Is our society in moral decline?

We're in moral decline: this is an idea that I've frequently come across in what other people have said, but never gave any serious attention to. 

This is the idea that our society is displaying a trend, where it is becoming more and more open to values and ideas that we've in the past deemed immoral and inappropriate: 

• Being open about one's homosexuality,
• Legalisation of marijuana,
• Increased acceptance to inter-racial relationships and relationships with huge age disparities,
• The public discussion of sex and related topics considered less of a taboo,
• Break down of social hierarchy between rich and poor, old and young

... and perhaps many more others. (None of these phenomena are absolutely global, but are definitely evident in some societies) 

As far as I'm concerned, these 'trends' do not exactly overwhelm me either positively or negatively. I have a feeling that I have, more than many others who are concerned about this moral decline, a better understanding of what morality really is (in a sort of meta-ethics context). (See here and here)

Morality is akin to emotions and bodily feelings: my opinion is that as best practice, we shouldn't let our feelings of morality affect our judgement any more than we shouldn't let our feelings of hunger or lust affect our actions. 

Moral decline or not - for me, that doesn't seem to be a huge issue to fuss over. What's probably worth spending more time on is to analysing the material and (socio-)psychological consequences of these 'moral' trends, and acting to make the best of what could and probably will happen.  

A lull - a rut

It has been a fairly long time since I've written anything in this blog, and it has gotten to the point that I've almost convinced myself that I have abandoned this blog for good. But subconsciously I somehow knew that I would come back once in a while, and publish something - even if that 'something' no longer has any comparable amount of 'philosophical content' as the previous posts in this blog. 

Working a full time job has really brought me to shift my attention on things that - at least on the outset - have no relation to philosophy: finances, keeping up with industry developments, reading the news, household chores, (trying to) exercise, etc. I'm still spending a good amount of time reading and thinking: but whilst before the object of the reading and thinking are primarily ideas, they are more-so now, things. Not necessarily things in the sense of material objects, but things which are practical and 'mundane'. Things which play a bigger role in allowing me to stay alive as a human being, essentially.  

It wasn't so much that these things did not take up any of my attention before - it was more that these things have always been on the side-lines, at the back of mind. It probably shouldn't have been.  

This is the phase that I'm currently on - where these things have found their way to the front of my mind, and have received way more attention than I would have permitted myself before; before - when I was still formally a philosophy student, and more concerned with 'problems' such as how concepts are relate with each other.