Kids: Then and Now

Guest Post by Fred Reed

OK, so why is the country falling apart? Specifically, why are kids blowing each other away? America has become a source of wonder the world over with its Colulmbines and hundreds and hundreds of dead in Chicago and Baltimore and its burning cities and riots. Other advanced countries don’t do these things.

America didn’t either until recently.   Why now? Something has changed, or some things. What?  People under under forty have never seen the country when it was sane. Let me point out things that have changed, at risk of sounding like a boilerplate cadger: “By cracky, wen I was a boy, we could amuse ourselves for hours with just a piece of string and a couple of sticks.” Let’s compare today with the Fifties and Sixties. I mean this as sociology, not nostalgisizing.

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I think that a combination of social changes have led to tremendous stress on today’s kids that my generation did not suffer. To wit:

In my rural Virginia school, there was no racial tension. We were all white: teachers, students, parents.

The black kids went to their own school, Ralph Bunche. We had virtually no contact with each other. There was no hostility, just no contact. The academic gap didn’t exist in the absence of contact. Inintegration would prove cruel when it came. and the black kid s sank to the bottom. The causes can be argued, but the fact cannot.

There was no black crime to speak of or, as far as I knew any black crime. Certainly blacks did not shoot each other, or anybody. Neither did we. The reasons I suspect were similar.

Divorce was extremely rare, so we all had parents. Whether it is better that unhappy couples stay together or that they divorce can be argued, but they then did stay together. It made a large difference in outcomes if one accepts the statistics. The welfare programs of the Great Society had not yet destroyed the black family, which I speculate accounted in part for low crime.

Drugs did not exist. These appeared only with the Sixties. A few of us had heard of marijuana. I read a clandestine copy of The Naked Lunch. That was it. We drank a lot of beer.

In the entire school I remember only one, moderately fat kid. Why? Because, I  will guess, we were very physically active. The school had PE classes, football and basketball teams, and so on. In summer kids aboard Dahlgren spent their days at the base swimming pool or swimming in Machodoc “Creek”{{it was perhaps three-quarters of a mile wide–bicycling, canoeing- playing tennis. The country kids chopped cord wood, lifted hay. There was  ice skating for hours in winter. Gloria, my best girl, got up at four a.m. to help her father pull crab pots on the Potomac, Though feminine, she probably could have thrown a Volkswagen over a four-store building. Again, I offer this not as nostalgia but as biological fact with effects.

Physical fitness  has. I suspect  psychological consequences. For example, ADHD did not exist. Boys are competitive, physical animals full of wild energy and need–need–to work it off. Boredom and enforced inactivity are awful for them.  Two or three hours daily of fast-break pick-up basketball did this. If you force boys to sit rigidly in school, with no recess or only physically limited play, they will be miserable. If you then force them to take Ritalin, an approximate amphetamine, they will be miserable with modified brain chemistry. I don’t think this is a good idea.

Sex and, I think, its psychological consequences were different then. We were aware of sex. I am not sure we were aware of anything else. But the culture was such that, first, young girls, middle school, say, were sexually (very) off limits. When barely pubescent girls are taken advantage of by boys of seventeen or of thirty-five, the emotional effects are devastating. By contrast, boys hoped desperately to be taken advantage of.

The de facto social theory was that girls should remain virgins until married. I  think few really believed this, and certainly many girls did not. However the necessity of pretending, plus the fear of pregnancy in those pre-pill days, allowed girls to say “no.” if they chose. The Pill, backed up by abortion, would make girls into commodities. If Sally said no, Mary wouldn’t, and boys, churning jhrmone wads, would go with Mary. Thus girls lost control of the sexual economy and the respect that went with it. More stress.

Anorexia and bulimia did not exist. We didn’t know the words. Both look to me like a reaction to stress.

Uncertainty is a formidable source of stress. We had little uncertainty as to our futures in the sense that the young do  today. We assumed, correctly, that jobs would be available for us. For kids who were not going on in school, there were jobs at Dahlgren, the local naval base,  as secretaries or guards or maintenance personnel, federal jobs with benefits. More remotely, Detroit was paying what seemed to us astronomical wages. Those of us in the college track, which meant those whose parents were grads and those who had high SATs, knew we could work in whatever field we had chosen. Starbucks and living in our parents’ basements never crossed our minds.

Social mobility existed, and girls had not yet been taught they they were victims. Of my graduating class of sixty, two girls became physicists and my buddy Franklin, of non-college family an electronics engineer. Sherry a year  behind me, a nuclear biologist. All, I think, of non-college families. There must have been others.

Extremely important, I think, was that the school was apolitical. We didn’t know that it was. School was where you learned algebra and geography, or at least learned at them. The teachers, both men and women, assumed this. The white kids were not endlessly told that they were reprehensible and the cause of the world’s problems.  The boys were not told that masculinity was toxic. Hysteria over imaginary rape was well in the future. Little boys were not dragged from school by the police for drawing a soldier with a rifle. The idea of having police in a school would seem insane when it first appeared.

More speculatively: My wife Violeta recently commented that the young today seem about ten years younger than their age. There may be something go this. At least in the media and academic worlds, people in their mid-thirties  remind me of the young of the Sixties, displaying  what appear to be the same hormonal rebellion and sanctimony. It has also seeped into high school. There is the same anger, the same search for grievance,  the same adolescent posturing.

I think feminism plays a large part in the collapse of society in general and specifically in pushing boys over the edge. In my school years boys were allowed to be boys. Neither sex was denigrated. Doing so would have occurred to nobody. Then came a prejudice against boys, powerful today

All of this affected society in its entirety, but especially white boys. They are constantly told that being white is shameful, that any masculine interest is pathological, that they are rapists in waiting. They are subjected to torturous boredom and inactivity, and drugged when they respond poorly. They go to schools that do not like them and that stack the deck against them. Many are fatherless. All have access to psychoactive drugs.

Add it up.

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karalan

When an entire civilization makes criminals out of fathers, that civilization will fall.

Anonymous
Anonymous

“OK, so why is the country falling apart? Specifically, why are kids blowing each other away?”

An easy question to answer, America caught a disease on June 17, 1963.

A disease no one seems willing to admit even having, much less treating.

igor
igor

Read the establishment clause please!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Certainly didn’t seem to apply for the first few hundred years of our country.

And I certainly don’t expect to see anyone wanting to correct the problems caused when it did.

And I don’t expect the 2nd amendment to survive without changing back to the time when it was safe to have it, something you probably don’t understand.

No more than I expect to be well received for pointing it out, Atheism being the official religion of the government now as it is all that has not been outlawed and is even supported.

(actually, Atheism officially fills the gap and only Christianity is outlawed, Islam and such are quite acceptable.)

MarshRabbit
MarshRabbit

PTA membership card (reverse side) dated 10/12/1960. Notice paragraph #5, “and spiritual education”. Interesting historic artifact.
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rainbird
rainbird

Fred forgot video shooter games, and smartphones, which is like having a bully in your pocket. You can pull your smartphone out whenever you are feeling lonely, and find out how much everyone hates you.

Neuday
Neuday

You’re going to the wrong pron websites.

Mad as hell
Mad as hell

Let me clarify – Stupidity and greed have destroyed this, and many other countries. Stupidity by parents, raising kids, who find this crap tolerable. And, the ones that don’t, putting up with it. And greedy, as in “I need a bigger house, better car” and not giving a damn how they do it.
Do you think the Jew bankers would have ANY hold over people that were not first greedy? Was it PT Barnum that said you can’t con and honest man? This cultural Marxism is simply a result of the greedy harvesting the stupid for their own benefit. Cultural Marxism, or frankly ANY Ism that goes against common sense does not work in an intelligent and discerning society.
People were simply better educated back then. I don’t mean academically educated, although that could be soundly argued as well. I mean, that people’s bullshit meters were a hell of a lot better tuned in, and would spot a con man a mile away. They would be shunned, and that would be that. No “movement” or “cause”, just “meh” a shoulder shrug, and a sane person walking away muttering “what a nut”. Now, we not only accept con men, we actively elect them…..follow them on Twatter, Facefuck and various other mediums like some type of hive mind. Zuckercon says jump, and 5 million (or more) ignorant morons, on queue start rattling about the “cause”, or some such nonsense, like Zuckerfucker is some messiah. Hell, the hale bop guy was less dangerous, at least they self exterminated. Charles Manson, if he was doing his shit today would have had a Twitter account with #HelterSkelter, and the Manson family probably would have been in the millions, with Manson running some “alternative” Church. Anyone that questioned the crazy would have been accused of “stifling religious expression”. It is not the “new technology” that is the problem, its that the new technology and reach has an idiot at the receiving end.

unit472/
unit472/

Lemme see a 1500 square foot brick house on a 1/4 acre lot cost about $20,000-25,000 in 1960. Maybe $30,000 in coastal California. A new car with V-8, say a Ford Galaxie or Chevy Impala $3000. Dad could afford both with a middle management or supervisorial job. Didn’t need a college degree to achieve either just be sober and reliable. That meant mom did not have to ‘work’ at least for pay but could spend her time socializing at useful endeavors like Garden Clubs to beautify the neighborhood , scouting to teach skills to the neighborhood children and the PTA to keep tabs on public education.

It wasn’t a perfect world. Stuffy by today’s standards. Playboy magazine was the only pornography a young boy could view and even that was not allowed unless some boy stole a copy from his father. Young boys called each other ‘queer’ if they were mad without being sure what the term meant but knowing it was horrible thing to be.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard

This was an excellent essay by Fred. I would only add that the labor-force participation of women has increased dramatically since our childhoods. A lot of this is not by choice, which I obviously support, but by economic necessity.

The welfare/warfare State needs white women in the workplace as tax mules. So their labor-force participation has doubled since Fred was a kid. Now there’s no Dad at home (in many cases) and Mom works her ass off for Walmart. No parents around = bad outcomes for kids.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS11300002

Dutchman
Dutchman

To sum it up: When anything goes, everything goes.

Everybody has a right to do almost anything they please, which results in no social order.

Anonymous
Anonymous

And no belief in any kind of accountability for it.

Anon
Anon

Lets not forget the role of shit food in our downward spiral. Government subsidies to corporate agri-farm businesses resulting in low-nutrient, high-caloric, disease inducing, premade crap filling the shelves of chain supermarkets.
Genetic modification to wheat DNA allowed sufficient gluten for mass mixers to produce tons of dough at a time. Didn’t help the human intestinal flora much but hey, now you can market “gluten free” at a premium.
High fructose corn syrup and all the other cheap corn “products” like xantham gum and ascorbic acid, now found in 90% of most processed food, somehow come into being right around the time type2 diabetes and obesity became commonplace in our society.
Consider how much truth there is to the sayings “you are what you eat” and “crap in,crap out”. Then add societal factors and modern pharmacological fixes. A perfect storm.

Penforce

Blaming food quality for crushing our moral fiber will take a long dissertation that will likely include using crystals, aroma therapy and rock and roll music. The reasons for becoming less civilized will be argued about and written about in future publication and everyone will need a sedative so as to not over heat. Consider that maybe life has just gotten too easy. Our idiotic mistakes result in fifteen minutes of fame on TV or a thousand likes. Dumb is rewarded, weak minds are paid to remain weak. There is no quick cure. This is all just the modern version of the strong surviving. This slow process of self-destruction is just so hard to watch. Time and future events will thin the herd and a good mix of brains and brawn will again win the day. It’s why we call it the human race.

Gayle
Gayle

Almost like it was planned?

BB

This nation was founded as a white Anglo-Saxon Protestant country based on Christianity .This worked very for the country until recently.Now all we once was as a nation has been pushed aside and a new (((kind ))) of elite has taken over.Elites that are hostile to the founding stock . Christianity
Has been removed as a guiding light and as a rule for life. The nation is drifting without an anchor. God says when a nation does this it comes under His wrath. ” The Lord is known by the judgement He executes .The wicked shall be turned into hell ,and all nations that forget God “.Could it be that God is Destroying us right before our eyes ?Think about it .

rainbird
rainbird

Teens these days are infantile. My business was called today by a local “concerned parent” soliciting funds for a post prom party, so that the kiddies had a “safe place” to hang out at after prom, so that they were not out “running the streets”. I say that if your kid is old enough to go to prom, and is expected to behave like an adult, not a child, than they are adult enough to make their own decisions about what to do after prom. If your teen is still in need of full time adult supervision, than they should stay home, and grow up.

Gayle
Gayle

Back in the day, one of the thrills of prom was being able to stay out all night away from adult supervision. Most of the fun was pretty innocent, although some parent’s liquor cabinet may have been raided in preparation.

Kids that weren’t allowed to ride their bikes alone for four blocks at age 10 certainly would need a post-prom safe space. Pathetic.

Realist
Realist

In keeping with our upside down world, we now sexualize children and infantilize young adults. That certainly did not happen in my day.

Thunderbird
Thunderbird

America is no longer a Christian country. This is evident because Christianity is no longer practiced by the majority in the way it was in the 1950s. I know this because I was there back then.

There are probably many factors that has caused the decline of Christian values over the years but it is my belief that the main cause was the introduction of Administrative law starting in the 1940s that is the main culprit. It started on the federal level but then the States adopted it.

The main problem with Administrative law is that it is not based on values so it has no values in it. It is a form of law based on facts. So one that has not looked into the law would probably say what is bad about that? Well the problem with that is facts can be based on lies. The drug laws are one example of this. Many administrative laws, rules and regulations today are based on faulty motives that cause many bad consequences.

For a law to be good it has to reconcile it’s facts with values. That is something administrative laws, rules and regulations do not do.

We are a nation that functions under the “rule of law,” Administrative law. We live under a “rule of law” without values. Certainly not even Christian values. In fact Christian values are an abomination to administrative law.

Why do you think the school systems have kicked the practice of Christianity including prayer out of the schools? It is because certain people are making this country into a Soviet Style Communist Country and they are using Administrative Law to do it.

Why do you think there is a strong push to demonize Russia? It is because since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia is now turning back into a Christian Country. Look into it and see for yourselves.

Since this transformation into communism has been going on, two generations have been indoctrinated into this system through the public schools run by Administrators of this atheist federal administrative system.

So many people have been so dumbed down by this system that they can’t see the forest from the trees. Have any of you read the book 1984 by George Orwell? Is this not where we are today? How can this happen in this country?

We are a classic example of the boiling frog story. Don’t know if we have been boiled to long. But there is one light that shows us our plight won’t be permanent. After 70 years of Bolshevik rule Russia is coming back to it’s Christian roots.

The kids of today are being raised in a communist system. I was raised in a capitalistic system. Big difference. Never thought I would see communism come to America. My mother came here in 1947 escaping her country that came under communist domination in 1939 then thrown to the dogs by Roosevelt at the Yalta accords. I was born here. Roosevelt was the instigator that pushed congress to develop Administrative Law which have been used as a tool by our sociopaths to put us under this communist system. John Beaty an Army Intelligence Officer published a book in 1952 called “The Iron Curtain Over America.” It really explains the plan. I would recommend people to read it.

People here better wake up. McCarthy was right.

rhs jr
rhs jr

Judeo-Communism is destroying America according to The Plan and we are seeing it live on TV with the push to ban AR-15s, to give 20 million Illegals the vote by Nov2018 and to destroy Trump. We get rid of the ZOG like the Russians did 20 years ago or they will bury US.

hardscrabble farmer

comment image?w=500&h=447

You’d be hard pressed to come up with a more appropriate example of the problem.

Psychopathic narcissism is a term that’s been tossed around, but it may be something even darker.

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