Is Society Worse Today? (than 50 years ago)

Are things today really much worse than they were 25, 50, or 100 years ago?

What an interesting question. Is society more evil? Are people more bad than they were 25, 50, or 100 years ago?

It’s common and popular to say that things are so much worse today than when I was a kid. Or, teenagers today are worse than when I was in school. I’m not so sure about this. I’m thinking about all of the people who complain about how bad our culture is today.

We know the stats and have seen the degradation of our society. It is easy to think negatively and critically about the condition of society. The spiraling changes are significant:

-media (television, radio, print, digital, and internet revolution that has changed the standards and censorship)

-music and entertainment industry (lessening values in programming and loss of control by the networks)

-athletic and sports industry (materialism and selfishness)

-modernist to post-modern worldview shift (from an enlightenment mind that had a ‘humanist and moral template ready to solve human and world issues’ to a ‘no universal code of right and wrong’ way of not caring and almost futile thinking)

Is There A Difference?

But, is there really a difference between today's culture and 25, 50, and 100 years ago? Listen to this. Here are some newspaper headlines from between 1900 to the 1930’s:

“Bank Manager Found Guilty of Embezzlement”

“Mass Killer Charged” “20 Dead in Theatre Collapse”

“President Appoints First Jewish Justice to Court”

“Marijuana Crazed Youth Kills Fellow Students”

“New Housing Problems on Horizon”

“Crowd Vents Anger by Destroying Property”

“Teens Growing up too Quickly”

“Forest Fires Destroy Thousands Of Acres”

“Racial Riots Break Out in White Neighborhood”

It sounds like I found those headlines and articles online just in the last month!

Are things really any different? Certainly not any different than when I was in high school. Some of the things that we are dealing with today are the same things I was dealing with 40 years ago in college and 45 years ago in high school. Addictions, divorce, school violence, Bullying, Racial tension, And Government problems.

Here are two thoughts on this topic of whether our world and society is really worse today.

First, I believe things are simply more prevalent. But definitely not more severe.

I think what happens is that social media and the Internet have shrunk the world and promoted human nature at a viral level. We used to solve our problems face-to-face and in our own neighborhood.

We used to deal with issues and problems in society on a micro level.

Which actually is a much better way to solve problems. Now we end up trying to solve our problems at a macro level. Today, we solve problems on television, we have discussion threads on social media without solutions, we create podcasts to promote our views about or against something, and we publish how we feel about everything publicly rather than privately. I think I liked a much smaller society that seemed more locally relational than globally viral.

Let me end with a second thought about whether society is worse today than in years past.

Secondly, human nature hasn’t changed over the last 25, 50, or 100 years. We are still human and prone to evil. Listen, human nature in the 1st century or the 21st century is human nature. And our propensity for evil is as strong as ever.

Again, I don’t think that evil is more prevalent, I just think it is more promoted because of the information age. The Bible says in Romans 3.23 and 6.23 that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And the wages of that sin is death.’ That soul reality hasn’t changed because we live in a free society. But the good news is still the good news today. The end of Romans 6.23 also says ‘but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus.’ And Romans 10.9-10 says ‘that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.’ ‭

Sin hasn’t changed over the course of time. And neither has salvation.

Finally

Remember what Paul said about the fact that sin will abound, but grace much more. I believe there is more grace available than there is sin. What a lesson to learn on critical, thinking versus thinking critical. I think all of us could use a little more optimism today. And look at the reality that no one at any time is unreachable. There’s no greater sin.

There’s no era where sin is more powerful than grace. And all of us, no matter when or where we have lived, all of us need a savior. Thank you again for joining us on another youth leadership podcast. You can check us out on the socials and hit the link tree where you can watch us on YouTube, listen on iTunes podcast, or get the manuscript on our website.

www.ythology.com