@bjorn I have a hypothesis.
I think traditional values haven't persisted because of their inherent "goodness" but rather because they were an optimal way to live in such a way as to minimise suffering, a certain kind of pain which I'll call "social pain" and I suppose ultimately to optimise ones survival chances. On a mass scale, I think this is what enabled traditional values to persist. You could say it was borne off the fruits of living by its rules and in this way it became "normal".
I hypothesise that the scheme to break traditional values has many dimensions, some of which may seem disconnected but in time, it'll all connect together into a coherent whole once newer pieces get brought in.
First, technological and civilisation advancement serves many purposes and one purpose that is critical to my hypothesis is how a modern advanced civilisation (especially an individual based civilisation) allows one to optimise their chances of survival without the need to fall back on a "community". This is one strand that held up "traditionalism".
Second, I believe a certain kind of cultural revolution that undoes the fusion of the notions of "purity", "goodness" and the like with traditional values is crucial. If you can detach these notions from traditionalism by introduction of "relativity" or "nihilism" or "post modernism" then I think you undo another crucial thing that held up traditionalism.
Third, I put forward the notion that materialism plays a role. You really don't want religion of any sort to persist. Spiritualism must die. You need to employ science in such a way as to make materialism appear like the ultimate reality. This will accomplish a few things: it'll make people "terrestrialize" (made up word) concepts that previously were "religiolized" (another made up word) e.g. notions of being good and bad and what they mean. It'll also tilt the battle between the body and the spirit more towards the body - uninhibited gratification will lose the inhibitions that were previously placed on it.
Fourth, and this is crucial... Despite all the above, people have an inbuilt "pain" sensor that keeps them in line. Keeps society in line. Call this kind of pain, "social" pain. I think this is the last frontier. You can do all the above, pave the way but you can't go all the way as most of people will still be guided by this "pain" sensor.
So what must be done? My hypothesis is that the last hurdle is to introduce a tweak to the human body to remove, suppress or cancel this "social pain" sensor.
Once that is done, you will have a completely different type of human, moulded and prepared to be a certain way.
So actually, ultimately, to conclude, to say what I think, which is obviously crazy, how can it not be... Are you ready? Actually, it might be quite anti-climatic... Well, the grand finale of my hypothesis is that looking at the world right now, I think the (covid) vaccine might be intended to cut this "social pain" sensor in people (at least as one of its goals). There was a conspiracy theory going around about it cutting ones connection to their soul... But I don't think that's the intention... I think the intention is to cut this pain that ultimately inhibits people from just "letting go". Allowing people to finally let go of that which ultimately holds them back.
Call me crazy
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