Society has fallen to a new low

[the ringo kid]

I just saw the original: Scarface on TCM last night. This one had Paul Muni as Scarface. Absolutely had the character down cold too. That movie was made in 1933?and Scarface with Pacino--is the remake of it. Anyway, Scarface had several in it who actually had been Gangsters. Your correct though, they dressed like Dapper Dons,and not like gutter ****.

 

[safearm]

Sad thing is.... we (as a society) allowed it to happen.

I don't know if we allowed to happen, but we certainly ignored it, usually in the name of "political correctness" or some type of "equality."

 

[BigBill]

The more I see the more I want to move to my camp deep in the green mountains. I can just barely have enough to live anywhere in the world I want too. But the way everyone treats people with no respect today I'd rather be a recluse in the mountains with the wild animals I feel much safer because I know they can bite me.
U
This country surely has changed in the last few decades.

Behind every Clint Eastwoods movies there is a hidden message he is sending to us. It's there so listen and watch closely.

I was brought up with the fear of God plus the fear of the old man's size twelve too. The parents do not instill that in kids today they fear nothing and think they can do anything and get away with it.
They do not know about Bad karma. I taught my kids to respect everyone and treat everyone like you want to be treated. If you hurt anyone or anything you may think you got away with it but bad karma will get you times x2 you will pay in someway for your wrong doing more so than the damage you have done. So be a good person and good things will happen for you that's good karma.

 

[LostintheOzone]

When I saw this I thought you might be referring to the trash that shot down the Malaysian airliner. I guess every country has it's bottom feeders.

 

[-db-]

The question is what are You, going to do about it. This Nation's passivity toward social threats etc is probably more dangerous than the inner city mentality we bemoan.

Stop the give aways, make people work if the want to eat. I could go on, but you get the point.

I look at Eastwood's role in Gran Tornino and think, now there's a geezer who's willing to take his neighborhood back and somebody you don't mess with. A man, too bad there so few from 35 down anymore.

JMO

There's a reason Gran Torino is a movie, fiction, and not real life. In the real world nowadays, if you kick some punks' butts or pull a gun on them the way Eastwood did, it's you who's going to prison where you get to hang out with those punks' brothers and fathers. Cops, who you might think would appreciate what you're trying to do, will laugh with glee as they put the boots to you and ask as they're cuffing you how dare you rock the boat and not go along with the "new program" we're all operating under. The hell were you thinking harrassing those future Presidents, old man?

The fact is this country was given away a long time ago. For all the talk about "taking it back" and similar such notions, we all know it's not going to happen. All any of us can do is take care of ourselves and our families the best we can and get, and stay, as far away from the ferals as soon as we can.

 

[pharmer]

Sad thing is.... we (as a society) allowed it to happen.

Not true at all. We have a complicit media controlling what the "low information voters" hear coupled with outright fraud and institutional malfeasance. Couple that with a solid "47%" bloc without a shred of "investment" in the future past the next check and you get what we got. Oh, and if you don't like how things are you're racist. Joe

 

[-db-]

The concept was figurative. My actual point was be actively involved in cleaning out your neighborhood and be ready to defend yourself from the blow back, not to go out and shoot people randomly. If they come to your door to harm you, then you defend yourself.

Who said anything about shooting people randomly? You held up Eastwood's character in Gran Torino as an example of what you'd apparently like to see, someone "willing to take his neighborhood back and somebody you don't mess with". I pointed out that anyone wielding rifles and telling thugs to get off their lawn is going to become intimately familiar with his local SWAT team, the process of arrest and incarceration. That's what happens in reality.

As for active involvement in cleaning out neighborhoods, the whole country recently got to see what happens to those who try that in the case of George Zimmerman. The full weight of the system is going to be brought down on you. It doesn't take a genius to realize the system doesn't want people "cleaning out" or "taking back" their neighborhoods (or country, for that matter). Eastwood's character, and anyone like him, is the bad guy, outside of the movie screen.

You've got a LEO badge next to your name, so you should know the score. I shouldn't have to be explaining this to you.

 

[Lt JL]

Anybody ever read Gibbons' "the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire"? Written in the late 18th century, the parallels are striking.

 

[pharmer]

Anybody ever read Gibbons' "the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"? Written in the late 18th century, the parallels are striking.

Yes. We do have lack of a controlling moral authority, institutional homosexuality, trading favors for votes, public dishonesty, and general hedonistic self serving behavior. Lead poisoning (from drinking utensils and pipes) and we'd be complete. Making conquered peoples citizens of Rome was the last component of destruction. As soon as enough "new citizens" had no loyalty to the "caesar", it became impossible for true Romans to maintain the system. Eerily similar. Joe

 

[kmyers]

Society has fallen. In the end, the trash that glorify the punks and thugs will get what they deserve as the above mentioned criminals make those who praise them new victims.

Good luck dealing with those you elevate as they prey on you.

 

[badge]

Having worked 16 of my 29 years in inner city areas I saw and learned a great deal about many folks and many cultures. I met many, many great folks who are just plain stuck there with no real ability to get out. They too are scared and really cannot help themselves to do so. Not all mind you but enough. Sadly, the new criminals are very violent for no reason or for a perverse thrill, or whatever their reason. One used to establish a relationship with some of the criminal types but that is rare anymore I feel. In my opinion, policemen aren't what they were 20 or 30 years ago either. Hiring standards have plummeted in many large, urban departments as no one can pass for gods sake. That too is sad. Also, for anyone hopeful of a violent insurrection,..... be careful what you wish for.

 

[Owen49]

In my opinion, the thug culture is as real an enemy to us as the drug cartels and terrorists.

 

[A10]

Also, for anyone hopeful of a violent insurrection,..... be careful what you wish for.

Amen, brother.

 

[george minze]

Over the years we have closed our eyes to what was happening or didn't see it at all..The break down of society and morels. Our answer seems to be hire younger and better educated police...Subsequently the police of today are retiring at a younger and younger age..Along with that statistic is the fact that we have no old timers anymore..I had sergeants that were 62 years old. Believe it or not they wrote so you could read it. Spelled better than we do now..(of course we have spell check) They had a sense of the beat. Knew the people, knew their problems and knew the trouble makers and the ..****bums. Now most of the young cops come from the middle class and the suburbs. Leave the police service at about 43 and go to some corporation or to a clean suburb....I don't blame them nor do I begrudge them, however the big cities are suffering for lack of experienced coppers that have a stake in the area they patrol. I am as guilty as anyone else.. I got to the place I sort of missed the old time gangster types, a better class of criminals.....Sorry a old mans musings of times long past....

 

[David LaPell]

I can tell you I have been seeing it for the last few years. I watch some of the families of our inmates come in and see how these people tell their kids whose fault it is because they're seeing Dad behind plexiglass. They blame the cops. I have watched parents from upscale neighborhoods tell their kid who just stole something that wasn't his, or got caught with pot or something else, or was a good old fashioned idiot that it was the cop who put him there because they had nothing better to do than roust a kid. One of the biggest problems this country has is that "It's someone elses fault." Sell drugs, its the environment they were brought up in or the color of their skin, they couldn't help it. If they're caught stealing, its a shame but they need to support their drug habit and understand how hard life is for them. In the case of the cop shooting the teen who happened to have an AK-47 lookalike gun and was dumb enough to turn and point it at the cop, if you read the comments on the news site and the local residents, the cop should have known better, shot the kid in the arm or something and he should be strung up. We don't live in America anymore, at least not the one I remember. The America I grew up in someone would have driven a septic truck up to that makeshift memorial, backed it onto the sidewalk and hit "flush".

 

[Engine 21]

I'll tell you what makes me sick. Stand by for an old man complaining about the youth of today. But with good reason.
This recent crop of young thugs and wanna be hoodlums and the media, pop culture, etc.. glorify and go to great lengths to emulate the worst elements of society with big chains, pants hanging failures.
The hoodlums of my time wore suits and kept to themselves and never interfered with the general society and we emulated the part of society that was successful, we worked, bought cars and tried to be successful any way we could.

Why would someone what to act like the grew up poor.



Doesn't make any sense to me.

se

Because, that is the crutch they use for their actions. They grew up poor - so they are entitled to rob, steal, cheat to get whatever they want and then escalate to armed robbery, car jacking, and eventually graduate to murder but it's ok because they grew up poor and if given one more chance - Mr./Ms. gangster will make good and become a model citizen - your Honor.

 

[george minze]

Yes. We do have lack of a controlling moral authority, institutional homosexuality, trading favors for votes, public dishonesty, and general hedonistic self serving behavior. Lead poisoning (from drinking utensils and pipes) and we'd be complete. Making conquered peoples citizens of Rome was the last component of destruction. As soon as enough "new citizens" had no loyalty to the "caesar", it became impossible for true Romans to maintain the system. Eerily similar. Joe

Much to similar......Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.. Or words to that meaning.....I dread watching FOX news in the morning..Not because I don't trust it, but because I do.....Rome is burning!!!The Fire Department is undermanned....Why? Underfunded of course....Christians and Jews get ready for the lions........We have allowed our-self to become the victims...Almost with out a fight....Sound familiar?

 

[wbraswell]

It's nothing really new. People who knew Jessie James thought of him as a hero, and many others. We all know about the car bandits of the 1920's, because a lot of people thought the banks were the real bad guys. In the depression, membership skyrocketed in the American Communist Party and the American Bund. Many Americans were ready to scrap democracy. Now, we have all the same types, but we have much more media to tell us about it, along with left-wing channels and websites to scare us, and right wing channels and websites to tell us our fears are justified. Life goes on.

 

[BigBill]

Kids watch way too much tv while growing up.
Kids play way too much video games while growing up.
Kids get reality and what's entertainment mixed up.
Too much pressure is put on kids to further there education some are headed for a meltdown. Failure is unacceptable but when we fail it should actually make us stronger if it's in our DNA.
It's so easy to blame someone else for your mistakes.
Accept your own errors and deal with it.

Society isn't prepared to deal with the kids who aren't educated up to the standards. There's nothing wrong with a hard working high school grad.

These kids have no hope, no goals in life, no positive direction given to them when growing up. Then they end up behind bars when they get older.

We had cub scouts, boy scouts, boys clubs, YMCA, Catholic CYO growing up. What do the kids have now? Idle hands means trouble.

My son's and his friends one night got in trouble for playing basket ball at a local school at 10pm one night. If the leo didn't recognise my last name as being on there pay check the kids would of been busted. My misses was the town's controller.
There's no place for these kids to hang out and be kids.

Even at 18yo I remember being moved from place to place we had no place to just hang out. We were a mixed group of have and have most a mix of those who had rich parents and some who just made ends meet. We all respected each other and shared the wealth. I remember one night the eight of us had enough money together for a piece of pizza and a coke. We were happy to have that. It's was our race cars that kept us broke but we were happy. These metal high horsepower behemoths cost more to feed than we did.

These kids have no interests to fuel them today.

Where's the stock car races? Where's the drive- in movies?
Where's the local greasy spoons? The little greasy spoons where we could get a cheeseburger deluxe? Probably many don't even know what that was?

Everything has changed from the 50's & 60's when I grew up.

We hung out together, we went to the drive-ins, we went fishing together day and night, we ate together. We were always doing something.

On a down side we had us gear heads, the guys who drank and the ones who did drugs. The three groups of guys did there own thing. Back then we lost many of the ones who did drugs. We were all friends from grammar school most of us. It's very sad how some lives turned out. Most of us knew right from wrong.

My point is what do the kids have today while growing up?

Sponge Bob isn't cutting it. South park?

We had Leave it to Beaver family tv shows now we have CSI Crime shows or zombies to watch.

I see towns and cities do not want to raise taxes they want them lowered so they cut taxes, eliminate any youth programs first. Now we reap what we sew.

 

[venomballistics]

Most decent functional people have no clue at all the level of dysfunction of the people with whom we interact in the system.

That's the most I can say without risking the Ban Hammer.

I can't give this the six pack of likes it deserves.
Most folks seem to make the mistake of attempting to rationalize the irrational mind.

be the cause of that irrationality, genetics, cultural, environmental, historical or chemical, the end result is largely the same. you put in meat and potatoes and purple comes out.
there is no sense to be made of the problem.