How Times have changed…

He's are shes and shes are hes. Males are allowed in the bathrooms and showers of females and vice versa. Males can now compete with females. Swearing is allowed on television. Nudity is given a PG rating in movies. A 15 cent McDonalds hamburger now costs $1.79 (and higher in some places).

Kids are killed for their tennis shoes. Child discipline is a crime. Little league Baseball only has 6 innings, and players are recruited by corporate sponsors for the LL world series - it costs a couple thousand dollars a season to play. There is only 1 movie shown at the movie theater (used to be 2 with cartoons).

Politics is about serving your party and not your country. We have schoolyard shootings instead of after-school fisticuffs. My wifes car cost more than I paid for my house. Plastic bottles replaced reusable glass bottles. Phones don't have cords. You are EXPECTED to own and maintain a smart phone. You don't need a can opener to open a beer.
 
The totally awesome Author Douglas Adams said in his book "Salmon of Doubt..."

1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works.
2. Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a career in it.
3. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.
 
He's are shes and shes are hes. Males are allowed in the bathrooms and showers of females and vice versa. Males can now compete with females. Swearing is allowed on television. Nudity is given a PG rating in movies. A 15 cent McDonalds hamburger now costs $1.79 (and higher in some places). Kids are killed for their tennis shoes. Child discipline is a crime. Little league Baseball only has 6 innings, and players are recruited by corporate sponsors for the LL world series - it costs a couple thousand dollars a season to play. There is only 1 movie shown at the movie theater (used to be 2 with cartoons). Politics is about serving your party and not your country. We have schoolyard shootings instead of after-school fisticuffs. My wifes car cost more than I paid for my house. Plastic bottles replaced reusable glass bottles. Phones don't have cords. You are EXPECTED to own and maintain a smart phone. You don't need a can opener to open a beer.
Hah, hah!

First house, Grover City, CA. 21K, with a tiny ocean view.

1974
 
Does anyone here suspect that in the general society survival is so easy that mankind has not enough productive problems to work on--a thing that mankind is evolved to quite well--and in the absence of these basically positive activities, out of boredom and inactivity we sorta "get into mischief"?

That's vastly simplified, but overall, what do you think?
 
I'd like to say when I was in school in the late 60's and early 70's that no-one stole bikes.. but that wouldn't be true.. We had the bike sheds at school of course but if bikes weren't locked with a chain ( my brother had a combination lock).. then the bike would likely be stolen.. and we lived in the best part of the city. Over on the wrong side of the city things were far worse..
 
yep same here... I was absolutely stunned when I heard it too, because if ever there was an Era in history when children needed exercise , it's now.
The key to understanding current sensibilities is that if something was formerly required and it was hard, you don't have to do it now, whereas before you just had to suck it up and do it.

This goes for EVERYTHING...
 
Does anyone here suspect that in the general society survival is so easy that mankind has not enough productive problems to work on--a thing that mankind is evolved to quite well--and in the absence of these basically positive activities, out of boredom and inactivity we sorta "get into mischief"?

That's vastly simplified, but overall, what do you think?
I don't think people become serial killers out of boredom, so....nah, there's gotta be something else going on. Besides, seems to me that lately people have to be twice as productive, or at least twice as busy, just to earn enough to for basic survival.
 
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@hollydolly
A funny memory from Oxford. On Queen Street. Went into a bldg, a bike was chained to a pole. When I left the bldg. pole still there and chained to it was a locked lock and no bike!
it happens all the time... ! Even now when people remove the front wheel of their bike, and chain the rest to a pole, they return and find the big has still been stolen without the front wheel..
 
I don't think people become serial killers out of boredom, so....nah, there's gotta be something else going on. Besides, seems to me that lately a people have to be twice as productive, or at least twice as busy, just to earn enough to for basic survival.
Well, we're not talking extremes, like serial killing.

At least I'm not.
 
The key to understanding current sensibilities is that if something was formerly required and it was hard, you don't have to do it now, whereas before you just had to suck it up and do it.

This goes for EVERYTHING...
If you look at it from the perspective of a youngster in 2023, you'll realize that building your Minecraft world is extremely challenging. Your very life is at stake 24/7. You've got monsters, mobs, zombies and thieves coming at you out of nowhere, plus there's the sheep you're responsible for, and all the while you gotta build and fortify your home and protect your food supply and natural resources.

Life is no piece of cake for young gamers. 😉
 
Never a truer word spoken..
Taken one logical step farther, if certain behaviors/tasks were required for general social acceptance, and this was enforced in some fashion (grades, social approval), it would mean that in that particular society the individual tended to conform to common social expectancies. It functioned as s sort of leveler of behavior, moderating it to what is socially accepted.

If, however, social expectancies are dropped, you end up with a society in which the desires/wants of the individual trump conformance to social norms. And individual wants are infinitely variable both in goals and duration.

I'm saying that in general, it looks like the emerging generations have no stable social expectancies to conform to. The ones they have they make up on social media, and these change at a rate so quickly that stability is impossible, and emotional security is harder to come by.

What do you think?
 

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