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I don't know for sure, but I would guess that the war in Vietnam may have contributed to tearing down that belief in duty, at least in the United States. In Europe, perhaps it started its decline at the Nuremberg trials.


I think this confuses "Duty" with nationalism, it's peoples Duty to stop an unjust war. The Boy Scout oath says "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country". You could replace God with any moral belief system.

I think our sense of Duty started to dissolve sometime in the 80s with the idea that "Greed is good" and then continued in the 90s with a rise in apathy. Both of which are selfish ideas, selfishness is the opposite of Duty.


Scouts was how I heard of "Duty". We had to define it as part of the initiation rituals.

Along with "Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean, and Reverent".

As far as cult-ish secular institutions go, Scouts was/is a pretty good one.

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I totally agree that the normalization/expectation of over-the-top greed is our biggest moral failing since the 80s, as a culture.

CEOs of national enterprise used to make 10x the lowest-paid employee, and were shamed by their network if they tried to cross that threshold.

There are many factors contributing to the new norms, it will take a lot of struggle to move them in the right direction.


that's an interesting statement: "selfishness is the opposite of Duty"

I'm inclined to agree - Duty is about serving others, or one's country, not oneself.




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