American morals declining?

[catja6]

In many ways I think morals have even improved. Things that used to be common practice are now recognized as atrocities.

It's a world. We're a fractious, territorial ape. T'was ever thus.

 
I agree.  It baffles me how anyone with even a cursory knowledge of history can moan with a straight face about how awwwwwwful The Kids Are These Days.  Actually I take that back -- it doesn't baffle me at all, the rosy glow of nostalgia and the delusion of one's own moral superiority over that of the younger generation(s) are powerful and pretty much universal things.

[Marilyn/Absentminded]

I agree.  It baffles me how anyone with even a cursory knowledge of history can moan with a straight face about how awwwwwwful The Kids Are These Days.

The kids themselves seem  to buy into that too.  I have to sit on my hands when some of my younger relatives and friends post their 'shocking' thoughts and deeds on facebook.  My first instinct is always to say something like  'Aww, you shaved your head.  How cute!  Are you going to go on t.v. now and rip up a picture of the pope?'  Or 'Wow!  Your parents are fascists?  I'd tell their parents on them if I were you.'

I never understood why my mother got such a kick out of teenagers and young adults, but I'm starting to feel it myself now.  Mind, I don't know any of the really 'bad' ones.  Most of the villainy and corruption they try to display is just so cute and innocent that I am in serious danger of offending them terribly.

Absent

[Melamphoros]

The kids themselves seem  to buy into that too.  I have to sit on my hands when some of my younger relatives and friends post their 'shocking' thoughts and deeds on facebook.  My first instinct is always to say something like  'Aww, you shaved your head.  How cute!  Are you going to go on t.v. now and rip up a picture of the pope?'  Or 'Wow!  Your parents are fascists?  I'd tell their parents on them if I were you.'

 
I think this might be another point.  Everyone does stupid things when they're kids.  The thing is that the current generation of teens have a way to broadcast their stupid deeds to the world at large (what with the facebooks, twitters, and youtubes).  And they don't seem to realize if they post something anywhere on the internet, it's there forever.

[Owl]

I think this might be another point.  Everyone does stupid things when they're kids.  The thing is that the current generation of teens have a way to broadcast their stupid deeds to the world at large (what with the facebooks, twitters, and youtubes).  And they don't seem to realize if they post something anywhere on the internet, it's there forever.

The SO and I were talking about this a few days ago.  If you want something private, don't put it on the internet and maybe don't even put it on a computer!  We have a digital camera, and the only pictures online are for our business website - pictures of product!  Anything online is hackable.  Period.  Get over it.

[mlr52]

if they post something anywhere on the internet, it's there forever.

 
Inmortallity! (better and esaier than writing it in stone).

[mandrina]

Inmortallity! (better and esaier than writing it in stone).

 
kids used to have a way to make things immortal.  Write it in your diary and your little brother would tell the world.

[Altair]

Now, ask me if I think that manners are on the decline and I'll say Yes!

Whole-hearted agreement; it's not so much morals or ethics that are in decline, but civility. Two main reasons: 1) the Internet; 2) pundits (which actually goes back to the Internet, in many respects).

1) That the Internet allows people to say things they normally wouldn't in a personal encounter--often anonymously--has been chewwed over ad infinitum (for example, as regards cyberbullying). That starts to spill into the real world.

2) The coarsening of public discourse with the rise of punditry is making us all a little meaner. In the old days, when there were only 3 TV stations or somesuch, you could get your news (for example) from an avuncular announcer; now, with ever more media (esp. the Internet) screaming for our attention, the people delivering messages have to scream and be extreme to get attention.

And if there's a third cause, maybe it's the coming of age of a generation that was raised to believe they were the Bright Center of the Universe. At least, with all the self-centered, self-entitled behavior I run into, that may be the case in my city.

[Jabberwocky]

Considering that one of the few things guaranteed to crop up in *every single era of recorded history* is hand-wringing about ~declining morals~ and how the Youth of Today need to respect their elders and practice good manners and appreciate how easy they have it and stop with their awful music/crazy fashions/blasphemous art

 
A particularly fine example was found in the comments section of a recent Guardian article.  It was about the statistics surrounding drug seizures at UK festivals.  And various ex ravers were busy complaining about how drugs aren't what they used to be and how the youth of today just don't know how to high like they did in their day.

[Finn]

And if there's a third cause, maybe it's the coming of age of a generation that was raised to believe they were the Bright Center of the Universe. At least, with all the self-centered, self-entitled behavior I run into, that may be the case in my city.

 
Not just your city.

*grumbles*


Though now that I think of it, I wonder if I technically qualify as part of this generation? :eek:

[mlr52]

kids used to have a way to make things immortal.  Write it in your diary and your little brother would tell the world.

Yes but there could be doubt, however if its on the Internet it must be true.

[mlr52]

kids used to have a way to make things immortal.  Write it in your diary and your little brother would tell the world.

PS.  Why, leave the diary where he can get it?  So long as it is in the house or apartment, he will find it.

[MadZealot]

And if there's a third cause, maybe it's the coming of age of a generation that was raised to believe they were the Bright Center of the Universe. At least, with all the self-centered, self-entitled behavior I run into, that may be the case in my city.

There's some of this in my city as well, so you're not far from the mark.  Although I'm not sure which generation is most at fault for (or, gripped by) Bright Center-ism.  I've seen this in some younger folks, but I've seen it more from their mothers, thus suggesting the self-entitlement apple doesn't fall too far.   My job, though a nonprofit, operates in part like a retail setting.  It's interesting to see how people will treat you when they see you as being in a 'service' (read: subservient or inferior) position.  I think that's when their true faces come out.  Their true character, or lack of it.

I'm with Altair on his blaming the Internet as a cause for the breakdown in civil discourse.  People have generally seemed to accept the notion that they can e-speak to a person in any manner whatsoever... even if they'd never have the balls to say such a thing to a person's face.  But I'd broaden the scope of that to include other techs... cell phones for instance.