Quote Originally Posted by generalbulldog View Post
Quote Originally Posted by miles View Post
Having said that I think strong parenting would clearly help. But in somewhere as damaged as the UK, you need toughening up everywhere. Schools, communities, policing, everything. A strong mother alone is not going to be all that effective when it comes to a society like Britain. I'm actually quite conservative on this issue, I am not particularly liberal or namby pamby at all. But I do believe it is common sense to look at things from all points of view and clean things up from top to bottom.
Lack of good parenting is just one of the concerns, but cultural mindset is another. Western societies like the UK and America are missing good parenting in the household and are lionizing and embracing destructive cultural mindsets. Such as rock, rap, being a bad boy, lack of emphasis on education, lack of respect for authority and elders, etc.

I did type in the other thread that I found a quote from someone in the online news section that the counter culture revolution of the '60s and their rejection of the social mores and values of the prior generation also contributed to a decaying society. I haven't looked into it yet by searching for studies. But this would make sense since the '60s was about, "Fuck the man, fuck authority, fight the power, free love, etc." Looking back it was a decade of decadence and debauchery, from illicit drug use to open sex, etc. Not to mention in America the Hayes code for movies was lifted, meaning that they can show more explicit sex scenes and violence on television and movies. You can say the 60s really changed and shifted the conservative nature of societies like America and the UK into a radically different place. And maybe what we see today is a result of discarding many of the conservative social mores beginning in the 60s about behavior and respect.
I would actually argue that the long-term effects of the social movements of the 1960's were essentially a blip on the radar screen of American history and that they ultimately resulted in a shift to the right politically. At the most, they created polarization between 'left' and 'right', but the neo-con revolution and the rise of the new right, who have essentially held power in the United States since the late '60s, was a response to the movements of the 60's.

And I don;t think anyone should pretend that the 1940's or 1950's were some kind of glory days for morality. Those same movements of the 1960's were a direct result of the repression of women, minorities, homosexuals, and other groups which had occurred for centuries previous. The 1950's in America were probably great if you were a white male who aspired to work a 9-5 job, raise a family, and bang your secretary, but they were a pretty shitty time for everyone else.

I guess what I'm saying with that post is that everything is relative and that people always look back to 'the good old days', but that perception is often contradicted by reality.

If only my history degree was useful in some practical way; I wouldn't be posting on here at 10:30am.