Values, Moral Standards - Should they be compromised?

Time and again, a few persons in my circle have expressed "You are too conservative, too old-fashioned, too strict." They follow this up with a shake of their heads. But I remain firm. Not even for the sake of being popular do I pretend to change my mind. Then yesterday, I read the following passage or exchange of ideas of Wilson and Noah, from Nicholas Sparks' The Wedding. Wilson is Noah's son-in-law. It goes:

"Hello, Noah," but instead of responding with his usual greeting, he turned toward me with a look of incredulity.

"C'mere," he said, motioning toward me, 'you won't believe what they're showing right now."

I moved into the room. "What are you watching?"

"I don't know," he said, still focused on the screen. "Some kind of talk show. I thought it would be like Johnny Carson but it's not. You can't imagine what they're talking about."

My mind immediately conjured up a series of vulgar programs, the kind that always made me wonder how their producers could sleep at night. Sure enough, the station was one of them. I didn't need to know the topic to know what he'd seen;for the most part they all featured the same disgusting topics, told as luridly as possible by guests whose single goal, it seemed, was to be on television, no matter how degraded they degraded they were made to look.

"Why would you choose a show like that?"

"I didn't even know it was on," he explained, "I was looking for the news, then there was a commercial and this came on. And when I saw what was going on, I couldn't help but watch. It was like staring at an accident on the side of the highway."

I sat on the bed beside him. "That bad?"

"Let's say I wouldn't want to be young these days. Society's going downhill fast, and I'm glad I won't be around to see it crash."

I smiled, "You're sounding your age, Noah."

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong."

****************

My take on the statement: oftentimes, when people say I'm too conservative and old-fashioned, I start to wonder whether indeed I am. It is very unsettling to be accused of that because it makes me feel Jurassic. But somehow, I stand (or okay, sit firm, stay pat) on my beliefs and now, I have a counter statement if I hear myself being accused of being old-fashioned, "Maybe, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong."

Old-fashioned values and moral standards reflect a deep sense of respect for oneself and the people one deals with. They did not, do not denigrate a person. Is that wrong? Does that make them any less worthy of being observed? Lived by? Methinks they aren't.

Reading that exchange in a fairly modern author's work (the book as published in 2003) surprised me a bit. Nicholas Sparks is popular, having written the much read The Notebook.