While much has been written about so-called crises of faith in the life cycle of individuals, what is seldom recognised, and even when so recognised, usually dismissed, is that societies also undergo crises of faith.
A societal crisis of faith occurs when the values that produced a particular incarnation of a society no longer correspond to the values held by the individuals and organisations holding economic, political, and social power in that society. Paradoxically, these value changes seem to occur first on a social level. In reality the changes are already far advanced by the time they appear, because in most societies social standing and mobility lag behind economic and political power. Those with economic power seldom wish to flaunt values at variance with social norms, and those in the political arena prefer a protective coloration that in fact straddles the perceived range of values. while ostensibly preferring the most popular of values ...
Although all stable societies rest firmly on a consensus of values, invariably the individuals in those societies prefer not to discuss those values, except in glittering generalities, not because they are unimportant, but because they are so important that to discuss them seriously might open them to question and reinterpretation. Thus, the very protection of a society's values preclude any wide-scale and public reevaluation of those values and any recognition of a potential crisis of values.
Since 'morality' is the sum total of those values, the first public symptom of a crisis of values is usually a series of comments about the growing immorality of society — almost always directed at the young of a society who have absorbed what their elders are in fact doing, rather than professing ...
The Ethos Effect - page:14,15
L. E. Modesitt Jr.
I find this to apply all too easily to things happening in current society. I think more people need to think about this.
