When I was a mere lad, my father and I would watch old movies together. Well, not exactly together, my spot was in front of the tv, in case my father would want the sound lowered, or the channel changed (no remotes back then...what a concept!!).We would watch John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, James Stewart and Gary Cooper movies. All portrayed men, gentlemen most of the times, characters with honor, and morals and principles. They reflected their times, and served as role models to all those who watched their collective works.
For me, my favorite was Gary Cooper, who always portrayed quiet, gentle men who would go to the ends of the earth to protect his own, and would rather die than sacrifice his scruples. These were the days when men were men. These traits seemed to rub off on the American public as well. Honesty was the way of the world, and a lie was a lie was a liar. Class and dignity reigned supreme.
They were gentler, and much safer times. My brothers and I would take off from the house on foot, and would spend the day at the park, or wherever. My parents never worried about us. The world was a safe place. No molesters, no perverts, no exhibitionists, just decent folks.
My parents taught us the old fashioned Vermont values, including Sunday school every week at the local Baptist church.Once I found a wallet full of money. To be honest, we had just moved out from Vermont, and we could have used the money. Probably a lot more than the owner. But, my father insisted, and we turned in the wallet to the local police department. Given that same situation today, I suspect most children would take the money, and throw the rest away. The temptation would be too great. No moral dilemma here.
Recent times have completely reversed the trends established by our ancestors. Look at the last decade alone. Clinton lied about his affair, then lied about it under oath, for which he was impeached, but remains a hero in the hearts of many people today. Today's professional baseball players, who once grew up idolizing heroes like Willie Mays and Lou Gehrig, now attempt (and succeed) in getting into the record books with performance enhancing chemicals. Hardly any penalty or stigma for them. As a matter of fact, Barry Bonds is fast becoming the all time home run leader. No penalty, only rewards, for what really amounts to nothing more than cheating.
You hear whispers of cheating in all pro sports nowadays. Football, baseball, hockey, hell even Lance Armstrong, and he was just riding a damn bike for gawd sakes. No penalty, no stigma.Which bares out this question.
When did it become socially acceptable to lie, cheat and steal?
When did it become OK in the hearts and minds of Americans today?
Martha Stewart goes to prison for stock fraud, and immediately goes back to her billion dollar career. No hard feelings Martha. No mea culpa necessary. Mark Foley, house committee chairman for the caucus on missing and exploited children, just forced to resign for sending perverted messages to very young, basically children. No shock, no horror. He is undoubtedly negotiating a book deal as we speak. I wonder who will play him on the Lifetime movie of his exploits?
Children today are growing up as empty, ignorant shells of human beings, to a large extent. Their education is so poor, they can't even spell the name of the teacher they slept with last night. This emptiness will be filled up. Oft times, it will be with drugs and alcohol. Some will seek comfort and social acceptance with adolescent sex to fill the void.
And how can they grow up correctly? They have absolutely no role models to emulate. Just Madonna with her metal cone shaped bra, and others of her ilk shaking their bodies in front of the camera as if there was a strippers pole and a crowd of dollar bill fisted marines on leave. I won't even go into todays music, and the examples these "artists" set for the youth of today.
The media doesn't help. TV today is filled with sex and violence. Even programming on childrens networks have to be monitored closely for content. Disney, once the standard bearer for decency, has even crossed the line.Smart, prudent parents attempt to shield their children from this world. They expect their sons to wear their hats frontwards, and call adults "mam" or "sir." They raise their daughters to be little women, not like the girls out in the world today, wearing skin tight sweat bottoms with messages across their asses. They approve of their friends and associates beforehand. More than likely, they must foot the bill for a private school in order to accomplish this.
Now, I don't want to bring back scarlet letters or anything, but with the penalties for misbehavior so low, and any sense of standards increasingly non-existent, something surely has to give. Will we ever see a renaissance of old fashioned morals return? Not in my lifetime I am afraid.
Surely everyone must admit that each subsequent generation is less and less adept at teaching their children about character, honesty and morals, let alone manners. As we become more and more tolerant of offensive behaviors, the line of simple decency doesn't get blurred, it gets wiped away. And with it, the crime rate goes up, and simple comon sense values goes away.
In my day, my parents sweated bullets over the prospect of my smoking pot, or drinking (which I did, of course, after all it was the seventies). Parents today actually seek out doctors who will give their children medication. After all, my child has OCD, or attention deficit syndrome, or whatever the latest crock of shit the medical and pharmaceutical industries are shelling out to us.
Where did all these new fangled diseases come from? Where did all of these perverts and child molesters come from? Were they in hiding during my childhood, or are we breeding genetically defective people now days? Are the lines becoming blurred? Is their even a line drawn anymore? Is what was outrageous behavior before suddently acceptable? It is all up to us, and our parenting skills, I am afraid.
So if your child exhibits poor manners, if they grow up ignorant to the concept of right and wrong, if their behavior is so egregious your parents and grandparents are left spinning in their graves, don't blame the media, or anyone else for their development.
You see, for the most part, the enemy is you.
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