I. Introduction
The western world is always in the forefront of development. The society today faces many problems in the morality. There are many problems on cultures that include religion, families and professions (Choue & Fohm, 1996). Other than that there are also problems like the growing number of violence, crime and corruption at all parts of a simple society (Choue & Fohm, 1996).
Our culture gives an important role when it comes to examining our morality. Culture, in relation with morality is what we call the “Modes of Life” (Choue & Fohm, 1996). With these modes of life we may assure that the people living in these cultures have similar traits. With many materialistic elements coming inside these cultures, we may find it difficult to continue activities that form our morality. With these tendencies, the modernization affects the culture in large ways and so it begins to change.
In some of our problems, the educational curriculum is an important aspect (Choue & Fohm, 1996). Morality can always come within the proper gasp of education, without the proper design of education; we may have more problems and damages in the morality (Choue & Fohm, 1996). Education is also where people develop some values that leads to the improvement of many attitudes. People that are not affected by proper education or some which are not affected by education at all are, in a large part, affecting the negative growth of morality in society.
The wide range of the western world being secularized has a huge point for the decline of the morality. Religious organizations teach people to have moral characters but the development of this western world requires the need to separate religion from societies. Without these teachings, morality is very hard to find.
B. Statement of the Problem
Why is morality in the western world declining and how does it affect the western society.
C. Thesis Statement
This paper aims to prove that the standard of morality is diminishing in its social value because of the occurring replacement of new practices and technologies of the western world.
D. Significance of the Study
The researchers have decided that the study is significant to know:
· The role of morality in the development.
· How the morality has been deprive.
· The balance between development and the standard of morality,
· The factors that cause the lowering of the standards of morality.
E. Scope and Limitation
This paper is about to discuss the condition and value of morality in the western world. Since morality varies in its interpretation depends on the location of which it is practiced, the paper limits the topic to all conditional aspects of morality that give effect to societies in the western world.
Cultural setting is the way in which an environment provides means of order in the form of both norms and laws that they themselves are becoming natural to the inhabitants of that place. Cultural setting influences the practices, traditions, and beliefs of those who are within its scope. It gives an environment the identity that will separate and distinguish them from other groups that also have their own unique settings as it signifies “the promotion of differences or of cultural identities” (Choue & Sohn, 1997).
The cultural setting of the western world has already replaced the traditional value with something that is modernized and scientific. All new aspects of living always start from them. They act as the creator of modern norms and values. The good side of it is that they always apply their creativity in the real living. They just not limit their resourcefulness within each individual but share it with the whole. On the other side, there are two bad consequences of their actions. One is that they are too explicit to what they want to see in their society. They don’t care on the complication of it as long as they can express their being realistic. Second is that the actions they are proposing are not just only stay within their territories, but because of their great power and influence also affect those who are in other places such as the countries in the eastern part of the world.
It is in the western world that started the study and computation of actions including specialties, discoveries, and technology. The abuse of these following fields leads to the “assertion that man and all his activities are determined by the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology” (Choue & Sohn, 1997). It shows how they already know how to predict the actions of man. It only points out that advancement always starts from them whether in terms of discoveries or new scientists produce every year. The focus now in their lives is based on scientific way of living compared about before where life is based on values and morals, in how they are related with the unity of the whole society and how the people manage to survive through socialization. The question before is “how” while today, it is being replaced by “why’.
If we will just closely examine it, the western world has already destroyed their cultural setting. Since cultural setting is reflected from the traditional values and practices that a territory inherited from their ancestors, in case of the western world, the identity they are holding now also passes to other groups in which it shows that the modernization forming their identity is not an identity at all but a part of improvement of the life of the people in which, all culture groups will experience. In a logical way, they replaced their cultural setting with something that we can say an artificial setting created through man’s knowledge.
III. Nature of morality in the western world
A. Norms
Norms are practices that people in a particular environment tend to follow naturally without rules. They stand as the hidden binding rules of that society. The interpretation of norms differs from the point of view outside the community to the point of view inside it. It may be wrong in us but it’s a normal practice for them. Norms are distinguished through the common enjoyment and satisfaction favorable at least the majority of the members of the group. We always say that it is hard to judge a good from bad norms. But we can say that it is bad by referring to the inverse definition of it. If it benefits majority of people within the group but it also give unsatisfactory effects to a majority of people outside that community, secondly, it deprives people the rights granted upon them naturally since they are born, and thirdly, if it destroys the most basic fundamental norm that we ourselves follows them as nature given to us by our creator, also called universal morality, then that is the best chance to examine the value of a norm. Not contradicting any kinds or forms of norms but just stating the closest and best criteria on how you can determine the nature of norms.
There are two kinds of norms according to the interpretation of the relation of individuals through action; they are the norms of behavior and norms of evaluation. “Norms of evaluation used in order to determine the value of an action” while the norms of behavior “determine what a person does in a given situations (Choue & Sohn, 1997).” This combination is the basis of interpreting whether a norm has a defect or a good one. The norms of evaluation determine the amount of contribution a norm can contribute, whether on its negative or on its positive side. The norms of behavior relate itself on how people apply and react upon them. The first one states the attributes of a given norms as it naturally inherits when it is created while the second function shows how norms forms negative and positive interpretation from the people, in which happen through the its application to certain events in the human life. In this way, it is the act of the people that judge the quality of the norms.
1. Folkways
As being defined, Folkways are “those ways of acting that are common to a society or a group, and that are handed down from one generation to the next” (Green, 1952). An example of folkways that Westerners do is to put their old aged to institutions such as home for the aged. They don’t have the sense of respect to their elders that is why it is wrong. For us Filipinos, we value our families, and that it is all right for us to have extended families.
2. Mores
Mores is a social rule that is highly recommended to be followed by the people within the community as a sign of respect and necessary for smooth social interaction. For more detailed explanation, it is the “common ways of acting which are more definitely regarded as right and proper than the folkways and which bring greater certainty and severity of punishment if violated” (Green, 1952).
An example of mores is when parents in the
3. Laws
These are written rules that are highly recommended to be followed as part of the formal implementation of a particular place to organize and receive full obedience of its people. An example of law is the death penalty law in some states of
B. Beliefs
Beliefs can be said as having the least negative effect on universal morality of the world. Beliefs come within a person and each individual have the freedom to choose his own. It is the manifestation of a person on how he can achieve his specific goal guided by his beliefs. It gives direction to each and everyone. They also act as personal laws. It can only give effect to the world if it is taken into action. The action can be beneficial or destructive to human society. Eventhough beliefs as being said, having the least negative effect, but on the other way around, it is also has the shortest actuality but has the strongest foundation among with the values and norms since it is within the fundamental self of an individual orienting him on the path he must take place. It will take only a partial time before it become worthless or replace by another one compare to norms and values as granted with authority by the society supporting there application.
C. Values
Values are what makes people know what is moral and what is immoral. In our world today, we have a thing called universal norms and the other one is moral pluralism. Universal norms are the one essential or natural to all groups having different morality. It can be identified as forces that improve the freedom and justice of the people and their consciousness about their roles, responsibilities, and rights. On the other side, morality is what determines the response and action of a certain group upon these factors. So the fact here is that a group that has a social morality representing their cultural identity must in the way respecting and not devaluating the universal values. An example is the stand of the old people in the
A. Modernization
Modernization is one of the key factors that would probably shape the western world in the modern times.
“Modernization was conceived as a transformation of pre industrial society into an industrial society that had technical capabilities for sustained economic development and concomitant social reorganization, as characterized in the “economically” prosperous western societies.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
Modernization results to standardization, which gives moral repercussions, especially to the young. In standardizing, we simply mean that we are going to assign to a form, which gained social and cultural acceptance among all, because of its uses, especially in the region of economics.
Standardization can be related with the way people live, act or behave in certain circumstances. Because of this, certain actions should be in conformity with what is fashionable, so that it can be accepted. Of course, standardization would therefore be expected to be parallel to certain moral codes, thus affecting morality. These moral codes are the basis of how a person should behave and respond to modern living.
B. Religion
A religion is considered as a system, wherein people tend to share all their beliefs, practices to others. As people have the tendency to enunciate what they believe, they have the right to believe or to refuse on believing, as long as you don’t impair other people’s right.
A religion is supposed to be universal. It is for everyone. Its universality is shared with its different traditions, actions, rituals and many others, which exist within the society we live in.
Religion is very influential in the life of ones persons. Religion makes the very foundation, from which the identity of morality stands. Most of the time, these institutions, which make up the social structures are the ones, which dictate the standards of morality, thus also shape culture.
They are formed by different religious organization, these are the church, sect, denomination and cult.
The church is the dominating religious group in which it is identified with the number of its members. It is said that the church has the greatest number of members, which shapes the society as a whole. This church has its own formal structures, and has a well-established dogma. Like for example the catholic church, that has a very diversified and extensive dogma, that is fully supporting its basic beliefs. Like every organization, it also has a leader. The leader can either be a priest or a minister.
Sects are smaller than the church. Because of little members, it does not fully affect the society so much, just as it does not influence so many people. Sects are said to impose very strict rules, to discipline its members. They cannot question these rules, for questioning may be considered an act of doubting. It was observed that most of its members came from the lower classes or the poor people in the society.
Denomination is an organization may be categorized as somewhat between the Church and the Sect. Its members are greater than Sects, but lesser than the Church. What they are imposing or the basic beliefs of these organizations does not go against the laws of the state. They don’t use fear in order to convert other people or to discipline its members. They only convince others to join them, and most of the time the members they are able to get are from the middle classes. Its members are free to go out or stay as a member.
Cults are somewhat identical with sects. The only difference is that they usually oppose the authorities or the laws of the state. They have strong devotion to their leader that has charisma. They follow whatever the leader tells them to do, without complain.
C. Media
Media can be one of the primary factors that shape up morality, especially in the western world. It can be used or abused by anyone else. Again, it lies on our responsibility weather to employ it for our personal gains or for the good of everyone else. The example of the positive utilization of media is the: “better intellectual development, information, improved communication between nations, can also be beneficial for foreign relations and the improvement of education.” The Europeans and the Americans benefited so much to these things, as they were the pioneers of the cutting edge communication technologies. The negative implications that we find in media are the:
“decrease of direct human communication, superficial culture, expansion of inferior quality films, dissemination of fascist and racial propaganda through international communication media and others.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
Information accessibility simply means the availability of its information to be accessed, especially now in the advent of advancement in technological communications. These information that can be accessible to everyone are those that can be available locally.
One of these examples are that of
Table 1. Telephones
| Year | Telephones per 1000 inhabitants |
| 1980 | 54 |
| 1985 | 66 |
| 1990 | 86 |
| 1995 | 138 |
(Choue & Fohm, 1996)
The table gives us data that the gross numbers of the public phones and the private phones, which are within different households. In these data, the institution, whether private or public is also included in this table. Right after the year 1990, there was tremendous shifting of the use of telecommunications technologies. Television channels also increased in number, as it was with computers too. As we can see before, there were only 2 channels of television and some publishing infrastructure, that can’t be considered as modernized, thus is able to produce books that are somewhat cheap, but after the dramatic increase after the year 1990, things have changed in
“At present it is estimated that about 2 million computers are being exploited in
There are changes of moral standards in the western world, which caused negative effects to American and Europeans countries. The changes are both in religion, customs and laws.
An example of this is in
It was said that the primary contributor to these changes of moral standards is media itself. It has given its best efforts to influence the western people. Fashion is an example how media has able to influence us. From the movies and T.V. shows we watch, to the music we hear, all these are a result of modern media.
The problem now is when media starts abusing. Violence, as what was depicted on the movies and the newspapers are influencing, especially the youth in the western world. When media would try to show sensational news, such as brutality, death etc. to attract the viewers, this would cause degrading effects. The people now would tend to become sensation oriented, as if violence is usual already. The worse thing is that, it becomes a norm in the society, thus changing the standards of morality.
Today’s human society, especially in the west is facing its impending doom. According to the classical political philosophers, there are no inconsistencies between the perfect individuals and the imperfect societies. They say that an individual can freely flourish in an imperfect society, regardless of its imperfections. Imperfect in the sense that it is unable to achieve perfect existence, say for example, the inability to comply or to conform with its own standards of morality, which only outstanding individuals can achieve, makes it impossible for perfect existence. Societies can only aim for perfection. This does not necessarily mean that societies are of no use at all, and that it can be taken away, since all it can do is to aim for what is perfect, but still tends to be imperfect. Though societies act that way, they are in perfect agreement with individual perfection, thus individuals find their fulfillment in civil societies. Societies are still essential and are considered as the home for the human mind.
One of the signs of degradation of morality is violence. In this present time, morality is constantly threatened by violence. We say that the many armed conflicts, occurring in the world and also in the western parts are signs that we human beings still rely on violent conflicts and killing as a means to resolve our issue. It is evident that in a year there are over 120000 people around the world , who are victims of armed conflicts resulting to death.
“US$ 1000 billion is the average military expenditure for one year depriving many countries of substantial sums that could be used for development; that over 1.3 billion people are living in poverty and so on and so forth.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
Indeed it is true that the U.N. was built in order to secure human rights, dignity etc. It is an institution that would somehow lessen immorality through out the world, however it is not enough. As we would find out, morality, which is in itself abused, becomes the primary basis of each and every strategies made by the United Nations. Because of that, there are series of devastating implications through out the world, and also in the western world. It is because of so much immorality that even outside the society, such as the state to state relation receives such adverse effects. Take for example the continuous violence brought about by the war in
Violence is a mixture of the direct, cultural and structural. Structural violence, is that which is cost by abuses, such as manipulation, exploitation and many more. Anything that can harm and eliminate people or aggregations, psychologically. Definitely, it can cause death.
Let us take for example, the way prisoners of war in
We should remember that these things do not only take place on concentration camps etc. Inevitably, these incidents happen also within the family and among small or large groups in the society.
Cultural violence in the other hand is a direct or structural violence. Hear you will have an enemy, from which you can create such mental image, as a basis to justify the means of psychological and physical elimination.
There was a written document before that was published in 1896 about violence. It was written by the international team specialists in order to show the relation of violence between fallacy and morality. It is called the Seville Statement on Violence. It says, “Peace is possible because war is not a biological necessity.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
In the document, it was approved that it is not our instinct, or there is nothing biological with the fact that we are engaging to war.
“Wars and conflicts are a social invention and that peace can be institutionalized to replace the prevailing culture of the violence.”
(Choue & Fohm, 1996)
There is no excuse now that it is natural for ourselves to engage to different conflicts and wars, and it is definitely a fallacy to compare ourselves to animals, who engage to conflicts, because of territoriality.
Some of the statements found in that document are:
“[i] It is scientifically incorrect to say that we have inherited a tendency to make war from our animal ancestors.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
“[ii] It is scientifically incorrect to say that war or any other violent behavior is genetically programmed in our human nature”
(Choue & Fohm, 1996)
“[iii] It is scientifically incorrect to say that that in the course of human evolution there has been a selection for aggressive behavior more than for other kinds of behavior.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
“[iv] It is scientifically incorrect to say that humans have a violent brain. While we do have the neutral apparatus to act violently, it is not automatically activated by internal or external stimuli. There is nothing in our neuropsychology that compels us to act violently.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
“[v] It is useless to say that war is caused by instinct or any single motivation.” (Choue & Fohm, 1996)
What the Seville Statement was trying to show is that, man is not naturally a being, whose desire to do conflicts is intrinsically built within him, thus making it a part of his biological make up. The Seville Statement invalidated all these claims and told us that war and conflicts are mere inventions of man. If we are capable of creating these conflicts, we are also capable of ending it, thus man has invented peace. All these consequences that we do lay on each and every individual’s responsibility. It is our responsibility. Indeed it is true that, “Conflict can be managed, resolved and learned.” (Gerthrie & Miller, 1978)
Violence has many forms. It can’t be just be associated with conflicts alone. We should also think outside of the box. One of the most controversial violence, which the western society today is facing is that of abortion. The primary premise of abortion is this, “Many of those who defend abortion rely on the premise that fetus is no a person at birth.” (Sterba, 1984)
Considering that the fetus is not yet a person, still it is a potential person, who has the right to live. Between the right of the mother of doing what she wants to her body and the right of that potential person which we call a fetus, who has the right to life, the right to life is stronger.
These are one of the million forms of violence, which haunts the westerners. Some even remains a problem, because they can’t decide weather the violence incurred upon, should be considered as violence or not.
VI. The decline of morality is a hindrance to development
A. Economic
Economic development is the always a concern for people. This time they are using it to make an excuse for morality. When a social group needs something but gets something wrong, it is because the economy is at stake. Statements like, “base on historical experience, the economic status of a place deteriorates wherever mosques are built in Non- Muslim areas”, are examples of this(del Puerto, 2004). If we think about it, it is on another way around because building a mosque will bring more Muslims in a place and the place will have more people. more people means more chances of growth, but statements like these forbids developments. These happen because of the decline of the morality. Because by following an immoral statement will cause an economic war that will result to boycotts of several kinds (Joaquin, 2004).
Economic wars are not good for the society’s own rights (Joaquin, 2004). People’s scavenging skills will appear and it will cause the morality of the people, not only the morality but also the status of their mental toughness.
B. Social
The decline of morality affects social development. The word social and morality are almost connected all the time. When we say social we meant groups, when we have bad morality, we form difficulties to form groups because people simply hates being maltreated.
One kind of the most common actions that destroys the social group is the action against religion. One example was when a prayer room was about to rise in a
People need morality to stay with each other. Many values should be observed just for a harmonious peaceful living (
C. Political
The people are the ones making the decisions. If people have no morality, then their decisions will be the same. As they make their political decisions, they are at the same time destroying themselves.
Political actions and decisions may be or may not always be immoral but sometimes you cannot blame the leader. The leader only makes the decision of the people, so the people should decide what they want to happen. At times where people are often misled, leaders tend to make their own decisions regardless of what people will say, but these things will not always happen.
About the prayer room in San Juan, it is not the decision of the people to allow the building of the mussalah, but the mayor himself (Joaquin, 2004), imagine if the mayor follows the decision of the majority… it will be immoral not to let the Muslims pray because people with religion needs to pray. If things have gone in conflict the best way to solve the problem is through a meeting (Joaquin, 2004). This time, the decision is a moral one but let us consider that people are the strongest political unit and if the people made a decision not to let it happen then it is already a hindrance to development.
VII. Conclusion
This paper showed that the cultural setting of the western world could be compared to an artificial-made environment. Their morality was declining as the result of their action of using other groups and gaining from them benefits without living the necessary upon them and get only what is require for them to acquire. As a result, all things are now on their hands while living their waste to others. If there is a sense of morality in the western place, they would respect those of others and would not try to dominate them without hearing their sides if they would welcome these new practices. It is enough to propose your belief with others but limit yourself by not trying to control the decisions they have to make.
The morality of the people can always be part of the society. Nowadays, people give morality less importance than before. They are now leaning towards inequality and they tend to deprive other people of their rights. There are three parts of the development of one society affected by this immorality, namely, the economic development, social development and the political development. Economic development is affected through the proper distribution of resources and rights. Social development is affected through the relations of the people with each other. Political development is affected by the decisions that the people make for power and for change. This paper tells us that when one part is affected, every part becomes inflicted by the damage. People also use these three parts for excuses that they make.
The researchers also gave an example about the Muslim prayer room. A large problem now is the religion, people are getting afraid of it and sometimes people use religion for their bad intentions. The religion teaches us morality and it should not be made as an instrument for immorality.
This paper also has aimed to explain that there are a lot of factors, which affect morality in the Western societies, such as modernization, religion and media and communication. These factors can either benefit them or give negative implications to the society. The negative effects of these things were also elaborated. Some of these undesirable effects, which gave so much problems to the western society were violence, and conflict. The paper has also showed that conflict is not a natural tendency of any human being. It was invented by man, and if conflict is invented, so is peace.
B. Restatement of Thesis Statement
This issue has proved that there is a great change made by modern technologies in the morality of the western world. The new practices it has produced, delivered the westerners into chaotic reduction of their total morality compared to the universal norms of the world.
C. Conclusion
The morality continues to decrease its value as the community become more accessible to all sources and modernization in all aspects of life become a widespread. The development is only after in augmenting the physical value of material things rather than spreading good and right conduct. The point here is that we must not be contended of what our physical body needs but also be considerable of what its effects to our morality and at the same time, the big role of values in part of our social integration and relation.
D. Recommendation
This paper was made intently to help Sociologist to analyze society well, with the perspective that morality is not taken for granted. We therefore recommend this paper to them. We also recommend it to political scientists, who seek to study about politics and the political institutions. This can help them analyze the fact that it pays to consider morality as an essential part in governing the state, since society is an important element in the state. It is also recommended to be read by average citizens, to give them the sense of awareness, thus making them contribute to the nation building.
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