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Is the World Morally Bankrupt?

“THE little skinny girl on the movie screen is about 6 years old. She wears her hair in a shiny bob. In her cotton dress, knee socks and laced-up oxfords, she looks . . . like a kid dressed up for her first day of school. But this child is the unwilling star of a kiddie porn film.”​—The Toronto Star.

Appalling? Yes! That victimized “little skinny girl” could have been your next-door neighbor​—or a close relative. An isolated incident? No! In the United States alone, an estimated 300,000 children a year become trapped in pornography. ‘Yes, but things aren’t that bad all over, are they? It doesn’t mean that the whole world is morally bankrupt,’ some say.

However, consider this illustration: Your neighbor, lacking sound economic judgment, suffers an economic reversal, becomes financially ruined and declares bankruptcy. Yet, on the surface, he puts on the appearance that it is “business as usual”​—until suddenly creditors foreclose on his estate. It is similar with the world’s present system of things. On the surface it may appear morally sound, but a closer examination reveals irreparable cracks deep down to its very foundation.

Indicators of Bankrupt Morals

The world is morally destitute​—bankrupt—​ripe for a total collapse. Why do we say that? As you look at the indicators of moral failure listed below, think about whom and what they represent. Do they represent only the uneducated? or the poor? or the hardened criminal? or the irreligious? Or is moral impoverishment so permeating society, from its leaders straight to their followers, that the entire system is becoming corrupted?

● Fraud in research by scientists, doctors and journalists is discovered at a disturbing rate.

● More than 17,000 corrupt police officers have been dismissed in Mexico City since 1976.

● Two priests, more than 540 businessmen and dozens of tax officials have been charged with cheating Italy out of $2.2 billion (U.S.) in petroleum taxes.

● A recent poll disclosed that 200 chief executive officers for some of the world’s largest corporations consider the maintaining of ethical standards unimportant to the public image of business.

● Citizens cheat Italy out of 20 percent of its potential taxes; in Germany it amounts to an estimated $10 billion (U.S.). On the average, each Swedish adult cheats the government out of $720 (U.S.) a year in taxes. In the United States cheating (deliberate and inadvertent) on federal taxes totaled $29 billion a decade ago, now $100 billion. “If the situation continues to worsen, it could lead to the disruption of our economy and even to a breakdown in society,” states The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

● The director of the UN Division of Narcotic Drugs described the alarming increase in the world demand for illicit drugs as “an evil miasma of smuggling and crime, tax evasion, bribery, and corruption.”

● The World Health Organization estimates that pesticides poison some 500,000 people worldwide each year, often due to the unethical distribution of dangerous chemicals. Safety is sacrificed on the altar of company profits. Many foreign chemical companies “dump” banned pesticides on Third World countries, prompting Kenya’s deputy environment minister to cry: “We are victims of the industrial world.”

● Each year 55 million women get abortions, estimates International Planned Parenthood Federation. This figure represents a destruction of a potential population greater than the individual populations of Argentina, Australia, Canada, South Africa, France, Poland or 145 other nations.

● At one time venereal disease lurked only in the back alley. Now, licentious life-styles have caused its proliferation. Millions are infected each year, including children. New, bizarre sex diseases pop up, spread rapidly and baffle doctors.

● In their pastoral letters, West German and American Roman Catholic bishops support the “just war” theory.

● Large food surpluses are wasted while malnutrition spells death to millions. Many Third World nations neglect food production in favor of export cash crops, such as tobacco or coffee, thereby often filling the pockets of the elite.

● Out of 164 nations, 45 are engaged in some kind of armed conflict, involving over four million soldiers in combat. And what makes war different today when compared to the past? The shocking increase in civilian deaths. On the average, three civilians are killed for every combatant death.

● “Some 500,000 scientists all over the world are devoting their knowledge to the search for weaponry more sophisticated and more deadly,” states the UN secretary-general.

● The world spends $19,300 (U.S.) annually per soldier but only $380 per school-age child. At the same time, 25,000 people die every day because of lack of clean water, and 100,000 children go blind each year because of a lack of vitamin A in their diet.

● In order to enrich their coffers, the industrial nations export their arms to nations who can least afford them​—the all-too-eager developing countries—​who often use those weapons against their poor. “No other form of exploitation, imperialist or otherwise,” says former U.S. Ambassador John Kenneth Galbraith, “has been so damaging or dangerous as this.”

True, a person​—politician, businessman, next-door neighbor or other—​may start off with a high personal moral code. However, unless he is highly motivated to resist, the system around him can lock him into a pattern drained of any virtue and can make him its prisoner. An ancient proverb sums up the moral situation by saying: “That which is made crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot possibly be counted.” Like a stick grown crooked and brittle, the world’s morals are so twisted that in order to straighten them out they must be broken.​—Ecclesiastes 1:15.

Another aspect of moral bankruptcy is reflected in entertainment. The culture of a society, especially its entertainment, can reveal much about its moral standards. How does today’s entertainment reflect present morals?

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In the United States alone, an estimated 300,000 children a year become trapped in pornography

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Large food surpluses are wasted while malnutrition brings death to millions

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About a quarter of the world’s nations are now involved in armed conflict