What has changed?

[Fox Mike]

Selena's post got me thinking about "what has changed" . When I was a kid we didn't even think about a school shooting or terrorist attack. Every male kid I knew either had his own gun or one he could use. Now we did have a murder once in a while but nothing on the scale we see today. My Mom an Dad both worked. I came home from school, unlocked the house, did my homework, and went outside till they got home. What part of human nature has changed in the last 60 years. Where have we, as a culture, gone wrong?

 

[powder smoke]

What has changed? The family unit for one, kids grow up with one parent and some
cases two parents the same sex for starters. Lack of discipline at home and in schools
TV no more Andy of Mayberry and deputy Fife! Violence on every TV channel drugs
immigration porn alcohol. Young men and women activities like scouting is fading away. Things are different now and it reflects in our society. Activities also play a roll
kids need to learn fair play and it's ok to lose a ball game no everyone get participation trophies.
No need to excel or try hard. Just scratching the surface here but in runs a lot deeper. ps

 

[bogus bill]

Absence of religion. Low morals caused by divorces/one parent family's. The new type movies and TV shows that show impossible stunts, sex, violence etc. The Liberal left wing agenda. Might also be it is done on purpose. The gangs and peer pressure to be cool. The disrespect on all levels for parents, law enforcement and all authority figures. No work ethnic taught. All the "tolerance" and political correctness taught for minority's and illegals. The drug business that we didn't have years ago. The new laws that restrain parents from physically punishing their children. The laws and political pressure that keeps fathers from taking their kids hunting plus percentage wise most wouldn't know how now even if they wanted to.
Nuff for now.

 

[Fox Mike]

When I was a kid and in school, both elementary and high, there was porn. The place to go was the Gayety in Baltimore. The Costa Nostra was big in drugs. Heard my parents speak of people smoking "reefers". These are things that have been around forever, in all cultures. One block from my home was the street where all the black families lived. There was no trouble at all between any of us, and this was the 1940-50s. I was taught to treat others as I would like to be treated. We didn't have a society that was looking for 'handouts' simply because they were too lazy to work. I don't know of anyone asking for special treatment because they were less well off than someone else. How did the change come about?

 

[Valmet]

I feel like it is much more psychological with social media, the Internet, immediate gratification, and having the world at ones fingertips as well as the lack of coping skills that many kids/millennials lack.

I do not believe it has anything to do with religion/prayer in schools or divorce rate as I know plenty of folks who aren't very religious and come from "broken" homes and are hard-working, law-abiding, reasonable people so IMO the divorce/religion theory doesn't hold much water.

IMO what it comes down to is personal responsibility. Our government and school systems are so quick to accommodate every parent and child with a perceived problem that when they get older, they expect for life to accommodate them. Add the instant-gratification that technology gives us now-a-days that in their minds things seemingly fall apart when it isn't there. Add a liberal agenda to their already existing entitlement and here we are.

 

[Big Old Boy]

God and country were removed from school kids now are not taught anything but what the libs want to to know .

 

[vito]

It all goes back to the teachers' unions. Even FDR saw the inherent conflict of interest in the idea of unions for government workers, but JFK, in payback to the unions that helped get him elected, signed an Executive Order allowing the formation of government employee unions. Once done at the Federal level the union movement spread downward and quickly came to be the driving force in education. An unholy alliance was struck between teachers' unions and the left leaning Democrat Party. This led to the culture and focus of schools to be moved ever more leftward. As the Democrats sought to replace the centrality of the family with the services of an ever growing government, religion, patriotism and the American value of "rugged individualism" was systematically removed from the public schools. The Democrats gave support to the teachers' unions, and the unions supported the Democrat Party and its agenda. And while JFK started it, LBJ pushed it further down the road toward eventual socialism. And this is where we are now. Saul Alinsky must be smiling from his spot in hell where he undoubtedly is.

 

[JackpineWillie]

I grew up in a low to middle income neighborhood where I am sure most of us had two parents and the few that didn't, did have pretty strong moms. I was taught right from wrong. Taught to look out for younger kids and girls. Bullies wouldn't fare very well. Usually when being tempted to cross that line from right to wrong, somewhere in the thought process was (what would dad think?) Still is.

 

[miniman]

it all started with dont spank your kid and the immorel maj crowd.

 

[Jimbo357mag]

24 hour news cycle. Everything is a mass media event. Oh, and BTW kids have been doing stuff forever.

 

[blume357]

Jimbo probably came closest.... most of these folks are just suicidal and want to be remembered.... an interesting thing I learned in the recent FBI presentation is that there was a mass killing in a work sight by a guy who's sole goal was to be on the news for 72 hours after he killed as many people in the work place and then himself. He had his captives video his statement before he tortured and killed them... why do we not know about this event? Because he chose the wrong day... Sept 11th 2001.

 

[Slyk Willy]

Although I agree with most of the comments above, I think we're missing a very large component of the problem.

For virtually every school shooting there is a kid with a mind altering drug in their system for a diagnosis of AD, ADHD, or some other form of behavior "issues". I believe we're drugging our kids into either compliance or into a delusional state.
This of course, starts with the family element, goes to the teacher element, the Doc, big Pharma and on it goes.
Have you listened to the side effects of advertised drugs? The common ones are suicidal behavior, aggression, withdrawal, which...are the forerunners of many of these "crazy kids" who are shooting up our schools, churches, etc.
I'm guessing if big pharma were held to the same standard as the NRA and gun manufacturers/sellers for cause and effect we'd see a direct connection.

 

[Selena]

Since I have never experienced ancient times I have no background to fall back on. All I can do is a compare and contrast between the year and a half I was a foster child in the city of Chicago to after dad got custody of me.

As a foster child, I was quite frankly a "cash cow" and my "parents" only kept me for the various entitlements the city allowed them for my care. While my basic needs were met, my supervision was minimal and my encouragement was nil. I quickly learned at that young age that I was pretty much on my own as far as role models and morality. It's interesting to note that of the other five kids in my "foster home" I am the only one that has not been in jail or dead.

After dad took custody of me… I suddenly found myself with expectations regarding my progress in education, how I acted and how I accepted responsibilities. I suddenly found myself in CYO, 4H and Girl Scouts. I was given certain responsibilities and there were consequences if I did not fulfill them. There were so many "stern parental lectures" that I had them numbered. I was even required to "sign out" in a book by the front door of when I left, what I planned to do and when I could be expected to return. Please note, this was after a fit of rebellion where I simply took off and was gone the better part of a day then had the bad judgment to tell my dad it was none of his business where I was.

Many of my peers left home having no idea how to handle responsibilities as they were never given any. They had no idea of weighing consequences as they had never suffered any. They had no idea of how to handle defeat because they were never given any challenges.

And just for the record, I had one parent and an "unofficial" one, both of the same sex the unofficial one being my late uncle. Although to a small part CYO and a large part my grandmother, I had more than my share of "mothering." I sometimes think that parents today have given over the job of parenting to the state. I know from bitter experience that the state makes a very poor parent. As my uncle replied to a certain government drone when told it takes a village to raise a child… He simply laughed and replied that the village was incapable of raising a child, it was a job that required that someone give a damn about the child. The woman was outraged, my uncle immensely pleased with himself and the onlookers aghast at his outrageousness in in daring to tell the truth rather than respect her authority.

 

[Fox Mike]

Some very interesting observations presented here. Have to agree with what Jimbo said: "24 hour news cycle. Everything is a mass media event. Oh, and BTW kids have been doing stuff forever." True because 'if it bleeds it leads' is the reporters creed. With that said, till Columbine occurred I honestly do not remember any 'mass' school shootings. Had others occurred I am sure a newspaper would have printed it and we would have heard about it via radio even if there was no TV coverage. Slyk Willy's observation, in my opinion, has merit too. Over prescribing of drugs to fix every little ailment or perceived ailment has gotten out of hand. True, kids have been doing stupid stuff forever. I know as I was once, long ago, a kid and I DID do stupid stuff. So did many of my friends. None of us were mass shooters or would have even though of it.

 

[Paul B]

"We didn't have a society that was looking for 'handouts' simply because they were too lazy to work. I don't know of anyone asking for special treatment because they were less well off than someone else. How did the change come about?"

You can thank "Lame Brain" Johnson for the change due to his "Great Society".

On drugging kids with ADHD, a non-existant mental disease IM not very HO, if they'd done that when I was a kid I'd be a drooling idiot due to the brain damage from all those drugs. Kicked out od grammer school, once, made it through the second school, kicked out of Junior High, made it through 8th grade in a Parochial school, kicked out of high school twice and finally graduated from an "adult" school. My problem? I was hyperactive and undisciplined as all get out. Too much energy and nowhere to use it. Still that way even to today. I'd probably be hooked up to an IV with those ADHD drugs if I were a kid in school today. Never meant no harm back them, just a supreme class clown. Guess that is verboten these days.
Paul B.

 

[blackhawknj]

We had the guns back then. My earliest memories of handling a firearm are of sneaking up to the attic to play with the M-1 Carbine my old man brought back from WWII. This was in 1955 or so. Cap pistols galore. Playing Cowboy and Indians, War, Spacemen.
What we didn't have were the drugs, both the illicit ones and these so called "medications" that seem to have the same effects that Dr. Jekyll's potions did.

 

[caryc]

Selena's post got me thinking about "what has changed" . When I was a kid we didn't even think about a school shooting or terrorist attack. Every male kid I knew either had his own gun or one he could use. Now we did have a murder once in a while but nothing on the scale we see today. My Mom an Dad both worked. I came home from school, unlocked the house, did my homework, and went outside till they got home. What part of human nature has changed in the last 60 years. Where have we, as a culture, gone wrong?

It's the computers. Too much information available, good and bad. People don't need to talk to each other now. When you go out in public how many people have their heads down buried in their smart phones. It they're not talking they're playing some stupid game. The couldn't care less about what's going on in the world. Their world is a three foot space around them. People are just impersonal now, they don't care about anyone else. Somebody dies, oh well, it wasn't me. To many people trying to make themselves a big name on the internet.

Prisons are a joke now. Gang bangers don't even care if they go to prison. They just go visit their homies. The courts are a joke. They've lost their ability, to scare people into going straight. People know they'll get a slap on the wrist. Everything is just out of control with no sign anything is going to get any better. All we can do now is just prepare for the worst. It's going to come.

 

[SlickRS23]

Don't know if it's a symptom or not, but I notice people won't hold a door for a stranger as much as in the past.
Also noticed people don't say "excuse me" or "Thank You" as much as they use to.
I'm sure they are good people, just something is missing in society today.
People just seem desensitized.

 

[Fox Mike]

Don't know if it's a symptom or not, but I notice people won't hold a door for a stranger as much as in the past.
Also noticed people don't say "excuse me" or "Thank You" as much as they use to.
I'm sure they are good people, just something is missing in society today.
People just seem desensitized.

A gentleman once told me, many years ago, that he didn't hold a door for any reason except that he was a gentleman. I have never forgotten that message. I remove my hat in an elevator if anyone else in in there with me.

 

[Wyandot Jim]

Don't know if it's a symptom or not, but I notice people won't hold a door for a stranger as much as in the past.
Also noticed people don't say "excuse me" or "Thank You" as much as they use to.
I'm sure they are good people, just something is missing in society today.
People just seem desensitized.

Guess you don't live in Texas do ya???? Just about everybody around here does that no mater the race or sex.

 

[blume357]

speaking of Columbine... that was not supposed to be a 'shooting'... the two teenagers had studied a previous school killing from 1927 (which by the way is still the worst school killing in American history) and idealized the man that did it... their plan was to blow up the school and specifically drop the library, which was above the cafeteria, onto of all the students at lunch, estimate of the dead would have been around 300, this would have worked except their timer failed.