Collapse of common values

The lack of a common ethical system means the behaviour is dependent on the individual's perception of what is appropriate or inappropriate and on the structural sanctions society can effectively apply. This tends to force the legal system to assume the role of guarding the morality of the social system. Immorality is equated with illegality. Those who choose a moral life are relieved of the burden of freedom of choice by following the letter of the law. Those choosing an immoral life are left with avoiding being caught.

In Hinduism and Buddhism, there is a distinct understanding of moral decline as a process of forgetting one's true identity and purpose as a result of distraction by the material world.

1. The commonly held value systems of society are collapsing, not only globally but also within the fabric of individual societies; and there is a deeply felt longing to recreate a sense of ethical human relations. The primary blocks to the creation of a new context for ethical decision-making are not to be found within the established religious institutions, the very groups which generally create and sustain meaningful value systems for local people. This is due to persistent individuals and organizations of established religion that are attempting either to make old schemes relevant or to create a new set of rigid, lasting values. At the same time, the current reduction of values to personal likes and dislikes is fostering an equally unhelpful personal hedonism.

2. A change in attitudes and in human structures frequently calls accepted values into question, especially among young people, who have grown impatient on more than one occasion, and indeed become rebels in their distress. Aware of their own influence in the life of society, they want a part in it sooner. This frequently causes parents and educators to experience greater difficulties day by day in discharging their tasks. The institutions, laws and modes of thinking and feeling as handed down from previous generations do not always seem to be well adapted to the contemporary state of affairs; hence arises an upheaval in the manner and even the norms of behaviour. (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, 1965).

1. Value erosion
2. Misuse of international forums
3. Lack of standards
4. Jeopardization of universality
5. Collapse in providing ethical value screens
6. Collapse

1. Static and superficial adult values
2. Reinforced parochialism of internal values and images
3. Indifference to spiritual values

1. Vacuous public values
2. Social breakdown
3. Resurgence of a new dark age
4. Over-simplification of social concepts
5. Lying
6. Incompatibility of rural values in urban cultures
7. Immorality
8. Crime
9. Anomie
10. Amenity destruction
11. Abuse of cultural values

1. Secularization
2. Offensive advertising
3. New Age spirituality
4. Misguided advocacy of fashionable values
5. Lack of commitment to common symbols
6. Haphazard forms of social ethics
7. Ethical vacuum
8. Distraction by the material world
9. Collapse of belief systems

1. Value-biased judgement
2. Inappropriate projection of values onto other cultures
3. Inappropriate application of traditional values
4. Group mind

1. Disruptive religious fundamentalism

1. Proliferation
2. Irrelevant institutions
3. Ethnic discrimination

1. Reducing number of value systems
2. Recreating value systems
3. Providing social principles for behaviour
4. Preserving common values
5. Overcoming indifference
6. Exposing irrelevant social values
7. Exhausting moral resources
8. Abstaining from common ethic

1. Collapse
2. Irrelevance
3. Proliferation
4. Lack