Why is American society decaying so rapidly? Where are we headed in the future?

[Theo Sullivan - Overbearing Brooklyn Hipster]

I feel like American society is experiencing the most rapid moral decay imaginable...

People have probably been talking about moral decay since the first time the phrase "the good old days" was used in a conversation. So the talk about the prevalence of pornography, the over-sexualization of society to the point where children are wearing slutty Halloween costumes, the increasing acceptability of drug use, the hostility to Christianity, and the garbage on TV like Jersey Shore probably aren't going to resonate with people who haven’t already become concerned.


However, there are other numbers that aren't as easy to dismiss. Fifty one million children have been annihilated via abortion, a number comparable to the total number of human beings who were snuffed out across the planet during WWII. We also have the highest incarceration rate on planet earth -- and that's no accident. Then there's the staggering number of children being raised outside of a two parent family; 36.8% of all births in the United States are out-of-wedlock births, which is the single biggest contributing factor to the size of the prison population. Are we doing anything to try to reverse that trend? No, to the contrary, we're making the institution of marriage into even more of a joke than ever before by encouraging gay marriage.

Cries of "moral decay" may not be new, but these unprecedented numbers suggest that the issue is much more serious than it has been in the past.

The hardest thing to witness is the youth of our nation... we're drenched in vapid technology, increasingly disconnected from each other (despite the fact that we consider ourselves so "connected" via social media), entitled, lazy, ignorant, media-induced, people who are discouraged by a broken political system, corrupt politicians, a widening wealth gap, and sinking economy.

I mean, if you look at the way elderly people in our society (today) act, think, rationalized, and treat both people their age as well as people younger than them - it's not hard to imagine how we've managed to build up such a nice society, but if you look at a majority of our youth today - people who, for the most part, thrive off of overwhelming materialism, internet memes, tattoos, and reality television, doesn't it scare you to think of how we'll end up 50, 60 years from now?
I'd appreciate well thought out answers - meaningful insights are almost more fun to read through!

[SPAD XIII]

Democrats

The sewer

[Arroganthydrant681]

The USA is headed the way of the Roman Empire.

I question really got me thinking actually. I am currently a teenager (16years alive) and can verify many of your observations from personal experience.

Five examples of decay that shocked me when I went back into the school system (was homeschooled until grade 9):

1) The sharing of "top" porn websites and pictures of naked girls in my grade.

2) The hatred of knowledge among the children and calling ones own bias logic. Stupidity makes one popular. They even compete to see how many girls they can get to fellate them at a party, rainbow parties ( I am a guy, so this is from a male perspective).

3) The valuing of endless violence, endless sex and endless drug usage. Produces a bunch of doped up sick minded fools who are unlikely to contribute to society.

4) The culturing of certain views by the teachers. The teachers will teach their opinion as fact on many occasions and will ignore basic history and logic in order to get around arguments. Notable quotes:

"The human right of abortion"
"The Palestinians are not Semites"
"Republicans want to see all the poor die of cancer in the streets"
"Mayans were no longer around when Cortez came, otherwise they would have driven off the Spanish."


5) Youth: Top websites visited by my peers:

1. Reddit
2. 9Gag
3. Pornhub
4. Facebook
5. Twitter

(Based on how many separate times they have been mentioned in conversations around me.)
No news. No email. No education websites.

We had to write a group of essays a few weeks ago and most of my peers chose topics that a six year old would choose. Cats, words, dogs, Christmas (nothing to do with Jesus, but with presents),colour red ect ect.

I do not like where we are heading.

[Alfasuk]

In 50-60 years, liberals will be fighting to marry their dogs.

[mollyblue55]

You do realize that in the 1850's-1860's there were numerous articles published (both in the North and South) stating virtually the same sentiments that the US was suffering from a "moral decay". Also, in the "roaring 20's" when women became so immoral that they cut their hair short. Oh, and my favorite, the 1950's-1970's when the youth of America was rebelling and actually becoming involved in government and executing their civil rights.

Fact is, every generation, though out history has prophesied doom whenever social change comes about.

Deal with it.

[?]

1. Your morals shouldn't dictate society's direction.

2. Pornography, revealing Halloween costumes, drug use, and bad TV shows have been around for decades.

3. I really don't think that people who claim there's hostility against Christianity have any right to complain. 70% of the country is Christian and almost all of our legislature and government is, too. People saying Happy Holidays and not wanting the government promoting religion isn't hostility.

4. So you're against both abortion and single families. What do you want pregnant single women to do, then? Because like it or not, wishing the problem away won't magically make it disappear.

5. Fetuses are not children, nor should they have rights. They are cells that are part of their mother's body.

6. You're also against drug use and high incarceration rates, which are largely caused by certain drugs being illegal for no good reason.

7. Shut up about gay marriage. Seriously, shut the hell up. When somebody tells you that you are a second class citizen and that you can't marry the person you love, then you have the right to talk.

8. Don't judge the entire youth of the nation by the loudest sector. Many teenagers are not self-obsessed, anti-authority rebellious morons. Even so, that's biology. Teenagers are supposed to be rebellious and ungrateful. I'd imagine that these "problems" started as soon as you stopped being a teenager, or rather, that you started noticing that teenagers can be brats and forgot about how bratty they were in your day, too.

9. Bullshit. Classic bullshit. Reality television is trashy, but it's not the first trashy thing. Internet memes are just memes that find root in the internet (look up memes for reference). Tattoos are as old as sterile needles, and probably older. And even since WWII, America's been all about materialism. All that's changed is that the materialism has stopped benefiting us; that is, all our shit's made in other countries instead of giving jobs to American workers.

[Lonesome Rhodes]

"meaningful insights are almost more fun to read through!"

The same is true of well thought questions. What you posted is a self righteous rant with no real thought behind it. It's nothing but a series of talking points with details that you haven't bothered to back up.

[AmberP]

We have became a throw away nation. If something is broken we throw it away, we no longer try to fix it. That goes with everything from relationships to vacuum cleaners, and everything in between.
That is just one part of the problem.

Another problem is that many times now parents don't have the time to spend with their kids molding them into model citizens. A lot of people expect other people to raise their children, and then because they have the money to buy things they get their children things and expect that to be the same as raising them. Many also are not teaching their children that they need to work for things, my kids have a computer they share, my kids have electronic gadgets and all of that stuff, but they are still required to help out around the house and act appropriately. Many parents don't require this of their children anymore.

When kids that are use to getting things for nothing, go out into the work place, they expect that they are going to start out at a job doing something easy and get paid a lot of money for doing it. Half the time they don't even possess the work ethic to be able to move up in a company and they have no drive or ambition to show their best work if they are being paid minimum wage.

Another problem is greed. If you ARE a good worker and have a great work ethic that doesn't necessarily mean that the employer wants to pay you more than minimum wage. Even if you are doing the work of 3 people, helping an employer out with their own business, etc. They don't want to pay you because they want their own profits.

I worked for a guy that was like this. I was a really good worker, I made the man a LOT of money, I was also using my own vehicle for his business and he didn't want to pay me much money, didn't want to help out with the expenses to repair my car, etc. All because he thought that people were expendable, even the people who were making him money and making him stay in business. This guy is now struggling to stay in business and has told others that he wishes he would have just given me a raise or helped me repair my vehicle....a little to late for that.

You could say that over glorified sex, violent video games and the media trying to scare us at every turn, etc. is also a reason for the way things are now. It seems like television is trying to dumb us down sometimes. I can see how technology has actually made us less intelligent as well. Parents don't talk to their kids about sex and the ins and outs of it, they just don't talk about it at all or they actually encourage it through their actions. They also put too much trust in their kids that they are doing the right thing, instead of knowing for sure that they are.