Are you REALLY that inconsiderate??

joeshmoe wrote:
I didn't read anyone "blaming" the schools or the youth directly. What I said was the schools have been and are essentially daycare centers for parents who choose to not make time (or effort) to impart proper rearing at home, but instead raise their children to become latchkey kids. When you're raised with few norms and standards with which to live by, it creates a vacuum in the mind of the child sucking whatever, as you said, "comes naturally". Children can be and are naturally disrespectful animals unless raised otherwise. I believe mandatory military service would fix a lot of the parenting problems with the youth in our culture. Asked anyone who's served if the military made them a better person. An overwhelming majority will say yes. Parents sure aren't stepping up.

At any rate, disrespectful kids generally grow into disrespectful adults.

Again, I think it's wrong to blame this on a generational problem. The truth is people of ALL ages are behaving selfishly. It's not because their parents didn't raise them properly (you can have 3 kids raised by the same parents and have one turn out to be selfish and the other two be great). It's because society doesn't care anymore - look at our commercials and name 10 that don't include insulting a person, character, group, etc. Everything is about feeling good about yourself by knocking others.

75 year olds are just as likely to be selfish and do scummy stuff to others as 17 year olds - but we blame all our woes on the 17 year olds. Many of the people letting their dogs run loose are 60+ because "we've always let them run loose". Many of the people nitpicking are 60+ because "I shouldn't have to put up with your way". News for everyone: that's called being selfish.