I suspect generations have been saying this for millennia. Some who lived before and during the industrial revolution asked this, certainly those who grew up in the Victorian era of progress and safety would be justified in saying this about the depression of the 1930’s. I often hear conservative Christians talk about how much better life was in the 1950’s, pointing to the fact the majority of the population were Christian as proof a Christian culture was better than the hedonistic culture that we live through today. I agree, life was safer and better in 1950’s…..if you were a white man, if you were black or a woman however, possibly not.
In many ways life was better in the past, certainly if you compare it to the 1950’s, but bear in mind that just prior to this we had the 40’s, when millions were massacred in Europe because they were Jewish, communist or not communist. But since Nazis and communists (being those responsible for most of the deaths by violence committed in the 20th century) were notoriously unChristian – to the point of hating, imprisoning and murdering those who were – let’s focus on Christian countries who weren’t experiencing war or oppression from violent unbelievers. Countries like Canada, America, Britain, Australia, France, Uganda, Jamaica, Haiti, El Salvador, Ukraine, Italy, Ireland etc.
I lived through the 80’s and 90’s in a small country town where everyone knew everyone, this is what I think of when I think of a Christian culture (even though mostly were cultural not actual Christians). It was safe for a 6 year old girl to walk to school by themselves, safe for a 10 year old girl to bush walk by herself (and I did), for a drunk 15 year old girl to walk home by herself at night. When I moved to the city at 16 it was noticeably less safe, and has continued to get worse, esp for women and girls. If I am to believe the stories it was safe for children to go trick or treating by themselves in Britain and America even in cities in the 1950’s, yet now it seems young women aren’t safe, even in small towns.
With the spate of sex crimes that have happened to young girls in British towns such as Rotherham and Rochdale there’s been a push to blame foreigners for our society becoming more dangerous, which has resulted, not just in stricter criteria for immigration, but of anti immigration in general. These crimes were committed by foreign nationals, but they were foreign nationals from specific countries, it doesn’t take genius to realise that opening up your countries doors to men from violent and institutionally misogynistic countries, with no tests for character, was going to result in a more dangerous society, esp for women, esp when those in charge don’t even want to punish those committing these crimes (which was the case for the Rotherham, Rochdale and Oxford rape gangs).
But the pool of immigrants in Britain is made up of many nationalities, most of those do not habitually commit violent, sexual or misogynistic acts. While importing violent offenders has certainly decreased safety within our community it’s illogical to think that a lack of morals (which throughout history has been instilled via religion), transient natures, lack of community and watching of violent media as entertainment has not contributed to this. One need only spend a little time on Twitter to see the problems within our society, news reports are posted describing horrific acts of domestic violence resulting in lifelong disability only to have a swarm of trolls reply with comments such as “what’s his side of the story? Maybe she deserved it”. There are many in our society who have lost their soul and would be better becoming Christians.
So we live in a sexually depraved, unsafe country, where men are no longer committing to wives who have born their children, where increasing numbers of population do not morally object to lying, cheating or stealing, where murder is treated as entertainment we gleefully watch. But many conservative Christians push for a complete reversion to 1950’s Christian society to get back our safety, communities and close knit families. I understand this, my ideal is a close knit family of 2 partners devoted to each other raising children they would do anything to protect, in a community where everyone knows everyone and is willing to look after everyone, where no children are abandoned by either parent, where the government works to provide us a safe and clean environment. It sounds nice right?
But what else did the 1950’s offer? It offered racism, esp towards people of African and Aboriginal descent. It taught that children should be beaten for misbehaving, something that destroys a child’s trust in their parents to keep them from harm, and teaches them that violence is okay. It told men they must be tough and never show emotion – which has led many men to commit suicide. It imprisoned men for being same sex attracted. It taught intolerance, or those who were different, because of their ethnicity, culture, religion or neuro divergence. It considered women property of men, it offered women no ability to work while married, or have any job except school teacher, nurse or secretary when they weren’t married – and all these jobs paid badly (because women weren’t seen as needing much money), which resulted in women being unable to leave abusive relationships without ending up homeless. It institutionalised young girls for being different, or rebellious or even studious, it even labotomised some of these.
For many people the 1950’s was a dark intolerant time. Feminists fought for female equality for hundreds of years, achieving suffrage in the early 1900’s and slowly gaining equality in the workforce. I am not interested in going back to a time when I am viewed as property, or when my Aboriginal friends were treated as subhuman. There are good things we’ve lost over the last 75 years, but there are many horrible things we’ve lost to, many things that I’m happy don’t exist anymore, like institutional racism, sexism and homophobia. What we should be striving for is getting back the good from out society while recognise the harm we left behind, the harm to pushed us to change in the first place; good things like: committed relationships, neighbours all knowing each other, a community that cares. And we should try and recognise the harm we’ve allowed to creep into our society in while equally recognising the good that we’ve achieved.