Has anyone studied England in the Victorian era (1837-1901), i.e. during the reign of Queen Victoria? That era was an extremely good era of history and fascinates me immensely. When I read about it I see a lot of similarities to our current era and the progress we are making now. The peace, progress and prosperity in Victorian era England lasted over 65 years though, so we still have a long ways to go to match their era.
But seriously, Victorian England really was a great place and time to live in. Society in that era progressed forward by leaps and bounds. Everything from sanitation, to medicine, to metalwork and machinery, to manufacturing, to women's rights, to banking, to child labor laws, to literacy rates, to moral standards, to printing presses and free speech, to housing, to art, to botany and gardening, to world trade and shipping, to religious fervor, to non-religious fervor (i.e. agnosticism and Darwinism), to wage increases for the working classes, to increased leisure time and reduced number of hours worked each week, to culture, to fertility rates, to child mortality rates, to crime rates and more, improved during this era. In sum, Victorian England became the world's most powerful and urbanized country in its time, much social change occurred during this era, and the people there became very, very, very rich.
The Victorian Secret
I have been asking historians of this era about it to see if they can tell me the "Victorian secret" and why this society flourished so much (And no, I'm not talking about lingerie here, ha, ha, ha). Eduardo Malanesa tells me the secret to the era was their focus on child exploitation and reforming social conditions and educational opportunities for children.
According to Wikipedia at the beginning of the Victorian period (1837) only 20 percent of children in London had any education. From the enactment of the 1833 Factory Act onwards though, attempts were made to get child laborers into part-time education. By 1850 over half the children were receiving schooling. By 1890 all British families were compelled to send their kids to school instead of work. This reform was met with much protest from the capitalists and poor working class families but apparently the reformers prevailed and education for children became the norm.
Another secret I have learned about the era is that men were very active in ridding society of the trash. This indeed, was a vey fine era to live in. Morality standards were kept high and cockroaches didn't last long in Victorian England. Secret combinations and murderers were also rooted out and imprisoned. Wars were kept to a minimum despite England's rapid expansion into Africa. During the Victorian era slavery in Africa was completely abolished in English colonies so you could say the "wherewolves" of that day were also put in check.
Before the Victorian era, England had a practice of sending convicts and "undesirables" i.e. so called lunatics, to uninhabited Australia to live. That practice ended during Queen Victoria's reign. Capital punishment was diminished in England's penal system and attempts were made to reeducated and reform convicts. People with mental illnesses were treated more humanely.
Moral standards also improved during this era and some argue this was the catalyst for all the reform. Whether moral standards improved from religious voices or non-religious voices is unclear. Regardless, pedophilia, homosexuality and slavery were all outlawed during this era.
Our Society in Comparison and What We Can Improve
A. Education
It is said the measure of society is how it treats its weakest members. Today children are not usually forced to work long hours for marginal pay. Are we adequately improving children's educational futures though? Many would argue we are not.
Education today has become very, very very fun, is a circus and paper chase for many, and a financial con. We promise youth who go to college good jobs if they pay their dues and get an education-- only to reward them with financial enslavement when they are done. Some kids, often depending on their family situation and friends, are advised not to go to school now days. They sidestep the financial trap with education but still suffer from reduced social interaction, isolation, horrible work opportunities, a very deceptive, uninspiring and uninformative internet, high transportation and housing costs and rampant sexual abuse.
Personally, I was one of the educationally oppressed kids in college. I at first wanted to be a doctor. I was weeded out of my premed classes though by professors who secretly took bribes from my family and who gave me B, C and D grades instead of the A and B grades I was really earning. In this sense, college was a complete con and rip off for me. It was an expense I largely paid for myself.
I was so indoctrinated that college was the way to advance oneself in life though, I continued studying into grad school. With my legal education I misjudged the actual work opportunities available, couldn't find work, fell into debt, and have been paying a pound of flesh to the mental health authorities for going on twelve years now. I don't think these people will ever forgive me for my financial mistake. Today I am looking at the depressing realities of continued mental health oversight, continued restriction from work and continued relegation to welfare for the rest of my life.
You would think I would want children now days to have similar educational frustrations, i.e. for them to be held back and not pass me up. That however, is not how I feel. Again, I think education today is way too fun and needs to be reformed. People who feed into the con, whether in the school system or with online material, need to be done. Our children's futures are jeopardized by these morbid people.
So in other words, in terms of education I think we are falling way short of Victorian standards. Generation Y and Z are on their knees now and mass consuming uninspiring, educational garbage and half-truths online. I will admit that Millennials who went to school got what they deserved via education, but the system now needs to be better adjusted for Generation Y and Z. Let it be said that under Generation X's power, kids once again had better work and educational opportunities than earlier generations. Let it be said that society was no longer in decline under Generation X.
B. The Zip
In terms of the overall zip however, I think we are doing even better than the Victorian era. We have been gladly mass zipping it up for years now and there doesn't appear to be any let up in sight. The advancing Millennial problem and overall degeneracy of our society in the late 2000s was far worse than Victorian times. Men have to be thanked for responding to the call then; the problem was enormous but has been effectively reduced by hard working and resourceful individuals from both Generation X and our parent's generation (Sorry, I'm not sure what you call our parent's generation officially, but I wont call them Generation Jones for now as I think they are improving and don't fully deserve that jab).
C. Criminal Justice and Treatment
Criminal justice now days is far worse than in Victorian times. What we have today is a totally corrupt and unresponsive justice system that is arbitrary and capricious to say the least. People rot in prison or jail for the most petty offenses, or no offenses at all. Inmates are treated like pawns and many good inmates are coerced into doing dangerous work for sheer relief from it. Our lawyers are no longer trained in sound legal doctrine. They skip their studies and buy their way into the profession. For the most part, law professionals do what is convenient and profitable for them not what is honest and right. Due process and Miranda rights in our legal system are a thing of the past and reliance on precedental law has gone out the window. The justice system is a unjust, unpredictable mess that intentionally makes no sense to common people. It works on bribes and politics and treats the poor, disadvantaged and unjustly framed like cattle.
Treatment today is also psychologically more sinister and financially more oppressive than in Victorian times. Unlike in Victorian times, patients with a mental health record today are prohibited from owning guns even though they are the ones most often attacked and who need them the most. Background checks checking for mental health records are required for every gun purchase.
With regard to incarceration of mental health patients now, due process is virtually nonexistent. The justice system is totally complicit with it. Mental health patients are almost always locked up for indefinite periods of time.
Mental health patients also get economically blackmailed by the mental health system today. They are threatened with further mental health incarceration if they work more than a few hours a week. Their shots are exorbitantly priced at thousands of dollars a piece and they are forced to pay for these shots if they earn over the poverty limits or in other words, get "dropped" from Medicare. For this reason I know of no mental health patient that lives above poverty levels.
Helpful employers also face serious social and economic consequences in employing mental health patients and in paying them fairly. The mental health system is so pervasive it is impossible for mental health patients to hide their pay or work in secret. They can't keep a job because there is an unspoken blacklist of mental health patients by nearly all businesses in society today.
In the end, the consequences for a mental health conviction today are much more severe than in Victorian times. If I were captured by mental health people today the torture would be much, much, much worse.
D. Moral Standards
Today we have the morality of two dogs in a park (ha, ha, ha). We are more lenient towards homosexuality and sexual deviants than possibly ever before. Whether we are denying God's commandments and just righting it on our own without His blessing is a question to be considered.
I say we will never be able to reach Victorian heights until we first bow to God and acknowledge that his commandments on sexuality are just. The faith of the moral today however, may be as good or better than in Victorian times. So maybe we will be able to pull a rabbit out of the hat and right it on Victorian levels after all.
E. The Queen
It would be hard to overlook the fact that the Victorian era was led by a woman in power. Queen Victoria had an innate ability to govern and by her nature was less corruptible and did many things for the common good.
Today we also have a very active and powerful day. I think it may even be stronger and more organized than the day in Victorian era England. We need this day to be strong today as secret combinations are yet coming on the land and coming from the East.
If the stalwart people and day in the East will "flee" to the West I think damage from these secret combinations can be minimized. And no, I am not talking about running or moving locations. Power with the day is concentrated in the West so East people, we love you and please try and believe we won't forget you and got your G.
I think there is still an intense struggle to be had with it so both East and West need to work together to put it to silence. As in the Victorian era, we also need to sound the rallying call, "Long Live the Queen!"
Conclusion
The Victorian era was a "Golden Era" and ought to be a standard we use to judge our era by today. While our time is admittedly different than the Victorian, it also has many commonalities. By learning from this past great era I think we can put together a winning formula and plan for sustained peace and prosperity in the future. I believe we are on pace to match or even supersede the greatness of the Victorian era now. We simply need to keep improving and have faith that we can respond effectively to all the challenges and opportunities our future holds. Just as the Victorians believed in their day, the future today really is as bright as our faith.
