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OVER50 YEARS
OFTHE
NEWMORALITY
Where has it brought us?
W
ORLD W AR
1
(1 9 14-
19 18) completely al–
tered the course of
the world 's poli tical order. But
few living then wou ld have pre–
dicted the revolution in moral
attitudes a nd social values.
Six decades
of
social revolu–
tion have not brought the free–
dom and happiness promised.
Instead, we have a great moral–
spiritual cr isis!
The Great Oisillusionment
T he widespread carnage, chaos and
suffer ing of World War 1 was a
shock to many.
It
destroyed the
youth and the economic vitality of
Europe.
The Great War, as it carne to be
called , compounded by fo llowing
years of deep economic hardship and
the rise of new d ictatorships, shat–
tered an illusion held particularly in
the developing West. T hat illusion
led to the belief that rapidly indus–
trializing and more scientifically
oriented 20th-century mankind was
destined for peace and greater and
greater prosperity and happiness.
Many became disillusioned. Old
cherished beliefs and values,
including religious ones based on
Christian ethics, crumbled. They
began to experiment with new
codes of behavior.
At this same time, the ideas of
psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud
grew in popularity in education and
psychology. Freud prometed the
idea that at the root of many
12
by
Donald D. Schroeder
human neuroses and fears were
sexua l confl icts and repression.
Freud 's thin k ing was a conse–
quence of the sexual ignorance of
the Victorian era that had, indeed,
produced much suffering.
Many F r eudian disciplcs
preached that inhibition of sexual
desires was to be avoided. Authori–
tarian discipline, said many of these
believers, might produce unfortu–
nate sexual-neurotic feelings.
" Roaring Twenties"
Such "scientific," political and
young women. She was a woman
considered bold and unconventional
in actions and dress. Not all followed
looser life-styles, of course. But the
battering rams for greater permis–
siveness were busily at work knock–
ing away at and trying to discrcdit
the virtues of honesty, thrift, faith–
fulness and virginity.
T he United States experimented
with Prohibition.
It
was an utter
failure. Again humanity tried to
treat an evil effect (drunkenness
caused by abuse of alcohol) without
eliminating the true causes of aleo-
The ideas of Sigmund Freud (left) and the permissive hippie movement of tbe
1960s molded morality, impacting millions of lives.
social ideas set the stage for the
Roaring Twenties. The war was
over. T he mood of the times was:
'Throw out the old, bring in the
new. Let's live it up!" The J azz
Age with its lack of inhibitions
carne into vogue.
The emanci pated "ftapper" of the
1920s became a model for many
hol abuse. Prohibition ushered in
its own evils: bootlegging, speak–
easies and gangsters who prometed
more vice and prostitution.
Through the 1920s and l930s,
sensationalist newspapers featured
stories of clandestine !ove affairs,
crime and vice. Magazines and the
increasingly popular movies pro-
The
PLAIN TRUTH