Crushing the Compass

They say that there’s always a right direction—it’s just a matter of whether or not we all agree on the same one. People across time and space have always used a metaphorical moral compass to guide themselves through life and to decide which actions are right and which are wrong. However, moral compasses don’t seem to have a true north—it depends on the situation and the person holding it. The discrepancy between how people view right and wrong has always been a point of contention. This issue seems to have grown even more prevalent in today’s society; many believe that morals, in general, are declining. Morality mainly reflects our daily lives—the simple things we do every day. It is a matter of whether we trust our neighbors less or are afraid of getting our items stolen at a coffee shop. It’s easy to live in fear of the actions of others and look for the negative in everything we see. However, this viewpoint doesn’t allow us to see the good. As it becomes more and more common to consider that morality is declining, we must consider why so many think this and why it isn’t true.

When asked in 2019 whether or not morals are on the decline, people in at least 60 nations believe that it is. Springer Nature analyzed over 70 years worth of data as well as pulled data from ancient civilizations, such as Rome, concerning the perception of morality. They found that the belief in morality’s decline has been a societal constant for hundreds of years. Generally, this was due to a combination of nostalgia and the “biased memory effect,” as well as a societal tendency to focus on the negative over the good. 

The “biased memory effect” is the phenomenon of mainly remembering how much better things used to be in comparison to the current day—especially for older people, who romanticize their past because it is more familiar to them than the customs of current generations. As young children, our parents condition us to say “please” and “thank you”; to hold open the door for the next person; and countless other social niceties and small kindnesses. However, these customs change little by little over time. Non-adherence to social standards, whether it be using the wrong fork at the table or speaking too loud in public, are not valid factors to determine whether or not someone’s moral compass is broken. Morality is a broad subject, and in our efforts to define it, we often may make such correlations even if they are incorrect. Thinking that societal norms are an accurate basis for determining someone’s morality is part of the reason behind why we believe our morals are declining. Perhaps someone is using their fork in their right hand for a religious reason, or they’re speaking loud in public because they want their friend across the table to hear them. Our world has become more diverse, and we are immersed in different cultures and traditions. What may be societally “correct” to one may not be to another, and that is perfectly okay.

Many also believe that an increase in violence and political corruption has led to a loss of morality, proven by numerous studies that show how human beings are likely to seek and acknowledge negative information about others. With the rise of social media, this perception has only increased. Seeing people make morally decrypt choices—every day, all across the globe—no doubt serves as a justification for why people believe our values are on the decline. However, death, war, and cruelty have unfortunately always been a part of society; they haven’t necessarily become more prevalent just because we have more immediate access to news concerning them. We must also consider that negative actions receive more attention than positive ones—robberies and shootings are more likely to gain traction online than the news that someone helped an old lady across the street or that someone helped a lost child find her parents. 

Morals have also drastically changed throughout time and are incredibly nuanced. Throughout history, we have looked back on our past and romanticized it as being more pious or our actions more moral. However, this is a very simplistic view. Medieval torture methods were then seen as perfectly just and fair methods to punish someone for a crime. However, many of them are considered inhumane today. Renaissance painters were judged for using the nude form in their art; people were scandalized by the defamation of the Catholic Church during the Protestant Reformation; and birth control and intercourse out of wedlock were social taboos for women until remarkably recently in our history. We have come to a point where many societal standards and morals are archaic, and we have replaced them with new ones. 

Our morals are made up of all the small things we do for each other every day; most importantly, they’re not rigid—they are dynamic and constantly fluctuate. Morality is not dictated by an overarching power. It changes with new innovations, new ideas, and intercommunications between cultures. Morals are complex, and often they are beyond our personal scopes. Our job can only be to do what we think is right, not because we are forced to but purely for the sake of the action being right. 

Right and good are inherently subjective. All we can do is try to follow what we think is the best path, and do our best to notice the kindness of others. It is inevitable that we will see the negative actions of others every day or on the Internet. However, that doesn’t mean morals are declining any more than people have thought they’ve been for centuries. The only difference is that we are now in the position of being more aware of negative actions than prior generations were. And, this is something we can utilize to make change in the world.