What do you folks under 30 think about this?

Question

As an oldster, I have my own opinion on this but I would like to know what you folks under 30 think. I received a e mail from a friend that talked about the differences between 1956 and 2006. High school guys used to carry rifles on a gun rack in their pickup...today, they would be arrested and expelled. Girls who got pg were sent away..today they are given abortions and sent back to school.
A father spanked a child then and the kid learned to behave properly...today, the Dad is charged with child abuse and sent to jail. Obviously, our laws have changed but what do you think is the base cause of the differences?

Answer 1

I think we could expand on it...
back then there were actually fathers and mothers in each home for the most part
parents expected children to be responsible then, now they blame anything and everything but those responsible for what happens

people are lazier and expect to get a wage even if they don't do the work.... kids feel the world owes them everything when they do nothing to earn anything....

granted there are still people who have good work ethics, have morals that are above average and parents still teach and discipline their children... but things are really slacking in a huge percentage of the american lives

Answer 2

i suppose i shouldn't answer because i'm thirty three. but i don't think the differences between 1956 and 2006 are better or worse from one another. In 1956 a single mom was ostracized from society. she could barely find an employer that would hire her and the possibility of finishing high school was unheard of. if her parent's were wealthy she was sent away to her "aunt's" (often a boarding school for pregnant girls) where the child was given up without the girl's consent. other girls tried home methods of abortions or paid for back alley abortions from hacks with out a medical degree. and this happened a lot more than we want to admit. many girls were forced in to marrying the dad and lived out rather painful and unhappy marriages.

it was legal to hit your wife in most states in 1956 as well as abuse your children if you saw fit. police and state considered "home correction" a man's duty and perogative. I was spanked with a belt and would never, ever, ever believe that spanking my child with a belt is a good idea. by the way, spanking is not illegal, and parents are not sent to jail for abuse if they spank their children now adays. we have spanked our son a total of maybe three times (all for things he did which caused a life or death situation) and we did not use a belt or leave a bruise. we spanked him on his rear and this is legal. but we do not condone it as anything but a last resort, serious method. and my kid behaves properly.

i believe in the right to bear arms but i do not carry my hand gun in my car. it remains at home where it belongs unless i decide to practice shoot at the range or at my friends farm. i think toting a weapon around constantly could be a bad idea, from many stand points. my hand gun is used for protection. my hubs only takes his rifle with him if he is going hunting. When i was fourteen a kid at my school shot himself in the parking lot during lunch. i'm not a big fan of guns on school property.

African americans, native americans and mexican americans had little or no opportunity in this country and the clan was still getting away with some of the most shameful atrocities of this nation's past.

we have a lot of problems now, i will agree. but there were just as many back in 1956. we just like to romanticize the past because as we get older the problems of the present seem scarier to us.

Answer 3

I think the key problem that has caused a divide is that the minority is often speaking for the majority now.
Too often a small group of people who are very upset and angry about a cause will get their way. From what I've encountered in my life, and seen throughout what is getting closer to 30 years, the majority of the people out there don't really CARE about the big issues that are going on. Global Warming? Abortion? Animal Rights? The War in Iraq? The average person will have an opinion on any of those issues (everybody does), but they aren't the kind of people that will stand up and yell if their way isn't what everybody else is doing.
In the past, if a small group was causing trouble and trying to change the world, the government or ruling body tended to silence them, and move on. These days, any idiot can go down to a city hall or get on TV and start yammering on about some issue that they feel is so very, very great and they know that everybody agrees with them. The government is afraid to censor these people now, and so the only way to shut them up is to give them their way.
I'm not saying that anybody who stands up and makes themselves heard is an idiot; on the contrary, lots of people fight for good causes. It's the people whose causes are based on them forcing THEIR beliefs onto you that cause the problems.
Your example of spanking is perfect: back in the day, you did something wrong, you got punished, and you didn't do that thing again. You learned.
However, somebody didn't like that they got spanked, and got the bright idea to start saying it was abuse and it was wrong etc., because apparently he didn't want other kids to go through the same thing. This has caused there to now be generations of kids who have not known a real punishment, and kids who are allowed to do whatever they want because it's "healthy"
It just keeps coming back to a minority of loudmouths who want to impress their beliefs on the silent majority.
I have the distinct feeling that the silent majority are starting to get REALLY pissed off about this now, and things are going to change
Wow, that may have been the longest answer I've done...I doubt anybody's bothered to read it all, because most of it was just rambling

Answer 4

This depends where you live. Spanking is legal here in Colorado as long as you are not leaving welts or bruises. The law allows for 'transitional redness'. Most states have similar laws.

Answer 5

I think corporal punishment is an important tool, and I plan to use it if I have to as a parent.

As for the gun rack, yes guns should be no where near a school. Not because of the 99% who are responsible, but for the 1% who are not. I think what happened in Virgina today should be a clear sign of that.


Also while I am no fan of abortion what would be the good in sending a pregnant girl away? Now she dose not have the education to provide for her child if she keeps it.

if anything that makes the situation worse.

Answer 6

Laws have two functions, social cohesion and social progress. One way in which laws achieve social cohesion is by reflecting the values of society. Those values have changed, therefore so have laws.
Incidentally, spanking has been clearly demonstrated to be a very ineffective form of discipline for humans. It has immediate results, but no lasting effect. At least not a positive one.

Answer 7

Society changes so much in each generation. Compare the behavior during the Victorian Era to 1920's when women were starting to discover their sexuality and show it. It is the natural progression of things. My children get spankings when they do something really wrong and I don't fret about it.

Answer 8

I'm under 30, and I don't see carrying weaponry in one's pick-up truck, ostracizing pregnant girls, and hitting children as a sign of a better world. But every generation is different, and has a different set of values than the one before it. My values tend to revolve around tolerance, and I get along with people from any generation who can get behind the idea of practicing basic human kindness.

Answer 9

here he goes, mixing stuff he might find people to agree with then throwing in spanking his naked children good and hard (or pull underwear down etc.,especially his daughters--says his legal right to 18 or maybe feels even older,---had a friend whose father [big fat dude] was the son of a cop do this to his daughter repeatedly at a younger and older age, cops [or their descendants] allowed to do anything, belt--wooden paddle, various sadistic methods) very abusive sadistic hard spanking ( repeatedly and almost always naked or would pull her underwear down, this is true), like pat roberstson said one time on "viewer email", question says terry, "...should a father charged with molesting his daughter not be allowed to see [visitation rights]?..." pat robertson said, "...how outrageous to not be allowed to see his daughters, and did he molest one daughter or two,... not like he molested more than one..." go pedos! go!, pat roberston DID actually say this, with terry just looking at him not really agreeing, this IS TRUE it was on his show the 700 club a little over a year ago, why more didn't catch on this and use it, who knows, wouldn't doubt if he goes to Christian or Judaic nudist camps, i will swear a sworn affidavit to this and people can make video recordings of the show for their private use, i would like to see them or him swear to a sworn affidavit or under oath he did not say that or such was not broadcast, i rest my case, (take a bow)

to me (and i'm sure others) such form of spanking or paddling is not only abusive (child abuse), but could be considered (if not should be considered) child molestation

Answer 10

As a society we have taken our focus off of God and morals, and instead have focused on what is politcally correct. But I would like to say that I'm 26, and when my 4 year old misbehaves I am not too worried to spank her, and I know that she will turn out better for it.