Sydney, Australia Oct, 2008.  In a startling result, close to 50% of respondents to a new Internet survey no longer subscribe to key elements of traditional morality - the historical means of creating cohesive societies.

This is the key factor behind much of the social unrest globally, according to George Matafonov, author of a new book entitled Fire & Water: Market Morality & Civil Society, who is also conducting the survey at www.moralcompass.org.

"While the threat of terrorism and multiculturalism are often convenient and easy scapegoats, the root causes of social unrest globally lie in the experiment in trying to model the moral core of society on economic theory, rather than traditional human values," said Matafonov. "While economic theory results in efficiency in competitive markets, it has no place outside the market," he added.

As humans, we have been living in societies for tens of thousands of years and have developed values and our sense of morality to enable us to live in peace, harmony and prosperity.

In the space of less than 50 years, economic theory has turned all this upside down by insisting our chief value should be competitive self-interest.

Enthusiastically embraced by politicians of all persuasion and enforced through the market -- which is quickly becoming the central institution in terms of influence on our lives -- the morality of the market is spreading outside the confines of market at an alarming rate.

The challenge for modern societies everywhere is how to re-establish the sense of traditional morality without negating the efficiency advantages of economic theory.

According to the author, running an awareness campaign entitled, "Do Right by Others" is all that may be required to restore the key tenets of traditional morality, and hence social cohesion.

The survey is open to the public and the results to date and analysis are available on line at www.moralcompass.org.