"In the decades since the end of World War II, standards of morality have lowered again and again. Crime spirals upward; decency careens downward. Many are on a giant roller coaster of disaster, seeking the thrills of the moment while sacrificing the joys of eternity. Thus we forfeit peace."
I can accept that there are bad things in the world, but its hard for me to honestly look at history and think it was generally better in the past and overlook the improvements we have made regarding slavery, racism, rigid class systems, accepted violence, access to food, education, and everything else I can think of.
"We forget how the Greeks and Romans prevailed magnificently in a barbaric world and how that triumph ended—how a slackness and softness finally overcame them to their ruin. In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security and a comfortable life; and they lost all—comfort and security and freedom."
I totally thought he was going to say the Greeks and Romans failed due to morality issues. Instead it sounds almost like something Benjamin Franklin would say. Since this message could potentially be from God himself, I wanted to know what exactly is meant by wanting security and a comfortable life more than freedom. Sounds like a good Tea Party rally cry, but I want to know what a Prophet of God means when he says it.
Turns out he plagiarized it directly from Edward Gibbon's "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". What makes this especially interesting is that Gibbon blames Christianity for the indifferent attitude among the citizens leading to the fall.
Digging a little deeper it turns out the whole talk is a complete repeat (with interesting but minor changes) of Monson's April 1967 talk "Come Follow Me". Suddenly the whole talk makes sense. "In the decades since ... WWII" seems like less of a blanket statement when he's only talking about 2 decades.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/2013 11:15PM by chris.
What I wonder is whether this is Monson recycling talks (which all the GAs do), or if this is another sign of Monson's decline and the church recycling his material to show fresh flow of content from him.
I just checked Monson's March 2013 message "Peace, Be Still" and it is a repeat of his talk "Peace, Be Still" from October 2002.
These talks have the same name, but there seems to be no mention that the 2013 is not original.
"One day just over a year ago" becomes "One day a few years ago" to represent the passage of at least a decade. And it becomes apparent the Monson knew one fewer widow than I previously believed.
More evidence that there's nobody in charge -- if there were actually "men behind the curtain" they would have instructed the Ensign editors to update recycled talks before publication -- "in the decades since the first Gulf War, moral standards...
RG
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/2013 01:18AM by reinventinggrace.
I know they repeat themselves A LOT. When I was an uber TBM, I would to listen to old conference talk cassettes in my car, and I was surprised to hear so many stories from the 70's, 80's & 90's that I had also heard recently. I guess after a while you run out of stories, so you just start repeating yourself. Either that or do it Paul Dunn style, and just make up new stories.
I did too. It wasn't immediately obvious that I had to click a "Show References" button at the bottom of the page, but even then there was no reference to the repeat or Gibbon. I just checked the PDF version (presumably an exact copy of the print version), but no reference there either.
I've noticed this kind of repetition and plagiarism before in these First Presidency messages--I suspect it happens extremely often. FAIR would probably say it's common knowledge and we shouldn't expect the prophets, seers, and revelators to develop new, correctly-sourced material with all the other things they have going on.
The other place this plagiarism is evident is in the cutesy sayings people post on Facebook. If it sounds too good to be a Monson original, it probably is.
Monson repeats the same garbage all doomsayers spew. The truth is that crime is not getting worse, the chance of being killed by another person in anger is as low as it's ever been worldwide, even in war zones, empathy is up except where religion clouds people's minds.
This is a great time to be alive. Monson's scare tactics are all lies.
Exactly Oz. Every generation says the world is going to hell in a handbasket. No it isn't!
The Information Age is changing the world (and old farts can't get their head around the changes............so, it's doomed!), but we live a higher quality of life than ever before, higher life expectancy, etc.etc.
Yes, these are all subjective measures, but one thing is for sure: Morality has been all over the map since recorded time. It's no better or worse: Human behavior and motivations haven't really changed over the last 5000 years....we experience the same basic emotions as the pyramid builders.
Because I always thought of WWII as a high point in human morality -- didn't you?
Oddly enough the only criminal activity of which I was personally a victim was at the hands of my TBM relatives who -- through acts of fraud and extortion -- exploited my elderly mother and tried to rob me of an inheritance left by my never-mo father. But they don't drink coffee or tea -- so I'm convinced of their moral superiority -- not.
" standards of morality have lowered again and again. Crime spirals upward; decency careens downward. "
Ok, implied here is that it was better back in time. When we read that Joseph Smith was poking 14 & 15 year olds, and the 50+ year old subsequent profits continued that tradition (Woodruff and Snow had teen brides too), are they going to argue that this is a better standard of morality? Really?
This has been going on for many years. The FP messages in the Ensign are usually recycled conference talks from years past. If you can stomach it, look at Monson's Ensign messages for the past several years. Most of them have been used 2 or 3 times at least, with some of them being about as old as I am (48).
I suspect this happens because they can't be bothered to come up with an article when it's their turn. But then it's also very convenient when the author is so mentally or physically out of it they can't produce anything. The messages at the end of President Kimball's and President Benson's lives were these recycled "greatest hits." Printing them as if they were new was just part of preserving the illusion of a prophet who was in charge.
What is interesting is the assumption that humanity was somehow more decent during and before World War II.
What was decent about World War II? It was an awful period, in which tens of thousands of people could die in a single day. Of course, it brought out a lot of good in many people who coped with a very difficult circumstance. But overall, it was not humanity's finest hour.
I guess skirts were the proper length, and men did not get their ears pierced.
***
My next thought is that Gordon Hinckley recycled the Be's talk a million times over.
I agree. As a missionary, I would have used that message as an example of what God revealed LAST MONTH! to our modern prophet. It seems deceptive for the Ensign not to mention the origins of that message or his message before that one...
They need to give emeritus status to Monson, let him live out his days in peace, and find a prophet who can receive revelation on how to solve real world problems.
Do the GAs actually write their own talks once they've entered into the top 15? Maybe when they were younger and trying to promote themselves to the 15. How about the prophet's counselors pitching in on some new material? It's weird that they are recycling the talks. They don't have any new stuff to offer. Maybe they should hire speech writers.
Monson doesn't know what he is talking about. Rome fell because they introduced the evils of monogamy to the world.
“Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout all Christendom, and which has been so fruitful a source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious.” - Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 128