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Maybe it because I'm old(er).

Have morals and ethics changed so much since when I was in my 20's?

And I don't mean just on simple issues such as right and wrong, but issues that involve dilemmas with relationships, politics, and love.

I'm not that old (42), but when I got married people gave it a less than 30 percent chance of me staying that way. My wife and I have been together for 19 years now. I can't even name more than a handful of friends and colleagues that have been able to maintain ANY relationship for anywhere near that amount of time. We did not have any children until we were 9 yrs into our marriage, and I wouldn't trade the experiences for anything.

Sure there have been bad times, but it is/was always a matter of working them out TOGETHER, not apart.

I'm not perfect, and I don't expect that my wife or son should try to be perfect. That’s enough of me.

The innocence of American teens and young adults have been bombarded with the faults of our elders and leaders for decades now, resulting, in my opinion, to a lack of any solid foundation for trust or belief in anything other than themselves. Our political, religious, and business fundamentals have been jaded at every level, beginning with lawyers and politicians in the late and mid 70’s, to latest bastions to fall, the catholic church and business accounting. There are no longer any places for our young adults to turn even with good parenting, as all they have to do is look at the examples of what our own unethical and immoral society has to teach them.



Am I wrong? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Whatever happened to DOING the right thing? Even if it isn’t popular, even if your family and friends don’t understand or agree, is the reasoning ability of our young been so corrupted by our own examples that they are no longer able to see right and wrong with any clarity?



Hanover Fist.

Mistakes, are what make character, and we all have character.

This generation simply wants to :hump: . That's all there is to it.

Seems that all people want to do anymore, to themselves and to each other.

Originally posted by Hanover Fist

Mistakes, are what make character, and we all have character.



yeah, and we're all characters...

I think the common person still has a decent set of morals. What HAS changed was/is the media. Since the media has a huge impact on our lives we see shows on tv that are saturating every channel. Shows such as that cheaters show where the guy runs around everyday of his life looking for people cheating on each other. He doesnt show the thousands of people he runs by that are holding hands and happy that they have one another to wake up with every morning. Shows have gotten VERY liberal and loose and that makes up our society.

I dont think you would EVER see a show called "leave it to beaver" this day and age like you did 30 - 40 years ago. If they named a show like that today you would probably have 95% of all tv watchers tune in just to see if it was about "beaver".

Todays shows arent about wholesome family values or beliefs they are about who can be the best singer in the country (American Idol) or how many celebrities can we throw in a jungle and say they are "surviving" If they are surviving in a jungle I want to see the episode where they stumble upon a caniballistic tribe and watch them run for thier lives or be eaten. Now THATS surviving!

Parenting is a different issue. You have good parents and you have bad parents but parents learn mainly from thier parents and just throw thier own slight twist into it. Kids are now stamped as all being bad but even if they are bad, once you get them alone and talk to them you can find that all you get is a frightened child that is craving for someone to tell him or her that they are loved and they are appreciated. If more people did that it would probably be a better society.



Thats enough of my rant. Lets bring back Happy Days!



(I need to quit doing this first thing when I wake up)

Lack of a sense of morals? No..not at all. Most people who are able to make decissions for themselves have morals and can reason right and wrong. I'm not influenced to do what I do by this magazine or this newspaper or this news broadcast. Hell, if we all did that, we'd be horrible. And if you think we're horrible now, then I mean horrible beyond abandon.



Do you consider smoking weed or drinking alcohol to be morally wrong? (alcohol under-age) I don't support unliscensed 15 year olds drinking, then getting behind the wheel of his dads truck w/ his friends in the car to "cruise around the neighborhood" then decide to turn out, fly down the road, and nail the only tree in his path killing my friends. If that's the case, I think every young person should get the consequences of one's mistake. EVERY ONE OF THEM.



Smoking weed though? That's less harmful than almost everything people do to their bodies now adays, smoking ciggarettes, drinking, doing heroin or coke..etc. What do people do to their bodies thats less harmful that smokin a blunt? Nothing..you can argue morally all you want, it is the least harmful.



Sex? The "grown-up" population blows shit out of perportion too often. No, I don't agree with every 14 year old under the sun not being on birth control, not using condoms and still fucking every boyfriend they have. I think parents should be more aware of the times and get their daughters on birth control or walk up to their son and have that "big talk" about sex and the importance of condoms, which 90% of the world doesn't do. Maybe you would see less teenage pregnancies.



We can sit here a bitch about how things are wrong and right, and who shouldn't do what. It all comes down to: any person, man, woman, teenage boy, teenage girl, college students..they do what they want whether they can get in trouble by it or not. I don't think that what they do is wrong..if a 13 year old can be tried as an adult on court because they think he should "know what he was doing," then a 13 year old can make decissions about these things for themselves. If they LEARNED about things from those they should LEARN from, they would have a better chance of making the right decision, but they're still going to do what they want.



Then again, this day in age, what's the right decision for anything? Is there ever a right decision anymore?

Originally posted by Platinum

We can sit here a bitch about how things are wrong and right, and who shouldn't do what. It all comes down to: any person, man, woman, teenage boy, teenage girl, college students..they do what they want whether they can get in trouble by it or not. I don't think that what they do is wrong..if a 13 year old can be tried as an adult on court because they think he should "know what he was doing," then a 13 year old can make decissions about these things for themselves. If they LEARNED about things from those they should LEARN from, they would have a better chance of making the right decision, but they're still going to do what they want.



Then again, this day in age, what's the right decision for anything? Is there ever a right decision anymore?



No, but there are consequences to all actions. Morals and ethics have alot to do with HOW you react when you do make mistakes and what you do as a result. Current examples?



Don't like your wife? Kill her. Just like spanky, and they still havnt found that pregnant lady who went missing over X-mas.



Smoking weed and even getting drunk are not the issue with morals and ethics. Its how you HANDLE them that has changed and become perverted. Society is too far down the road of preventive crime (simply ludicrous) to turn back to what a JUSTICE system should do, APPLY JUSTICE. Not stop people from their God given right to make mistakes. But Do expect them to be held accountable! Whats so complex about that?



There are very few things I take to heart as much as the following two statements.



Lead, follow, or get the F#CK out of the way!



Your rights end, when they step on mine!



Its all about accountabilty and in this atmosphere of social indifference and apathy combined with flaunted examples of impotent Justice (OJ Simpson) I don't think you will find many people who will step up to that plate, not when its too easy to blame society or any other convienent scapegoat.



Hanover Fist

Its not as bleak as all that...........well........maybe it is.

I think you're mistaken about justice. We're a retributive justice system almost exclusively nowadays. The fact that criminals have it relatively easy is preposterous. Our society says that we rehabilitate criminals. We're far from that, because of the fact that you serve a set amount of time. If we were truly rehabilitative, there would be only one sentence, until the criminal is cured of the deviant behavior.



The problem with the generation gap is things are becoming more socially acceptable. While Plat does bring up a good point about not living in an ideological world. However, when you say that there are no right and wrong actions, you are condemning social responsibility. The reason people don't commit crimes is because they think about the consequences. The reason people commit crimes is because they think they can get away with it or want to get caught. I think kids nowadays aren't brought up to think rationally about their actions. Peer pressure and a host of other problems that we all faced growing up have taken over the good judgment that would prevent them from being thrown in jail, having a kid too young, whatever you want to apply it to.



I think the reason for the moral decay is agencies like HRS/DCFS, whatever it is in your state. They show kids that they can avoid punishment by calling these agencies in to prevent parents from parenting. That's where the problem starts.

Ok i am just gonna ask one question of all of you. Did your parents whoop your ass when you was bad. i don't mean kick the shit out of you i mean "Boy, go cut a switch"?

My mom smacked me twice in my life, my dad got me with the belt a couple times. That was enough to set me straight.