Society Gets More Progressive Because People Die

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/10/31/societies-change-their-minds-faster-than-people-do

This is the subscription teaser version of the full article unfortunately.

The upshot is that, with the notable exception of gay marriage, society's attitudes towards social issues become more progressive not because individual attitudes change, but because older people with more conservative mindsets are replaced by younger people who are more progressive.

The article is based on U. of Chicago's General Social Survey.

Languish SJWs can either take heart that eventually everything they clamor for will come to pass, or despair that it's going to take a long fucking time.

[Valmy]

There was some quote about how society progresses one funeral at a time. I guess it is true.

Edit: it was Max Planck about the acceptance of new scientific discoveries...ah well close enough.

[Monoriu]

So what's the implication?  If you want society to change quickly, does that mean the most effective way to do so is to make deaths happen...earlier?   

[Valmy]

So what's the implication?  If you want society to change quickly, does that mean the most effective way to do so is to make deaths happen...earlier?   

Soylent Green

But seriously I think the implication is just that time is on your side if you are a progressive...though while I think this is probably true right at this moment this cannot be a universal maxim since society has not progressed steadily since some time of platonic backwardness at some point in the past.

[Admiral Yi]

So what's the implication?  If you want society to change quickly, does that mean the most effective way to do so is to make deaths happen...earlier?   

One posssible implication might be that if you want society to change quickly, you need to pick causes that look more like gay marriage.

[Monoriu]

What if I don't want society to change?   

[Valmy]

What if I don't want society to change?   

Transhumanism and clinical immortality then

[Admiral Yi]

What if I don't want society to change?   

Then you might be disappointed.

[Richard Hakluyt]

I think it is more that society changes because people die; we can lose the "progressive". To risk invoking Godwin's law I wonder how many German Jews were wandering around in the late 1930s saying "Yay! Society is getting more progressive!".

[Razgovory]

I'm not sure what will be considered "progressive" in the future.

[DGuller]

I agree that society changes because people die, but not necessarily in a progressive direction.  I suspect that people also change for a while, before their views harden to the views they take to their grave.  Conceivably young people can become old farts faster than old farts become worm food, in which case society could actually regress over time.

[Kaeso]

My money on Polygamy / Polyandry

[Malthus]

I think it is more that society changes because people die; we can lose the "progressive". To risk invoking Godwin's law I wonder how many German Jews were wandering around in the late 1930s saying "Yay! Society is getting more progressive!".

Heh in the early 1900s things like eugenics and social Darwinism were, in fact, labelled as "progressive". The Nazis just took these things to an extreme. They certainly considered themselves (and were considered by many others) to be the wave of the future.

The reality is that "progressive" is not the same as "good". Older people are more small-c conservative (not exactly a revelation, that). But being conservative, however much the current right wing populists have disgraced that title, isn't necessarily a bad thing, as not all change is for the better.

[Malthus]

My money on Polygamy / Polyandry

That's something that ultimately requires people to care about the formalities of marriage, something that itself appears to be decreasing.

As Chesterton one remarked, the bigamist respects the institution of marriage - otherwise, why would he or she go through the trouble of being married multiple times? Even moreso with the polygamist. 

[Kaeso]

My money on Polygamy / Polyandry

That's something that ultimately requires people to care about the formalities of marriage, something that itself appears to be decreasing.

As Chesterton one remarked, the bigamist respects the institution of marriage - otherwise, why would he or she go through the trouble of being married multiple times? Even moreso with the polygamist.

I wasn't referring to a marriage "à trois" but rather having lasting relationship between several people. Due to economic hardship, I could clearly imagine a couple losing too much if they split up and, instead, date other people while still sharing a common life, just not their bed. After all, more people more shoulders to cry on, hands to take care of the dishes and the kids. Jealousy will be seen as "petit bourgeois" and retrograde.

About the formalities of marriage, the complexity and cost of a divorce make them aberrant considering the "Tinderisation" of our life...