[SteveZ]

Let's see:

1. The family had eroded to where so many kids are not disciplined at home.
2. The schools quit educating decades ago and became day-care warehouses. (this is worth a topic string by itself!)
3. Morality has become a joke word and everything is now disposable including ethics,
4. The media has become the true parent, and those publicized as role models are druggies, hookers and various other kinds of degenerates.

So, now a possible solution is to dump society's failures onto the military and let the drill instructors sort it out. And, since it's a volunteer military today which does not have to take recruits ordered to service by a hard-charging judge, that would mean reinstituting the draft.

Before we can go back to the days when, during the draft, the youth found itself unwillingly put in an environment where discipline and responsibie behavior were "molded" in 8-12 weeks of basic training by strong-willed individuals not following the Dr. Spock approach to inter-generational conduct, we have to fix at least a couple of the "input" - that being items 1 to 4 above. Otherwise, we asking for miracles.

As an inner-city kid and draftee, I have a lot of empathy here when it comes with this approach to dealing with bullies and kid-social issues. It does work. However, waiting until someone is in their late-teens or later before applying the first kick-in-the-pants is just too late. Today, parents won't do it, teachers can't, the media extols abominable conduct, and the juvenile justice system is impotent - so the result is not surprising. Gangs exist because they actually provide discipline and order (albeit misguided), and kids actually gravitate to it.

A long time ago I once heard that raising a kid was like raising a dog. You had to teach them both tricks, teach them to obey specific commands, and housebreak them. The only difference was that with a kid it took longer...

So, when do the adults take back the world from the kids?????????