They got rid of Dodge Ball… That was my one of my favorites…
Yes, we are raising a bunch of pathetic, whining, wussies. They can’t get with the program of life because we do not allow them to experience it… The pain, the angst of growing up. Of getting past hard times because they have never known one. It is a cultural calamity of living in the US. We have spoiled our children rotten. Adversity builds character.
Since when does a kid decide what is right? I had the choice to spoil my kids rotten or be strict. I’m glad today I was a disciplinarian because they are doing well as adults. My kids were outside kids because I moved them to a town that it was safe to be outdoors. I shut off the cable for 15 years and they did not have that as an option. I sent them to a strict school where they had to learn. I took them to church every week so they could learn right from wrong. I never gave them allowances so they got jobs in high school to have money. I am proud of them today. They are good people. One of my children is very smart and is in the medical field. My other child had a learning disability but graduated and is a hard working man that just bought his first home. My children have not had children yet or married even though they are in their 20’s. They are responsible.
Kids learn by example. The best thing you can ever be is a good example of what to do or a horrible example of what not to do. Once you know what is right you won’t deviate from it unless you sell out at some point.
If younger Americans are wussies* compared to people who grew up in the Great Depression or fought in World World II, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I wasn’t around at the time but that seems like a crappy time to grow up. Would you rather be kind of a wuss, or experience crushing poverty and/or be shipped off to Normandy and see Auschwitz up close?
I don’t think it’s possible to say much about personal responsibility, work ethic and family without resorting to very broad generalizations that might not be of much use. And it goes without saying that most of the examples listed in the OP are extremes that consist of stupid people doing stupid things. In the past maybe their stupidity would have been expressed differently, sure.
I do think that maybe younger people don’t live for their jobs as much as older people might have- I think the statistics show you’re much less likely to spend your entire career with one company now than you were if you started working decades ago. Does that make them lazier? Not necessarily. It means they don’t define themselves by their jobs and look elsewhere for some kinds of fulfillment. As far as personal responsibility goes- I could believe you might have a point in some respects. Then again you’re not likely to remember much about the losers and bums of past generations, but I am sure they existed. You’d have to clarify the point about families. Divorce rates are up, but that’s not a bad thing on its own terms.
Agreed. Like I said, the dangers everyone is so scared of are vastly blown out of proportion, simply because it’s news and we have more instant access to 24/7 news than ever before. It may have seemed safer back then, but that’s because you read the paper once a day, maybe watched 30-60 minutes of news each night. Now they’re constantly shrieking and hollering about anything and everything day in and day out, and that starts to screw with people’s heads.
Not to mention the natural tendency to focus on the large but rare dangers while ignoring the commonplace dangers, as you say.
And that tendency is increased when some of the biggest dangers of the past no longer exist. Not too many people are worried about polio or whooping cough these days, not to mention the threat of nuclear attack throughout the Cold War. With those out of the way I think people have more room to focus on pedophiles on the internet.
I don’t think previous generations had a lot of preparations for doing those jobs, but they managed somehow.
I’m saying previous generations may have looked to their jobs for fulfillment and younger people may not be doing that. Use a different word if you like, but by that reasoning it sounds like younger people are less wussy.
If anything, weren’t they even less prepared? I remember watching the PBS Manor House show and them saying that due to really horrible malnutrition, so many young men were in terrible health around the time of the first World War. I suppose wanting to be in proper physical condition makes you a “WUSSY!”
Wanting to be fulfilled at all? Definitely wussy. Real men don’t care if they’re happy. They keep all their feelings bottled up until a sports game rolls around.
My father was raised in the Depression and was awarded a Bronze Star in the infantry World War II. He would have kicked my ass* for spelling “brake” the way you did.
*verbally
While it’s possible, such things are a matter of perspective. Historian John Keegan specifically cites improvements in public health as one of the primary causes of WWI; for the first time, nation-states had a large crop of physically healthy young men, not the sickly and feeble serfs of the past, and it kind of went to their heads in terms of feeling like they could start a war.
I think previous generations looked at their work as a responsibility they could take pride in. Young people these days seem more interested in making a quick buck. I think the whole mindset changed in the 1970s and 1980s. Up until that point, layoffs and downsizing was relatively rare. American industry won 2 World Wars for us. Then in the 70s, you had an economic downturn. Kids who grew up during that time saw their parents unable to find work or worried about losing the work they had. Then all of a sudden in the 80s, they entered the workforce and all decided to be a lawyer, stockbroker or investment banker.
So we’re agreeing, aren’t we? On a social level, preparation is not necessary for those things.
I can’t agree with this- I know too many people who’ve decided to become teachers.
1980 was 30 years ago, and I suspect some things have changed. For one, how do you think the public sees investment bankers given the recent financial crisis?
I coach youth soccer… giving trophies/medals to all the kids who participate ends around the 5-6 year-old age group. I can’t imagine a 5 year-old doing anything in a sporting competition that truly merits, or truly doesn’t merit, a trophy. Not to mention the fact that at this age group, at least in soccer, they don’t even keep score. (I’m sure the parents do, but the league does not). I can say with some confidence that most youth soccer in the U.S. is set up this way.
The team I coach now is a nationally ranked U-15 girls team. Most of the girls on the team have been playing competetively since U-8… and believe me, only the winners get trophies. And my girls have a ton of “metal,” as we coaches like to call it.
I deal with my daughters friends all the time. Except for her BF liking Twilight* he is not wussie.
Working in my company we hire college grads (well, at least used to before economy went into the shitter). These recent college grads were not of low quality.
I haven’t seen any ‘decline in quality’. Doesn’t mean it’s not there, but I am skeptical.
*Ok, he’s a wuss just for that alone
When I was a lad (20 years ago now), everyone got a trophy all the way up to the 12 year old leagues. And it had been going on for years before that. “Participation Trophies” are not a new thing.
It’s also disingenuous to say this is some kind of US-only thing.
I teach in China, and trust me the “every child is a special star” thing is alive and kicking here, despite whatever breathless news reports may be telling you about how “great” the Chinese education system is.
I am a college teacher. I am not allowed to flunk my students as long as they show up for the final. Even if they do not come to class even once and just write meaningless cryptograms on the final, I cannot fail them. The worst thing that can happen is they have to take a “make up exam,” and if they fail that I have to re-administer it over and over again until they pass.
I regularly judge speech competitions. The standard grading scale is 1-100. Judges, however, are told they must mark everyone above 95. It feels really absurd handing out a bunch of scores that are “96.7, 98.2, 95.3…”
My (college) students regularly burst out in full blown tears when they are called on something as simple as being late for class.
I’ve been hearing about this kind of thing for more than ten years now.
I was terrible at sports. I liked dodgeball because it’s easier to dodge a ball than it is to catch one.
By who? Parents get all kinds of out-there parenting advice from all kinds of people. I suspect this has been going on for about as long as we’ve had language.
When I was in elementary school, in the early 80’s, we were required to bring a valentine for everybody in the class. This isn’t new.
What were the people who actually did those things like before they did those things? Doing something like that can change somebody’s outlook on life.
Is it? The message I took away from the Darwin Awards (other than “boy, these people sure are dumb”) was “don’t take stupid risks”. To take one example, who’s more likely to drive around a bar at a railroad crossing and who’s more likely to sit and wait until the train has passed? I’d have an easier time seeing the non-wussy person doing the former and the wussy person the latter than the other way around. The former is the one that will get you a Darwin Award.
Actually, we did ask some modern “wussier” Americans to avert a Great Depression just recently, and it looks as if they did a better job at it than the He-Man types of '29.
