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I often read, especially on international message boards, that Americans are too religious, patriotic and that our constitution is out dated. I don't believe that, if anything we need more of those things instead of less.

Right and wrong has never changed. Peoples perception of right and wrong is changing constantly. The way people justify doing wrong and grow to accept things because the majority seems willing to except them doesn't change what is right and what is wrong.

It is called a shifting moral baseline. It can happen to an individual or an empire. The fall of Rome is a perfect example of a nation falling because of a shifting moral baseline.

The process of a shifting moral baseline is very slow. People don't go from being scared to say a curse word to having blood orgies in a week or two.

I'll give you an example that happens every day in America. I have actually witnessed this example of a personal shifting moral baseline.

At 17 years old Sara is still a virgin. She goes to church with her parents twice a week. She has never been drunk or high. On her senior trip all her friends are drinking, they are drunk, and appear to be having a very good time.

She figures it won't hurt if she has a few drinks. After all it is her senior trip. She may not see some of these guys after graduation. She has a few drinks, she gets buzzed, and she has a great time. It was the most fun she has ever had. She was a little tired the next morning, but after breakfast she felt fine.

Drinking had not hurt her or anyone else that night. Everyone had a great time and no one got hurt.

A few nights later they were having another party. They were passing a joint around and trying to get her to hit it. She was relunctant at 1st, but after a few drinks she loosened up and took a hit. She felt great. Again, she and everyone else had a great time and nothing bad happened.

This went on for a year or so after the trip was over and they came home. She went to a party ever now and then, had a few drinks, smoked a little weed, and it was cool. She was fine. No one got hurt.

She even met a guy at a party and they started dating. One night they got intimate in one of the spare rooms at the party house. She didn't want to have sex. She was still a virgin and a little scared. She didn't want to make her boyfriend mad. He had been very patient with her and was really horny. He didn't understand why she wouldn't give it up. He told her it made him feel like she didn't love him or want him.

She definately didn't want him to think that, so she masturbated him. What's so bad about that? It will ease his pain and she is still pure, right?

After a while masturbation wasn't enough so she gave him oral sex. Hell, what is so bad about giving oral sex? She has already let him see her naked and let him perform oral sex on her. She has been masturbating him. She knows he is clean so why not?

It isn't long before she has sex with him. What is so bad about that? She has done everything else? What is so bad about sex? Besides, all of her friends had done it 2 or 3 years earlier.

A few months later she catches her boyfriend cheating on her. She is very upset and one night at a party she meets another guy. She is very high, very drunk, and he has some cocaine. She tries it. She loves it. She sleeps with him.

Fast foward two years.

She is a dancer at a strip club. She sells her body to nasty old drunks twice her age and performs favors to the club owner for cocaine.

If you had told her at 17 that in 4 years she would be a stripper, a prostitute, and a cocaine addict, she would have slapped you, but it happened and it happens every day. The names, faces, and minute details may change, but the story is always the same.

This is the story of Sara's shifting moral baseline. It can happen to an individual or a society. It's happening right now, to both, all over the world.

Right and wrong never changed. Sara changed. The only thing the Devil ever changes, is you. Once you start down that road, every step gets a little easier.

The only good thing about a shifting moral baseline is that as long as you are still alive, you can shift it back.

Martin_Kaine's Blog

The Shifting Moral Baseline

Martin_Kaine

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