For several generations up until the 1960’s, it is my opinion that the majority of people were raised in a “traditional “ family unit (depending on location and vocation, this had great bearing on the size of said family). Life changed in major ways from the civil war through the 1950’s (especially in the US). Morals and societal mores were still more homogeneous and widespread, public behavior (for better or worse) was held to a higher standard in spite of what private behaviors one might engage in. Please spare me the snide comments about “the good old days …..weren’t “. I would agree with that sentiment concerning race, equality of opportunity, advances in medicine and technology. In many, many ways the country and the world are much better for the progress made in those areas.
But I submit many (with little or no regret) are quite content to throw the baby out with the bath water in conflating personal freedom with abandonment of manners, a sense of community where the good of your neighbors should be almost an equal consideration as with you yourself, common courtesy, common decency in speech, and on and on. Our society has become more violent, vulgar, coarse, profane, irreverent and selfish and you may personally choose to excuse or overlook such but there is no doubt such portends rot in the foundation of the house.
You cannot teach someone habits, restraint, judgment and respect if you have little or no such qualities yourself; and we see the steady deterioration in the discourse and public displays of things that offend and vex the soul of someone with any sense of righteousness, decency and self respect. I further submit its like maintaining your home or car - the longer it’s neglected the worse it gets. Not trying to start an argument, but I expect the responses from the usual suspects as to “I’ll do what I want; nobody can judge me; nobody can tell me what to do”. Those are the end product of just what point I’m putting forth. The more people that foul their own nests with the tacit or complicit approval of society the more everyone suffers.
The “generation gap” as was coined in the ‘60’s was indeed a needed wake up call, as the institutional hypocrisy of denying the truth of the Constitutional mandate we were given was laid bare. But it has allowed license for all the worst of human nature to be drug into the light and celebrated and we’re now taught to believe we must accept it. Each generation that moves farther and farther away from our foundational principles and what is accepted as ‘right and wrong’ indeed widens the gap. A lot of “progress “ …. Isn’t.
I try to make it as simple as possible so as to avoid mistakes.
