How things have changed

[Kacey]

I put this here, rather than in the Comedy Cafe, because posting it at all was sparked by some of the comments made in another thread, Roaming Children's Shrinking Radius'. Now, whether you agree with the statements below or not is not my question - my question is, how many of these changes do you think are for the better, how many for the worse, how many irrelevant - and how many should not have been the government's to decide? And please say why you have the opinion you do - I am as much, and possibly more, interested in why, as compared to which. I'll give my opinions later - I want to see what others think first.

Those Born 1930-1979
READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO. IF YOU DON'T READ ANYTHING ELSE---VERY WELL STATED TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of t he best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them. CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
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While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?[/FONT]

 

[Steel Tiger]

First let me say that I don't think anyone should smoke period. Its just bad for you and pretty disgusting too.

How many of these changes should the government decide? Well, none. All these things describe lifestyle and no government should be regulating lifestyle.

I think that many, if not all, of these changes stem from two things.

The first is a desire to sell. Parents are being targeted by some of the most insidious advertising, preying upon their desire to protect their children. As a result there is a fear of , well, everything. Its much safer for little Johnny to sit in front of the TV or computer all day than risk some infection or abduction by going outdoors. Then they lament the fact that their children are overweight!

And of course lets not forget the fear of emotional scarring. So nobody is left out of anything, everyone is special, no one has to deal with disappointment. We are producing people who have never been told "No", who think that if they simply turn up they will achieve greatest, and who end up becoming so frustrated that they explode and kill a bunch of other people before ending their own exceedingly confused lives.

The second is an ingrained function of the society we have built. For decades from the '30s on we have sort to have more so that our children would not have to bust their humps in the same way we did. But what affect has this had? Each generation had more and actually expected to have more. What is the result? Now you don't even have to leave your home to exist. Its not really living because you don't interact with real people. Your friends are TV characters and all your opinions are governed by sanctimonious talk show hosts who only know what day it is because their PAs have told them.

So, ultimately, our children are safer from outside influences but because we have chosen to pursue a society in which success is measured in material gains those same children have lost touch with reality and have become physically weak. All those sporting heroes we held so dear are a thing of the past. Nowadays a sportstar is an overpaid prima donna, very likely to be using drugs to enhance performance, and more interested in their own appearance and finances than the game that made them a celebrity in the first place.

We can change this but it would mean a significant change to society and, frankly, I like playing computer games and watching TV.

 

[Darksoul]

-I agree with SteelTiger on this. Prior to the more recent technological advances I'm going to assume life had a certain flow to it. We, as humans and as cultures/societies, were advancing, but I think it was gradual. However, there has been so much change in the last 50 years, we jumped ahead in some areas, yet fell behind in others. I'm not getting into an anti technology rant here but the advances have lead to the surplus in material goods, which in a lot of way has taken over as the purpose of life. I need to get good grades so I can go to college so I can get a good job so I can have money so I can provide for the needs and/or wants of family...I guess its like improving the quantity of life but not the quality? Are we no longer humans, in a sense? That may depend on what each person wants life to be. I believe its about improving the lives of all involved, nothing to do with materialism. Good health, basic needs covered, protect the planet.

-I'm going to stop now cause I know I'm getting off track and too tired to think clearly. I will say that I've often felt like I'm living in the wrong time period. Believe in older values that don't seem to be the norm anymore.

A--->

 

[Sukerkin]

You're not alone in that last sentiment Darksoul ... I've often been accused of having Regency/Victorian/Old Fashioned manners and attitudes .

It's not always been meant in a complimentary way mind you - I shall remember to my dying day the time when I got a extremely vocal tirade vented at me because I held the door open for a trio of girls who were following me in to the Students Union building (brief precis was that it was sexist in their eyes and I demeaned them by implying that they were not capable of opening the door themselves ).

Anyhow, that's off the path. As to how many of the statements in the OP denote changes for the worse ... pretty much all of them. It's a rosy view of the past perhaps but I lived through some of it, being a child of the sixties and I am grateful for being so much less cossetted than the generations that followed me.

 

[qi-tah]

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

I'm all for laws regarding transport safety like seatbeats, bike helmets, child-seats etc. When you see the damage caused by the lack of these simple (and not terribly onerous) safety measures, it's just good public health policy to enforce their use. I see them as being on par with other road rules like obeying speed limits and traffic signs, and not drink-driving.

One thing i am vehemently against however is the litagous nature of our society today. For the gain of a tiny minority, the threat of multi-million dollar lawsuits has made vital community events and orginisations that benifit everyone that much more expensive to run.

It sucks!

Oh, and regarding smoking, Victoria has just passed laws banning smoking inside ALL venues! Yay... i can go out to the pub now without needing SCUBA equipment!!

 

[MA-Caver]

A lot of these things did happen. A lot of these things parents didn't worry about. I think it's mainly because there weren't a lot of hungry money grubbing lawyers looking to sue anyone about everything possible. Remember the hot-coffee from McDonald's lady? 30, 20, 15 hell even 5 years before that everyone would've just laughed at her and just said well DUH! But some lawyer went for the gold and some judge gave it to them. Though frivolous lawsuits were rising before the McCoffee incident, the increase in litigations went skyrocket years after that. Either that or we started hearing more about it.

The list had been around the net before long ago but it's a good one. Very observant and right on the button on a lot of it. Another similar list talked about how if you fell off your best-friend's house porch, skinned your knee their mother would just give you a band-aid, or a spritz of bactine (remember that stuff? "it won't sting" but it DID!) and maybe something to drink and send you on home without worrying about your mom calling back and threatening to call their lawyer and rushing you to the E.R. so it'll look better in court. And so on.

How two kids can get into a fight at school and at best get a paddling from the teacher or principal and at worst get sent home for the day to cool off and a note to be signed by your parent.

How if you got sick from eating out that you'd just go home and drink some pepto-bismol and rest.

The list is endless because the changes are endless but it's society growing I think.

Our own dependence upon technology is really getting out of hand I think. I have a fun riddle to ask people related to technology. "What is THE most worse invention in the last 100 years? You can find it in the home and office and it's almost in every room in the house. I tell them it's the TV remote.
How many other things can we find in the stores that make our lives that much easier? They've got powered dish-scrubbers, powered toilet bowl scrubbers and so on. Ok, ok, for some folks this comes in handy... like the elderly with arthritis.

Ah the good ole' days.

By the way which one was the quote from Jay Leno? Must've gotten snipped off.

 

[Andrew Green]

I'm all for laws regarding transport safety like seatbeats, bike helmets, child-seats etc. When you see the damage caused by the lack of these simple (and not terribly onerous) safety measures, it's just good public health policy to enforce their use. I see them as being on par with other road rules like obeying speed limits and traffic signs, and not drink-driving.

Maybe its just me, but it seems the number of people actually riding bikes went down when those helmets started getting popular.

Maybe it's just me being from a generation where only dorks wore them, and wearing one was a good way to get teased...

Hey! I got a plan, lets make helmets mandatory for skateboarding, teach those young punks a lesson! Then they will have no choice but to give up grinding for American Idol and Dancing with the Stars or risk looking un-cool! :lol:

 

[qi-tah]

Maybe its just me, but it seems the number of people actually riding bikes went down when those helmets started getting popular.

Hmm, who was it that said "Whenever i see an adult riding a bicycle, i have renewed faith in the human race"? Bring on peak oil i say!

Maybe it's just me being from a generation where only dorks wore them, and wearing one was a good way to get teased...

Yeah, i had a stackhat when i was kid too... a bright fluro yellow one, nice and visible! :erg: Actually, one of my many bicycle accidents occured when i was crossing the road to go back to the comic store in which i'd accidentally left it!