Change of times. Good or bad?

[NicoleLJ]

That is the thing though. Fewer and fewer people take responsibility for their choices any more. They take responsibility for what is in their best interest. We are getting worse and worse into the me generation. People can no longer have expectation of others. Before it actually meant something when someone said their word is their bond. Now we are raised to trust no one but ourselves. It is sad.

Yeah no time in history is perfect but the problems of today are way out of comparision to the problems of the past. I honestly would prefer to have lived back when family meant something. Where community was more important then one single person. Why can't we have those things now and still the benifits of now? Because society is becoming more and more selfish.

[caseysmom]

Family still means everything to a lot of people. I have been married for 29 years and my daughters know their needs come before mine.

[Karen]

I honestly would prefer to have lived back when family meant something. Where community was more important then one single person. Why can't we have those things now and still the benifits of now? Because society is becoming more and more selfish.

Those things are all still true today. You cannot judge a whole society by what you see on the news.

When was the last time you saw a headline "Mom feeds her family well." Or "Dad takes a pay cut to spend more time with his family?" Or "Woman works two jobs so her children can stay in school?" Or "Child become first in her family to graduate high school," or "Music/basketball/science/math (pick one) scholarship allows boy to escape bad neighborhood," or "Grandmother cares for 5 grandchildren for no pay while her children sort out their own lives?" These things happen every day. I could give you names for each of these examples, but I bet you could find some of your own. Everyday heroes just working, keeping their heads down, and caring about their communities, volunteering at schools, shelters, and just being good neighbors.

Wave to your neighbors. Get to know people. Try not to assume the worst of everyone.

[Lady's Human]

The crime rates aren't actually worse, CNN et al just need the constant headlines to feed the 24 hours news beast.

[phesina]

Thank you, Karen and LH. You've both said what I wanted to say and said it so well!

[Asiel]

My thoughts exactly. I don't think you can judge today's world the way it was years ago because we have more technology, better education systems, better everything that makes our lives easier.
But as far as family values, what was instilled in me as a child I instilled in my own children and I have no complaints in that department.
I think it boils down to one thing...life is what YOU want to make it. You reap what you sow .

[Marigold2]

Karen you made some excellent points. Women now have so many more choices. I don't think that the world is that much worst then it was say a hundred and fifty years ago. People were hanged, horse theives were shot. Women were not able to vote, there were no child labor laws, no birth control. People were less educated, slavery was allowed, medicine was incredibly barberic. I don't think people were kinder, I certaintly don't think men treated women better for they didn't have any rights back then.
Children worked on the farm and were to be seen and not heard and if your husbend beat you well that was just tough luck. There were as far as I know no laws against drinking.
If Uncle John touched you funny well there was no Oprah to talk to, no therapy to be had. A rotten tooth must have been hell. A women's montly disgusting, childbirth a trip to hell and beyond, cataracts well to bad, cancer you die, gun shot, knife wounds, broken limbs. People suffered and I think tempers flared often. Flies, ticks, lice, long hair, long dresses, no electric, having 15 kids and a two bedroom home with a dirt floor. I don't think I would be smiling much, or being happy with lice and flies bitting me when I tried to sleep and I had to get up in 4 hours and cook for 15 kids and one mean, drunk husbend.
I think life is much better now, I don't think we have more crime either I think it is just reported me. If people are crammed into tight spaces regardless of age, sex, education, health they will fight and trouble will brew. Even rats precious and kind as they are to one another will begin to fight if crowded together as I believe any animal will do.

[Twisterdog]

The crime rates aren't actually worse, CNN et al just need the constant headlines to feed the 24 hours news beast.

Amen! I've had this discussion with my parents before. They talk about something they saw on the news, and lament the "good old days" when there wasn't so much crime and violence. I mention to them that without television, radio, the internet, etc. they just wouldn't have known about a murder that happened two hours ago, two thousand miles away. Then they start talking about the murders, suicides, rapes, molestations, etc. that happened in their small town ... but that only a very few people knew about.

I propose that the per capita crime rate hasn't changed all that much over time ... the information age just allows us to hear about it all now.

My parents also start out talking about the "good old days", and end up talking about how it's much nicer now to have reliable vehicles, heat, electricity, medical care, appliances, shopping, etc.

[moosmom]

Now we are raised to trust no one but ourselves. It is sad

VERY well said.

My Dad, who was a news photographe,r always said that today's media would go to any lengths, including stepping over the bodies just to get a news story. Sad is right.