[MD] Where have all the values gone?

[khaled Alkotob]

Platt, Arlo, Erin & All

Platt asked: And the question is, "Does that represent moral evolution,
i.e. progress?"
> 
> What do you think?

I have been forwarding some of this dialogue to a couple of friends and
one brought up an interesting point. The living condition which these
people had to endure. 
If you were and immigrant, you "fled" for a reason. Mortality rates were
high and then he added " if you were a child your were fair game".
Meaning what kids got subjected including sexual abuse, mortality, ;labor
conditions and so on. My friend's wife is a mental health worker for the
county, they know first hand how bad it is in certain socio economic
classes. So in way maybe it was these conditions that made people what
they are, and as the quality of life improves, we don't necessarily get
soft, but our values evolve, some for the better some for the worse.
When modern medicine keeps your teeth in great condition past the age of
40-50, you are going to keep eating like a teenager and get fat. 

so maybe the values did not degenerate, they just shifted. As Arlo said:
In modern culture, the Sophists "man is the measure of all things" has
been
replaced with "money is the measure of all things". We derive our worth
from
it, with it and through it. It defines greatness and failure. It defines
success and defeat. Rich and poor become good and bad. 

It's what we had made the prize to be, and what were are willing to do to
get ti.

khaled