What's Gone Wrong With The World?!

[Guest SouthernCelt]

Here's an article from today's local paper. Looks like our local society is going to Hell in a handbasket.

Homicides jump to 9 in 10 days

[HighPlainsDrifter]

I call it the Tower of Babel effect, as technology...communication....change of society...transportation changes and gets better human kind gets worse. I dont know about Europe but i tend to think that our society here in America are changing and going down the wrong road with the children. I see more and more inner-city teens not getting their needs met by their families. The one major complaint is, no attention from Mom or Dad. Disconnected children either turn to serial killers or committ suicide. Just my thoughts and opinions

[Viivi]

I call it the Tower of Babel effect, as technology...communication....change of society...transportation changes and gets better human kind gets worse. I dont know about Europe but i tend to think that our society here in America are changing and going down the wrong road with the children. I see more and more inner-city teens not getting their needs met by their families. The one major complaint is, no attention from Mom or Dad. Disconnected children either turn to serial killers or committ suicide. Just my thoughts and opinions

The situation in my home country is somewhat similar. For example, a few years ago some teenagers murdered brutally a married couple they knew. All the newspapers said that the boys came from "good families", meaning simply that their families were wealthy. Well, IMHO, having lots of money is not the same thing as knowing how to raise your children..

[Guest Noah]

I'm not really sure whether things really get worse the older I get (but former times were always brighter, weren't they?); but yesterday, I read an interesting article about the French philosopher and social critic Paul Virilio who began a school of thought called dromology, which is the science of speed. From all I understood, it basically says that the ever accelerating speed of life of our time will ultimately lead to catastrophe. (Or that's what I got out of it anyway.)

This ties in with how I feel about a lot of things. I have not been raised religiously; thus, I've never had the comfort of a church community with the traditions, rules, and hierarchies that implies - and that, in my view, has always given people a sense of belonging and direction. I'm not sad about not having that experience, because we are very close as a family and stick to certain traditions that probably mean nothing to anyone else, but us. But many people lack this sense of direction since the rise of mass individualism (and that's what we have nowadays, isn't it?), and they're not getting it in their families either. I believe that's one of the major reasons for what we often perceive as social deterioration.

Then again it might just be a question of perception really, and things don't actually get worse objectively.

A second thought that has just recently crossed my mind is that it's the media; it has to be them. ;) (No, seriously, I don't like blaming it all on the media, and I'm studying to become a journalist myself, but where do people get their ideas of society from? It's mostly from tv, isn't it? Kids spend hours and hours in front of their computer or tv, they don't go out much anymore; and their parents aren't much better for the most part.)

On German television, more and more shows are about guys raping girls, brothers beating up their sister's boyfriends, wives murdering their husbands for cheating on them. Those are the kind of pseudo-documentaries, courtroom shows and such that claim to be reality while everything is scripted. They have that appeal, and for many people who don't know how making tv works it is quite believable. And these shows suggest that the Hollywood kind of action life actually is our everyday life (although it's far from it).

What is a 16-year old to believe then? That people get killed for something as unimportant as a cell phone here? If they see it in one of these pseudo-documentaries, they are tempted to take it for real; to believe that's really happening here; to believe that a lot of people shoot, rape, and murder others; to believe that this is normal; and thus, they do it, too. I suppose that violence has always been a part of our society, but talking about it that much gives many people bad ideas and also leads to a certain disregard of possible sanctions, in my opinion. It's almost as if we are numbed by the constant demonstration of violence on tv and in the newspapers.

I think these two things - lack of direction and the influence of the mainstream media - sort of tie together: Without direction, it's easy to misuse media. And the media don't actually give any direction to people ... but that still needs some thought from my side.

[Guest SouthernCelt]

I think these two things - lack of direction and the influence of the mainstream media - sort of tie together: Without direction, it's easy to misuse media. And the media don't actually give any direction to people ... but that still needs some thought from my side.

I pretty much agree with your observations. What makes it so bad is that the parents who do care and try to keep their kids headed in the right direction complain that their work is undone or at least dulled by the media in all its forms. The media comes back and says that raising their kids isn't their responsibility and the parents just need to work harder. So there's a lot of blaming going on and nothing improves.

As a side note, the police here announced arrests yesterday in two of the 9 homicides. In one case they caught all three perpetrators that were suspected of the hotel clerk's murder; two of the three were teenagers but will be charged as adults.

[HighPlainsDrifter]

i have always advocated structure in a childs life, keep them busy. Nowadays i see the idiot box as a baby sitter or no supervision at all. When i interview juveniles the biggst gripe i hear is that they have to take care of their ownselves. Mom or Dad dont provide emotionaly or nutrition. Here in St.Louis we ae now ranked as Third most dangerous city. To me its a cycle but it gets worse, from father to son and generation to next generation. Almost all juvenile offenders have a father locked up or a family member. The thing is, they see nothing wrong with it

[Gunslinger]

i have always advocated structure in a childs life, keep them busy. Nowadays i see the idiot box as a baby sitter or no supervision at all. When i interview juveniles the biggst gripe i hear is that they have to take care of their ownselves. Mom or Dad dont provide emotionaly or nutrition. Here in St.Louis we ae now ranked as Third most dangerous city. To me its a cycle but it gets worse, from father to son and generation to next generation. Almost all juvenile offenders have a father locked up or a family member. The thing is, they see nothing wrong with it

thats a good point joe m, the influence of tv constantly amazes me, i may have mentioned this before but a year or so back my partner and i arrived at a disturbance where the dad had once again beat up the mother pretty badly, instead of being upset, the 7 yo child they had together just kept watching tv in the back room. while waiting for childrens services worker to arrive, started trying to talk to the child, he asked me "if i shot you would you die for real or come back like on Grand Theft Auto, theres a lot of cops on that game and no matter how many i kill, there are always more." had a hard time keeping my cool on that one, this is a 7 year old, if i would have asked this to a police officer when i was 7.......i just couldnt figure out what kind of influences this child was getting at home to cause him to ask this???? very strange, im a video game fanatic myself, always have been, but always knew the difference between game and real life ya know???? strange world.