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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 7:32:04 PM | black and white TV (probably helped us need glasses earlier)
women were referred to as "PG" or "in a family way"
husband and wife (during prime time) didn't sleep together (shakes fist at the Bradys)
cartoons were not foul mouthed (unless you understood roadrunnerese)
batteries were used mostly for transistor radios
penny candy existed
skip forward to today,,,
cartoons are close to "R" rated
games barely use a board
any information can be had at the click of a mouse
lol,,, can't forget about the Trojan "massager" on TV
as a filler, reality TV was created
Does morality tend to get lost in the advance of technology or is it the forebearer?
Does anyone want to predict what 30 years from now will bring? | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 9:36:55 PM | Does morality tend to get lost in the advance of technology or is it the forebearer?
Does anyone want to predict what 30 years from now will bring?
I think we are seeing the beginning of a very rough road for North America. The standards and morals that our nations were founded on are ebbing away and the things that were once not only unacceptable but illegal, are now not only legal but defended as a positive choice. What was once despicable is now 'candy', and what used to shock and horrify now titillates and enthralls.
Partly thats due to the familiarity brought about by the ubiquitous use of the internet. The net provides anyone the chance to do just about anything, anytime, anywhere, and with anonymity. The 'village' doesnt care, because the 'village' is at home staring at their own little screens.
And on that happy little note, I think Ill have a donut. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 9:43:50 PM | I think it's a cycle. The age of the roaring 20's was very promiscuous, alcohol filled and laden with opium addiction. Then the depression hit, and the standards and morals of society tightened a bit.
It is true that the internet has fed the most recent deluge of "looseness"of morals. However, the pendulum always swings back to the other side. We may not be here when this happens, but I am certain it will. The only sure thing in life is change. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 10:00:17 PM | I remember growing up at the beach in San Diego. On Halloween we were allowed to run all over the neighborhood because it was SAFE and parents didn't have to worry that some psycho was going to abduct or molest their children. Things were peaceful and pleasant and the major stress was the Cold War and the possibility of nuclear attack from the U.S.S.R. or Cuba. Then came Viet Nam and President Kennedy was shot. Our safe and happy world came undone. It became more and more crazy with each passing year.
Now, the inmates run the asylum and it seems everything has become no holds barred. Profanity and sexuality on television is prolific. It's no longer just seen in R or X rated movies. Children are bombarded with sex, violence and the desire to grow up way too soon. Parents aren't allowed to discipline their kids for fear of being arrested. Kids are terrified to go to school for fear of being assaulted or killed. Morality is a thing of the past.
I wouldn't want to be a child growing up today for anything in the world. I'm so glad I grew up feeling the world was a wonderful, good, safe place to live. I doubt that many children feel that way anymore. And isn't that terribly sad. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 10:02:41 PM | | My view goes back a lot farther than my own youth because I read some history books. I read about a time so far back there wasn't even any TV yet. So far from what I can make out, nothing much has changed about human life for several thousands of years except for the tekmology, and perhaps the fact that due to a slow trend towards adopting reason in favor of superstition the quality of self-delusion has become easier to quantify. Within my lifespan things have become simpler by several fold. I can still remember struggling to learn how to tie my shoes. Now I do that easily. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 10:23:23 PM | | Things were not simple back then, unless you look through things with rose colored glasses. The idea that the past was idyllic is absurd, as is the assertion that today, and the future to follow it can't measure up. To think that the world was was somehow 'better" back then, that "Leave it to Beaver" and "Happy Days" were are reflection of life is nativity at it's worst. Every era carries good and bad with it. I look forward to each day, I am glad for the opportunities that each day brings. I refuse to look backwards and gloss over the hardships and atrocities that have happened in times past. That is not is to say that I don't appreciate the good things in the past, but nothing makes you look more like an old foggie than to whine about "the good old days" and how the "world is going to hell in a handbasket". It is plain and simple BS. The world is what you make of it. Don't just consume, contribute. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 10:57:40 PM | I tend to think that technology and morality arise independently of each other. But once each becomes a part of society they can then influence each other. One example: one that pops up right away is the abortifacient pill heralded by RU486. If abortion weren't such a way of life then a PILL that kills unborn wouldn't have been made or looked for. Yeah, I know, the abortion side will say that because of all the fuss the pro-life crown made, a quiet method like the pill was necessary. yin yang.
On the other hand technology can weaken or define social mores. Adult material in the media is one example. At the dawn of the media era, social mores dictated certain restrictions on what could be seen or heard. Language for one: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn," barely made it past the censors. Early couples had to sleep in separate beds, or, if the same bed had to have an appendage on the ground. Frankly, I thought that was odd. then, we had the bare a$$ of Hill Street Blues. On TV!
On the converse side I like to look a racism: even withot governmental interference racisim was declining. As athletic teams integrated, when money is involved who wants to leave a pool of talented players off the field, folks of all races could see men (and women) of differing races competing together. Or, Jesse Owens defeating the aryan best.
As for the future: I think it will be worse. Our large metropolitan complexes will continue to expand. Anonymity will grow ever more prevalent with the ubiquity of anonymous communication on the Net. Unlike our parents, and some of us, neighbors in these megolithic beehives will not know each other, nor care about each other. It will just be safer that way.
Because of the rise of anonymity the State will attract and retain ever more power. Folk in these large megalithic complexes will be unable to any more for themselves than go to work and return home. A far cry from what our parents knew and some of us still know. rural life will be smaller than it is currently, and mostly about keeping the ants in their cities supplied with food and water. "Rural" areas will be even more seen as a haven from the city for vacations and ever more restrictions on folks ways of life in the country will befall them. As a result, "National Parks" will encompass ever more real estate.
On the other hand, I have a vision of the future that I think is more amenable in the long term but will require major social unheaval over the short term.
TK
{I look forward to the future - duh} | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 11:06:57 PM | I can still remember struggling to learn how to tie my shoes. Now I do that easily.
Well, yeah... No more laces... It's all velcro straps or slip-ons, now... | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 11:10:04 PM | this could be looked upon as a double-edged sword.
in the past much was taboo and forbidden. many were made to feel guilt about every day natural human feelings and urges, a throw back to the Victorian Era.
now, the taboo is usually not the bad scary nasty unspoken thing we only guessed about, the stuff that parents used to keep their kids in line...not that it always worked. lol
does knowing more at an earlier age now aid in a child's understanding, or does it lead to earlier experimentation?
remember Stranger-Danger? a high percentage of abuse is perpetrated by family and close friends, but I often wonder if the highly publicized accounts of abduction embolden the pervs that "only thought about it".
who knows? | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/24/2009 11:55:50 PM | Oh boy ..... yes very simple.
Billie sees Susie - thinks she is cute ....... Billie turns on the smiles gets her for a girlfriend. Takes her to the drive-in moves - cranks up the heat - gets her pants off .......... oh the days.
--------
Now it is ...
What kind of car does he have - and about that 401k thing of hers and - all guys are just trying to get into my pants (well duh) - I have the puzzy I make the rules (oh really lol) -
Then esp here ... they both like the looks of the other one but ..... one of them lives in bumf@@k or on the moon or ......
Lets not forget all the cool new words/PC junk/shallow-ites/superficial this and that/it is what is on the inside that counts/9,000 excuses for being overweight/head spin - oh there is one - there is another one/married but goofing around online and much much more.
What was the question again? | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 12:39:07 AM | As for the future: I think it will be worse. Our large metropolitan complexes will continue to expand. Anonymity will grow ever more prevalent with the ubiquity of anonymous communication on the Net. Unlike our parents, and some of us, neighbors in these megolithic beehives will not know each other, nor care about each other. It will just be safer that way.
TK - I think we use the same crystal ball!
I suspect that the current decline in our quality of life has less to do with either erosion of moral standards or technical advances than you believe though. Moral erosion is merely a symptom while technological advance is at most an influencing factor or accelerator.
I tend to put the blame on some of the social engineering projects instituted around the late fifties and early sixties. With the pervasive and insidious spread of "big government into every facet of our lives we have absolutely no control over what our children are taught or exposed to in the name of mandatory public education! We haven't had any say in this for at least three generations now!
We've built ourselves a less priveleged, fully subsidized, underclass through the many state and federal entitlement programs which is rapidly becoming a very large segment of our population. Enough so that it threatens to swamp the democratic process. Guess where that leads? Can we say bread and circuses?
We've allowed many of our constitutional rights and priveleges to be watered down to the point of lunacy! No fault divorce makes it so much easier for families to fall apart! We allow the government to mandate the means and standards to which we raise our children. I could go on and on. Most would only read it and say "what a crackpot"! The majority who are in a position to do something about it won't because changing the system in any meaningful way might just impact their life negatively!
None of these have anything to do with a more complex lifestyle, moral erosion, or advancing technologies. Just what seemed to be a good idea at the time, implemented in a sweeping way, that is having unforeseen side effects fifty years later!
In short - we've built a monster with the best of intentions. Now we can't figure out how to dismantle it without destroying the very society it was meant to preserve! Major social upheaval is an understatement for what it will take to return our society to a healthy track at this point!
Cheers  | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 12:54:01 AM | I don't know whether it's because I'm getting old, but there are parts of our society that remind me of the decline of the Roman empire (minus the vomatoriums).
I do think we're in the last stages of rampant capitalism. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 4:14:25 AM | gah, i always HATED that phony crap '60s television that passed for 'entertainment'.
things started to get real when people started dropping acid, heh heh.
still a lot of crap out there, but the menu has vastly improved.
people are about as moral as they make up their minds to be.
basic human nature never changes.
it doesn't have anything to do with technology or what's coming out over the airwaves.
the only people whining about a so-called lack of morality in modern times are old gomers who are living in the past because they've got absolutely nothing going on in their lives in the present. and whose fault might that be?
and remember that the bible is one of the most bloody and violent books ever written. | |
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tass08
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Joined: 8/11/2008
Msg: 17 | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 7:07:04 AM | The Bradys slept together
YEP........and so did Lucy and Ricky, Father Knows Best and I'll even wager to say Donna Reed had a tumble or tw0...............
Anonymity will grow ever more prevalent with the ubiquity of anonymous communication on the Net. Unlike our parents, and some of us, neighbors in these megolithic beehives will not know each other, nor care about each other. It will just be safer that way.
Will not know or care about each other? It's already happening. We walk down the streets, some with heads up, some with heads down. And, we don't know the people we're avoiding, opening doors for, asking the time from or giving the finger to. Some aren't walking at all. They're sitting in isolation, listening to the whir of their computors, with their heads in the sand.
When we were young, things were pretty simple
Yes, and as an older generation our opinion that life was "simpler then" is running pretty close to norm. Isn't that what our parents said to us? "Life was simpler when I was growing up."
The difference, in generational conduct, has almost always been seen as threatening to tradition. The traditions of the previous generation. And this view has been accentuated in our lifetime by the "segregated" status of the young from the old. As an older generation, we see the youth of today lacking R-E-S-P-E-C-T for their elders. And, gee even with each other. But, then didn't we hear that being said to us, by our own parents and elders?
No generation of individuals, as yet, has found a way to ensure that the younger generation believe, as they do. In fact, if anything, youthful reverence for tradition has gotten worse. Why? Well, one of the reasons might be because the majority of people don't live on family farms anymore or with two or three generations sharing the same household.
Society has become more urban and transitory.
Gee, I can't even get my 3 children, their mates and children to agree on a convenient date to celebrate Christmas anymore.
Does anyone want to predict what 30 years from now will bring?
The problem is that there are "real problems" in today's society. And, there are no easy solutions.
Every day, we're becoming more and more of a "police state". Big business and big government sticking their noses in our personal business. Every time I turn around, I'm paying tax on something. Or there's some law that prevents me from living life as I want to.
The youth of today, whether educated or uneducated can't find a decent paying job. So, they protest by forming gangs and creating anarchy, in our urban areas.
We tipped outhouses. Today, they're blowing up buildings, stabbing or scamming people for money or peddling & doing drugs because they've lost hope. Hope for having any kind of a future.
At the rate things are going, moral decay being at an all time high, dogs in the street will have a better life. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 7:40:34 AM | Yes times were great .. yesterday I had to buy my first pair of Expando Waist pants .... LOL
I rember it well June Cleaver saying ."Hey Ward don't you think you were a little ruff on the Bever last night ?"  | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 8:01:19 AM | I don't necessarily believe that things were better in the good old days, but it is certainly true that the future holds much more encroachment by government in all its forms. My own impression is that it is the accelerating lack of personal responsibility that is driving all of the so called decline. The youth of today feel entitled to the good life of their parents in all ways, without having to suffer any of the labour that had to be put into it.
A singular example to me is the whole situation in families where children are hanging about until 30 living off the wealth of the parents. Education, which used to be effectively over for many at 16 and most at 20, now stretches into the mid-twenties and beyond. On the other side of the equation, job requirements have gone from "Graduated from High School" to "Must have detailed knowledge of the manufacture of polycarbonate ball bearings with left of center imbalance points for use in the assembly of narfelup rotators". Its become almost impossible to learn technology in school, as its lifetime is less than the 3 years needed.
As for anonymity on the net, it has never really existed, and if the police lobby has its way, will be even more suppressed in the future. Today, government and police can assemble a thick file on anyone who has ever been on the net. The only difference I see in the future is that public anonymity will become legally prohibited relatively soon, and it will be made illegal for anyone to used any form of false or anonymous credentials for access to communications facilities.
Think of the history of airline travel. Used to be you could walk on to an airplane with a cash ticket using any name you chose. Today, you can't even get a ticket without solid positive identification and its a major crime to attempt to do otherwise. Even to fly from one part of Canada to another on a flight path which is over the US requires that you be identified in advance to the US, and approved by them.
Personally, I feel sad for todays youth. They will grow up in a society devoid of personal privacy and anonymity, and oppressed by the relentless collection of enormous data bases of information about their every action, information that will never be erased of forgotten, and which will be propagated worldwide. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 9:24:15 AM | | I think partly things were simple as a child because of our innocence. Lots less technology and not having the know of 24/7 lifestyle due to the media. I do think with technology manners and morals are having to be re-written. A classic example: cell phone use while driving; cell phone use in restaurants, theaters, and even at funerals and weddings. There's a whole lot less civility nowadays thanks to "me, me, me". | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 10:04:20 AM | When we were young, things weren't simple, we just didn't know about them. Back then there were drug addicts, molesters, cheaters and all manner of "bad" people and things.
We just didn't hear about them ALL the time.
Internet and the media have pushed those atrocities into the limelight to be able to sell papers. "Good" news doesn't sell papers, celebrety child molestation does.
The vast majority of people are not as evil as religion, the media and Dr. Phil (or whoever the current popular psychoanalyst is) wants you to think.
Take this site for example....if you read the profiles (I do), underlining practically every profile is the spectre of a cheater, player, drunk, drug-crazed oversexed impotent male.
But not everyone is like that. Only a small percentage (no, I don't have statistics) of people are.
So, in a roundabout manner of speaking, NO, I don't think things were as simple as we thought. | |
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| When we were young, things were pretty simple
Posted: 8/25/2009 11:09:07 AM | FFS wrote:
I do think we're in the last stages of rampant capitalism.
Well, FFS, I must ask what you would replace rampant capitalism with?
I would rather live in a society where a billion individuals make choices that affect my life than in a society where one voice rules. It was the controlled chaos of "rampant capitalism", the free market, that has fueled the rise in life style for "first" world countries, and it will be free market opportunities that will lift the "third" world countries out of their doldrums.
In a society where everyone is equal, there is no need to excel. In a society where there is no possibility to fail, there is no possibility to acheive. In such a society only those that rule have or will have power or authority, the rest are but pawns for those to use and abuse.
The best government is the smallest government, one that least impacts and fetters the people. Not the ruled, in such a society the elected are the ruled, placed in office to, not hinder the people, but to minimize impediments to their progress.
Should the weak and feeble be taken advantage of? Never! But at the same time the weak and feeble should not have their will imposed on the masses. No one ever said life is fair, but by trying to make life fair all will suffer.
We've seen this last many times here in the states. The latest was the housing mess that dragged down the US economy. By imposing financial rules that tried to make housing "fair" for all, instead we created a mess that robbed millions of their savings, drained resources for untold numbers of ventures and pooled ever more power in to the hands of the few. Then again, maybe that was the plan all along.
TK
{dang, got on another soapbox} | |
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