Gravity Morals & Ethics

A major problem with being able to judge things clearly and set a value on it; is that the perspective or attitude a person has, is constantly subject to change, due to outside factors.

A simple example of this, is the case of the price of gasoline. Originally when gas was 30c a gallon, everyone thought, that if gas went up to 50c a gallon, they would sell their cars; because they would never pay that much.

When gas went about three times as much at $1.25 a gallon, people got excited if it fell a few cents, to $1.20 a gallon.

Even more than this, teenagers, who while they were growing up gas was already over a dollar a gallon, now feel, that this is normal, and expect to pay at least that.

All this shows that how a person judges things, depends on where, (what reference point), they start from, and in what context they are looking at it from.

This is true of almost every opinion or attitude a person has, or judgment a person makes. Also the mores intangible the concept or factors are, the harder it is to really see things clearly, and make the right decision.
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Another example of this are morals and ethics.

If we look back in history we see, that there has been a steady progression of dresses, being shorter and smaller, until now at times nothing is left to the imagination.

Of course I'm only using dresses as an example to make a point. Dresses have actually varied in length (even longer) from time to time, but generally speaking, we reveal much more now, than ever before.

Also, if you replace the word dresses, with the word morals, you note, that here there has been a steady decline, from generation to generation, of our moral standards.
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The question is, why has there been this continual redefining, of what is proper?

One of the factors involved is, that businesses are in business to make money, so they have to appeal to physical tastes. As a result, they have to constantly change things, in order to have something continually new, exiting, and titillating.

What was exciting last season, now is old and boring; therefore they need to go one step further this season.

Each generation starts off, from where the previous generation left off. They say, "What difference, does another "small" inch make?" This “progresses” until all the "small inches", equal a gigantic step.

The problem is, that since this happens in such small steps, the sensibilities of people are not outraged enough, for them to say "no".

As a result, people become insensitive, to what is proper and moral, since their starting point, is wherever the generation is, at the present time.

Since a person's physical side, is more apparent and compelling; morally things will continually tend to fall down, as though there was an invisible forces of gravity pulling downwards. This will continue to happen, unless an opposite force is constantly applied, in the opposite direction ‑‑ Torah.
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This process has continued, until now, we have destroyed the basic fiber of society, in the name of art or freedom. Now people make up their own morals.

Freedom is now defined, as freedom from all restrictions and responsibilities, whether they are positive or negative. The positive ones, using rules of decency, respect, and discipline.

In other words refined, and civilized standards, that have spiritual values, that make a person human; instead of thinking, that being more animal‑like is better.

The famous "Me" generation of "living for today", is destroying itself and society. Marriages fall apart, because, instead of a coming together, each partner only wants what is best for themselves.

Even cities and countries now are like babies, each one only concerned with its own welfare. As a result, a state will pollute a river that goes downstream, because it affects someone else, not them.

Countries continually argue over petty things, because now every nationality wants to be a world power, no matter how small they are.
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All this comes about, because people don't realize that absolute values exist in the world. That there is an absolute starting point of everything, and it is the standard against which everything else is measured against. What is this standard that we set our sights by? ‑‑ Torah.

Man himself is incapable of setting moral and ethical guidelines. As we have seen, he is just unable to see clearly enough; since he himself is a physical being, and he cannot go outside of himself, to make a totally unbiased judgment, based totally on spiritual premises.

He always will tend to be pulled down by the downward pull of the physical world and its bodily desirers. The only way that we can decide what is right or wrong, is by acknowledging a force outside of ourselves, that lifts us upward; of course this is Hashem.