I think I'm officially old - at least if you count looking at the behavior of younger generations with bewilderment and incomprehension as a major sign-post. I've been noticing this for awhile - but I've finally hit a point where it all comes together. That is, my generation - at least the part of it that I know at all - really is different, and there's a pattern to the differences. People have changed - and are changing - in very specific ways.
First - we seem to be in a time of no-consequences. I and most of my contemporaries were raised to consider the possible results of our actions and patterns of behavior. There were (grossly oversimplified) two major reasons for this: even if not explicitly religious, we were under the influence of what could be called the tag-ends of religion-based ethical systems; and life was harder. Not spectacularly harder - most of us didn't have to walk miles to school, or rise before dawn to care for farm animals, wear clothes handed down several times over from older siblings (or relatives), or such. But we were affected by our actions - there were always consequences. If we broke something, it was not casually replaced; we actually had to pay for purchases because there were no credit cards (imagine!) So to have something often meant to save for it ahead of time. There were fewer do-overs and second chances. If we made mistakes, or did something wrong, it was remembered. There were no birth-control pills, and abortions were not easily or safely to be had. Whatever we did reverberated for years. People remembered - this probably had to do with the fact that we weren't always drowning in information. Information itself was harder to get, and had much more value, and therefore, so did education.
Life has changed radically in the decades since my childhood - I don't need to detail how each of the things I've described above has changed. But I do want to be clear that this is not a rant about how life was better back then. For a lot of us, what we experience in our childhood forms the base line of normality and goodness. That is an illusion of course. Moreover, much of what has happened has been beneficial, or at least had a good side to it. The personal freedom that we now have is to be treasured. However, some of these changes are destructive. That doesn't make them bad - but it is important to see that they affect the way we live and behave, they are the basis of further changes. The issues are, what are these changes, and do we want them?
First - we seem to be in a time of no-consequences. I and most of my contemporaries were raised to consider the possible results of our actions and patterns of behavior. There were (grossly oversimplified) two major reasons for this: even if not explicitly religious, we were under the influence of what could be called the tag-ends of religion-based ethical systems; and life was harder. Not spectacularly harder - most of us didn't have to walk miles to school, or rise before dawn to care for farm animals, wear clothes handed down several times over from older siblings (or relatives), or such. But we were affected by our actions - there were always consequences. If we broke something, it was not casually replaced; we actually had to pay for purchases because there were no credit cards (imagine!) So to have something often meant to save for it ahead of time. There were fewer do-overs and second chances. If we made mistakes, or did something wrong, it was remembered. There were no birth-control pills, and abortions were not easily or safely to be had. Whatever we did reverberated for years. People remembered - this probably had to do with the fact that we weren't always drowning in information. Information itself was harder to get, and had much more value, and therefore, so did education.
Life has changed radically in the decades since my childhood - I don't need to detail how each of the things I've described above has changed. But I do want to be clear that this is not a rant about how life was better back then. For a lot of us, what we experience in our childhood forms the base line of normality and goodness. That is an illusion of course. Moreover, much of what has happened has been beneficial, or at least had a good side to it. The personal freedom that we now have is to be treasured. However, some of these changes are destructive. That doesn't make them bad - but it is important to see that they affect the way we live and behave, they are the basis of further changes. The issues are, what are these changes, and do we want them?
