To summarize
I think average righteousness/holiness (what's the different) should correlate positively with number of prophet and negatively with violent rate. I am not seeing that correlation. We have far less violent rate and also far less prophets compared to our ancestors.
According to an answer here:
We generally have a broad intellectual awareness of Hashem and His greatness, which should lead us to righteousness, but does not because there is a block between our minds and our hearts, between our knowledge and the roots of our actions, and the knowledge is not firmly entrenched. This is what is called טמטום הלב. When the yetzer hara wants to entice us, it just has to get us to "ignore" our awareness of Hashem and convince ourselves that it isn't really bad, or isn't so bad. The earlier generations did not have such a disconnect. Their vast awareness directly impacted their way of life. When the yetzer hara enticed them, its only option was to give them an incredible desire for the sin. Like when we want something even when we know it is wrong, it looks good and you have a desire for it even with the knowledge that it is bad, the earlier generations were like that for all temptations - it was an act of giving in, not an act of self-deception.
That answer seems to suggest that God grant prophecy automatically based on holiness level instead of arbitrarily based on unknown criteria.
So basically we all have potential to be prophets. Yet evil inclination get us away from it.
Now let's compare current generations with biblical generations
- Murder/Genocide rate per 1000 population is lower. During Cain era, it's around 250 (25%) guys killed per 1000 population. Now, it's less than 1 I think.
- Robbery rate is lower. In fact, robbery comes from the word robe which means taking people's rob. Which lead to another issue
- We're more prosper than our ancestors. So swords do turn into plow figuratively now
- We must have far more awareness of Hashem now than before. We got internet, miyodeya, bible translations to various different languages, hermeneutics. Torah is copied electronically without error whatsoever. That is a rate far faster than ancient Torah copying.
- Our justice system is more just because of DNA analysis, forensic science, trial by jury.
Yet, despite all those
We have far less prophets. We have none now.
Ugh, why?
I thought holier is like IQ. The higher the average IQ, the higher the number of super geniuses. This explains why many nobel prizes are won by jews. That's because jews have higher IQ average, and hence higher number of people that break say 150 tress hold.
The same way, the higher the average holiness of people the higher chance one is a prophet. It's like bell curves. If people are holier and holier the percentage that reach the outlier of "super holy" will be higher too.
Yet humans nowadays are holier than their ancestors. Less murder. Less robbery. More economic productivity. Less war. More awareness of everything, including Hashem, due to internet. Yet, less prophet.