Societal Suicide...

[Gipper]

From the great Walter Williams.

Excellent!

How Times Have Changed


Having been born in 1936 has allowed me to witness both societal progress and retrogression. High on the list of things made better in our society are the great gains in civil liberties and economic opportunities, especially for racial minorities and women. People who are now deemed poor have a level of material wealth that would have been a pipe dream to yesteryear's poor. But despite the fact that today's Americans have achieved an unprecedented level of prosperity, we have become spiritually and morally impoverished compared with our ancestors.
Years ago, spending beyond one's means was considered a character defect. Today not only do people spend beyond their means but also there are companies that advertise on radio and TV to eliminate or reduce your credit card and mortgage debt. Students saddled with college loans have called for student loan forgiveness. Yesterday's Americans would have viewed it as morally corrupt and reprehensible to accumulate debt and then seek to avoid paying it. It's nothing less than theft. What's worse is there's little condemnation of it by the rest of us.
Earlier this year, as a result of a budget crunch, the Philadelphia School District had to lay off 91 school police officers. During the 1940s and '50s, I attended Philadelphia schools in poor neighborhoods. The only time we saw a policeman in school was during an assembly period when we had to listen to a boring lecture about safety. Because teacher assaults are tolerated — 4,000 over the past five years in Philadelphia — school police are needed. Prior to the '60s, few students would have thought of talking back to a teacher, and no one would have cursed, much less assaulted, a teacher.
I couldn't have been more than 8, 9 or 10 years old when one time, on the way home from school, my cousin and I were having a stone fight with some other youngsters. An elderly black lady walked up to my cousin and me and asked, "Does your mother know you're out here throwing stones?" We replied, "No, ma'am," praying that the matter rested there.
Today an adult doing the same thing risks being cursed and possibly assaulted. Fearing retaliation, adults sit in silence as young people use vile language to one another on public conveyances, in school corridors and on the streets.

Yesteryear there was little tolerance for the kinds of crude behavior and language that are accepted today. To see a man sitting on a bus or trolley car while a woman is standing used to be unthinkable. Children didn't address adults by their first name. By the way, over the course of my nearly 45 years of teaching, on several occasions, students have addressed me by my first name. I have told them that I don't mind their addressing me by my first name but that my first name is Professor.
Much of what's accepted today would have been seen as bizarre and lowdown yesteryear. Out-of-wedlock childbirth was a disgrace and surely wouldn't have occasioned a baby shower. Popular TV shows such as "The Jerry Springer Show" and "Maury" feature guests who openly discuss despicable acts in their personal lives, often to the applause of the audience. Shame is going the way of the dinosaur.
You say, "Williams, you're just old-fashioned and out of touch with modern society." Maybe so, but I think that a society's first line of defense is not the law but customs, traditions and moral values. These behavioral norms — transmitted by example, word of mouth, religious teachings, rules of etiquette and manners — represent a body of wisdom distilled over the ages through experience and trial and error. They include important legal thou-shalt-nots — such as shalt not murder, steal, lie or cheat — but they also include all those civilities one might call ladylike or gentlemanly behavior. Police officers and courts can never replace these social restraints on personal conduct. At best, laws, police and the criminal justice system are a society's last desperate line of defense.

http://www.creators.com/conservative/walter-williams.html

 

[TheJPRD]

Gipper, this is a great article. I believe it's important that older citizens inform folks what life used to be like in the US! There were practices years ago that weren't good, but the principles discussed in Williams' article weren't among them. Virtually all of the past ills of our nation no longer exist. Those ills have been replaced with new ones that the Left embraces as "positives". Older citizens have a responsibility to tell the historical TRUTH!

 

[Cruella]

Great article.

There doesn't seem to be any discipline or respect anymore. People usually learn that at home when they were kids.

I always remember hearing "wait til your father gets home". That usually put me in my place, and my dad was a nice guy too.

 

[Gipper]

What has happened in my view, is Americans have been trained never to judge someone's behavior. We now must be TOLERANT of all sorts of inappropriate behavior. If you say something critical of this behavior, you are then roundly condemned or out right attacked. So, many of us have decided to shut our mouths.

As the good doctor stated....Today an adult doing the same thing risks being cursed and possibly assaulted. Fearing retaliation, adults sit in silence as young people use vile language to one another on public conveyances, in school corridors and on the streets.

 

[Phoenix68]

What has happened in my view, is Americans have been trained never to judge someone's behavior. We now must be TOLERANT of all sorts of inappropriate behavior.

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Agreed!!!! It's time to shit-can all o' the laziness "conservatives" have always embraced.
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[Redflag]

Great article.

There doesn't seem to be any discipline or respect anymore. People usually learn that at home when they were kids.

I always remember hearing "wait til your father gets home". That usually put me in my place, and my dad was a nice guy too.

There doesn't seem to be any discipline or respect anymore.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” - Socrates​

 

[pjmret]

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.” - Socrates​

i love that quote, although its actually not a real quote it is something a researcher put together from various writings from ancient times

Therein a pertinent post entitled Misbehaving Chidren in Ancient Times? Plato or Socrates? It turns out that the answer is neither. The above quotation, or rather something very close to it,

. . . was crafted by a student, Kenneth John Freeman, for his Cambridge dissertation published in 1907. Freeman did not claim that the passage under analysis was a direct quotation of anyone; instead, he was presenting his own summary of the complaints directed against young people in ancient times.

but still, the point is still valid, parents have been complaining about the behavior of children since, well, forever.

 

[Redflag]

i love that quote, although its actually not a real quote it is something a researcher put together from various writings from ancient times

Therein a pertinent post entitled Misbehaving Chidren in Ancient Times? Plato or Socrates? It turns out that the answer is neither. The above quotation, or rather something very close to it,




but still, the point is still valid, parents have been complaining about the behavior of children since, well, forever.

but still, the point is still valid, parents have been complaining about the behavior of children since, well, forever.

Yes, pjmret, that is the point, one borne of elements within each succeeding generation believing themselves to be unique when, in reality, they are no different than those who came before them and those who come after them.

 

[mark francis]

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View attachment 9764
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Agreed!!!! It's time to shit-can all o' the laziness "conservatives" have always embraced.
.​

 

[LittleGreenMan]

From the great Walter Williams.

Excellent!

Yes, indeed. Walter was one of my favorite people. He came to Detroit for a presentation in the early 80's and I watched him on TV when he had a regular show and he did radio guest appearances from time to time that were always enjoyable. He was animated in always, fun to watch and listen to because he lived, breathed and exuded his sincere belief in and love of

 

[LittleGreenMan]

Compfuter locked up in the middle of the above comment. The whole babble was...

Yes, indeed. Professor Walter Williams was one of my favorite people. He came to Detroit for a presentation in the early 80's and I watched him on TV when he had a regular show and he did radio guest appearances from time to time that were always enjoyable. He was animated in all ways, fun to watch and listen to because he lived, breathed and exuded his sincere belief in and love of his economic and social theories of life. He was spreading the word to one & all that there was a right and wrong to live, and for government to govern, and we needed to adopt that right path. Amen, brother. The Greeks believed that a man was immortal as long as someone remembered him. Hundreds of years from now Dr. Walter E. Williams will still be regarded as a great thinker of his time. And, students and admirers will be writing books that continue his own writing spirit, so he ain't done yet. Thomas Sowell's students will, too, so he may retain his edge, but the two of them were two peas in a pod.