How Morals Have Changed And Ways In Which They Might Change Again

[ER]

One of the interesting qualities in a series like AMC's Mad Men, which is set in the early 1960s, is the ability of its writers to contrast our time with the era in which the show is set. We are obviously invited to look on aghast as '60s characters undertake then-typical activities that today meet with disapproval. People in that time period are depicted driving drunk, smacking around their children, littering, smoking, making what now sound like sexist and racist comments to one another, and everyone back then was basically fine with all that and gave it little thought.

Which makes me wonder what things we in these 2010s are doing now that we find normal and good that will make our successors in fifty years wince and gape and think us shockingly barbaric?

I've been trying to think of what practices and customs we'll be criticized for by posterity and haven't had much luck. Anyone else feel like taking a stab at it?

[indianasmith]

Wearing your pants halfway down your rear end to show the world your colorful boxers . . . and complimenting the whole ensemble with a nylon stocking on your head!!!

Oh, wait, I already find that revolting and idiotic!

[Doggett]

Wearing your pants halfway down your rear end to show the world your colorful boxers . . . and complimenting the whole ensemble with a nylon stocking on your head!!!

Oh, wait, I already find that revolting and idiotic!

It's just a trend.

In 5 years they're gonna up and to red with embarressment with how stupid they looked.

Like men who had perms in the 80's

[Psycho Circus]

In 5 years they're gonna up and to red with embarressment with how stupid they looked.

Like men who had perms in the 80's

Hey man! Nothing wrong with perms!

[Doggett]

In 5 years they're gonna up and to red with embarressment with how stupid they looked.

Like men who had perms in the 80's

Hey man! Nothing wrong with perms!

I don't think there is either.

But normal people look back on the male 80's perm with a hint of embarressment.

One day the world will realise it's mistake.

[akiratubo]

People in that time period are depicted driving drunk, smacking around their children, littering, smoking, making what now sound like sexist and racist comments to one another, and everyone back then was basically fine with all that and gave it little thought.

Most people don't give any of that a second thought nowadays, either.

[The Gravekeeper]

People in that time period are depicted driving drunk, smacking around their children, littering, smoking, making what now sound like sexist and racist comments to one another, and everyone back then was basically fine with all that and gave it little thought.

Most people don't give any of that a second thought nowadays, either.

Erm...most people are not okay with child abuse these days. I can see homophobia nearly disappearing in North America in 50 years. I say "nearly" because there's always going to be a few exceptions even though it's becoming unacceptable. I personally would like to anti-intellectualism disappear, but that's not likely to happen even a hundred years from now.

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

beinga proud parent of two daughters, I really really hope the the current "hobag" style of clothing goes away before they can make their own cloting choices.   No one needs to see preteens dressed like hookers.
-Ed

[ER]

I imagine those living in the middle of this century will find it hard to believe people ate the way they did (do) in our present times. I expect there will be a lot of stigma attached to eating foods we see little harm in or know represent poor nutritional choices and yet eat anyway. They'll universally scoff at us poisoning ourselves with fast food the way we smirk at the ancient Romans who made detrimental use of lead in tableware and water pipes.

I also think the above prediction about the erosion of bias against homosexuals is accurate. (At least if western civilization continues to evolve on the same course it has been on in recent decades....and if one looks at Europe right now, it may not.)

By mid-century there will also likely be more racial blending (think Brazil) and people will see multi-culturalism as the norm, though I don't think that will bring anything like a racial utopia. There will almost surely be deep stigmas attached to anyone who fails to embrace the almighty creed of diversity. In the United States racism and racists will be demonized much as Communism and its adherents were in the middle of the last century. Therefore we of the 2010s and before will be thought of as collectively racist, though one can argue about that being a bum rap.

I would imagine green technologies may well be widely implemented by then, though whether they'll truly have the environmental impact green advocates claim remains to be seen.

I dearly hope we'll be laughed at with rousing disrespect for composing a society that elevated the brain fart that is the sitcom, the foot torture that is the Croc, and the head shakingly inexplicable popularity of Lady Gaga.

So overall, I think we'll be recalled as a lot of junk food stuffing homophobes and racists who wasted resources and drove fume-spewing cars, while living with restrictions in technology and medicine that will seem laughable. People dying of an epidemic of heart disease? Online message boards? ha. All so passe. I do hope that by then Stephen King is recalled as an American Charles Dickens, that Burger King has better commercials, and men are finally the ones who take birth control pills, but hey I'm known as an incurable optimist.

[jimmybob]

  Karma to that

-Jimmybob

[Jebus]

2000 years ago, it was an accepted moral norm to allow slavery. 150 years ago, it was justified Biblically in the South (for one example). Good thing our morals and ethics evolve over time.

[Jim H]

Which makes me wonder what things we in these 2010s are doing now that we find normal and good that will make our successors in fifty years wince and gape and think us shockingly barbaric?

I don't think there's going to be nearly as big of a change in mores and morals in the next fifty years as opposed to the last fifty.  Not to say there won't be changes, but I think the change from the late 50s and early 60s to now is a pretty big one.  Numerous attitudes going back several hundred years in the USA broke up a lot.  I'm reminded of a friend of mine's father who grew up in Virginia in that era.  His dog had a colorful, extremely racist name that refers to black people.  And not too many people of the time thought much of it.  They'd yell its name to get it to come in at night, in a mixed racially area. 

Needless to say, the same thing wouldn't be met with the same attitude today.  I can't quite think of anything that I think will change to that extreme in the next fifty years.

I can point to general outlooks that will change better than purely moral ones, based on what people my age (mid 20s) are like now.  I think religion will become less important, and churches in many areas will start to become like churches in many places in europe - very poorly attended, with some of them closing up. 

The prejudices against video games will largely evaporate.  Outlooks on censorship will be quite a bit different amongst people who grew up in the internet age.  At least, I hope so.  I'm really hoping us millenials don't pull a Baby Boomer and become enormous hypocrites, anyway. 

Sexism may fade a bit, but I don't think it will ever go away.  There's a sliver of truth to the gender attitudes in the world, and I think that's enough to keep the broader falsehoods alive, even if in reduced form.

I dearly hope we'll be laughed at with rousing disrespect for composing a society that elevated the brain fart that is the sitcom

It has faded in popularity, but it has already been over fifty years.  I don't think the next fifty will produce a rapid change in the topic.