moral revolution

When is the last time the west had a moral revolution? Civil rights in
the US? Suffragettes in England? No. Both were just the logical
extension the west's prevailing moral attitudes. They were changes in
social, civil attitudes. As was said "men, their rights and no more;
women, their rights and no less." Those rights, their moral
entitlements, were long established. Similar with the civil rights
movement. There was no question what MLK jr meant when he said he had a
dream. That dream was well lodged in the collective consciousness.

To find the last moral revolution, you need to go very far back,
indeed. Though it pains me to credit him for anything, you need to
look to Descartes' era of thought. The idea that was so morally
revolutionary was the sovereignty of the individual. The idea that
each person had in them a universe to be reckoned with and that such a
reckoning had consequence for all. It was the codifying of the
assumption of our whole US culture and the force in the "me" of the
"me generation". That the world could not ignore any one person for
fear of violating a vast realm of ideas, this was a revolutionary
moral notion. And the apparent fact that this only applied to
european, caucasian males was only a vestigial, social, political
notion - one being shaken off over time.

In the last 10 years in the US, especially with the rise of the new
left, there seems to be a backlash forming against this "me" focus.
People at least pay lip service to living with others in mind, others
around us and those in far corners of the world. But it hardly seems
to dent the way any of us live. Are we too far wedged into the gears
of the machine? Is this not the harbinger of a new moral view and just
a slight pang of guilt - soon to be cleared up when "the next big
thing" hits? It seems all the discussions in politics have become
decidedly moral in tone. Not the usual sanctimonious politician
feigning righteousness for efficacy, but a real, gut reaction to right
and wrong in the eye of these beholders. If anything, the simplicity
demanded from politicians today, in word, deed and mind, seems to
smell of the return of the US mind to moral thoughts. Moral thoughts
always must seem simple.