too unwilling for too long to talk about what is right and what is wrong. We have too often avoided saying what needs to be said – about everything from marriage to welfare to common courtesy,” he said.
 
He listed irresponsibility, selfishness, fatherless children, reward without effort, crime without punishment and behaving as if one’s choices have consequences as some of the problems contributing to a “slow-motion moral collapse.”
 
“What last week has shown is that this moral neutrality, this relativism – it’s not going to cut it anymore,” he stressed.
...
He called the riots a wake-up call for the country and called for “the restoration of responsibility.”
...

Full Story:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/moral-relativism-wont-cut-it-anymore-says-uk-prime-minister-53930/

[Kaos]

Sort of off topic but do you really want to know where it all went wrong?

Interstates.  Small towns and their values were bypassed.  Anywhere you go in the country now the small towns are dead or dying.  The mills and factories that kept them running were consolidated or moved out of the US.  The cultural identity a small town provides is stripped away. 

That started with an interstate system that treated small towns as an obstacle to avoid. 

It continues with giants like wal mart and CVS strangling local businesses. 

We aren't who we were any more.  And there is no going back.

[AUTiger1]

Sort of off topic but do you really want to know where it all went wrong?

Interstates.  Small towns and their values were bypassed.  Anywhere you go in the country now the small towns are dead or dying.  The mills and factories that kept them running were consolidated or moved out of the US.  The cultural identity a small town provides is stripped away. 

That started with an interstate system that treated small towns as an obstacle to avoid. 

It continues with giants like wal mart and CVS strangling local businesses. 

We aren't who we were any more.  And there is no going back.

I can buy that.  I also blame my part of my generation. Not gonna lie, for the most part we are a bunch of fucktards.

I grew up with a lot of folks that were never told no growing up, never had their ass beat for doing something wrong, and if they did get in trouble, had mom and dad at the school in minutes to jump down the principals throat.  It's Whore shit. (+1 to JR)   Those same people have kids now, I have seen those kids.  They are holy terrors.  It will only get worse.  By the time they get to school, they can't be punished without the parents consent.  It breeds the attitude of I can do what I want.  It will get much worse.

[Snaggletiger]

Great take concerning the small towns drying up.  When I hear that, I always think of Cottondale, a small community on 231 in Florida on the way to and from the beach.  10 years ago, you hit that town and seemingly every home along 231 had a fruit/vegetable stand by the road.  Not just a pick up with the tailgate down and produce in there...real stands that were obviously these people's livelihood.  Always a tradition to stop at one and pick up some boiled peanuts and other stuff.

There may be two now.  We still stop there and get peanuts or the obligatory souvenire (Alligator head or Konk shell) for the kid, but it looks like the whole town is just slowly withering away.

[Saniflush]

I have never made that connection but it is an interesting one.  I wonder if there is actual correlation there?

[Tarheel]

I have never made that connection but it is an interesting one.  I wonder if there is actual correlation there?

I think there's something to the correlation.

I also think that Kaos must've been watching the movie "Cars" again recently.

[Saniflush]

I think there's something to the correlation.

I also think that Kaos must've been watching the movie "Cars" again recently.

Talk about your unintended secondary consequence!

[Kaos]

I think there's something to the correlation.

I also think that Kaos must've been watching the movie "Cars" again recently.

A lot of things happened at about the same time.  It was a "perfect storm" so to speak. 

In rapid succession you had Interstates cut swaths across America isolating (and starving to death) thousands of small communities.  You had forced integration of the schools which was a noble and just cause but was poorly planned and executed.  Rather than bringing the education system up to a higher standard, the result was lowering the overall standard for all.  And you had the removal of prayer from the public schools. 

Pre-Interstate, pre-integration, pre-Christian exclusion this was the most industrious, prosperous, successful, powerful and innovative nation in the history of the world.  Since?  Slow and steady decline into socialism. 

Rome tried it.  Where are they now?

[Saniflush]

A lot of things happened at about the same time.  It was a "perfect storm" so to speak. 

In rapid succession you had Interstates cut swaths across America isolating (and starving to death) thousands of small communities.  You had forced integration of the schools which was a noble and just cause but was poorly planned and executed.  Rather than bringing the education system up to a higher standard, the result was lowering the overall standard for all.  And you had the removal of prayer from the public schools. 

Pre-Interstate, pre-integration, pre-Christian exclusion this was the most industrious, prosperous, successful, powerful and innovative nation in the history of the world.  Since?  Slow and steady decline into socialism. 

Rome tried it.  Where are they now?

In Georgia.

[GarMan]

A lot of things happened at about the same time... 

Rome tried it.  Where are they now?

Europe's been trying it over the last several decades.  After declining for another decade or two, they should be ripe for another Hitler...  Perhaps, a Muslim extremist this time around... 

[GH2001]

Sort of off topic but do you really want to know where it all went wrong?

Interstates.  Small towns and their values were bypassed.  Anywhere you go in the country now the small towns are dead or dying.  The mills and factories that kept them running were consolidated or moved out of the US.  The cultural identity a small town provides is stripped away. 

That started with an interstate system that treated small towns as an obstacle to avoid. 

It continues with giants like wal mart and CVS strangling local businesses. 

We aren't who we were any more.  And there is no going back.

And also the late 60's happened. It withered away any decency there ever was.