Movies that were made in say the 40s or 50s, seem much more alien—to me—than modern movies allegedly set hundreds of years in the future, or in different universes.
They had different moral fashions. It is how the movies portray such moral fads that shows how different we’ve become. I haven’t seen the f*d up remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, but one of the principle plot elements of the first one is that some random stranger who Mrs Benson only met a few hours ago, gets to “babysit” her child unsupervised all day. Today, all anyone can think about a similar situation is “child molester.”
What scares me is that there are moral fashions too. They’re just as arbitrary, and just as invisible to most people. But they’re much more dangerous. Fashion is mistaken for good design; moral fashion is mistaken for good. Dressing oddly gets you laughed at. Violating moral fashions can get you fired, ostracized, imprisoned, or even killed.
http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html
They had different moral fashions. It is how the movies portray such moral fads that shows how different we’ve become. I haven’t seen the f*d up remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still, but one of the principle plot elements of the first one is that some random stranger who Mrs Benson only met a few hours ago, gets to “babysit” her child unsupervised all day. Today, all anyone can think about a similar situation is “child molester.”