Quote:
Originally Posted by mickey100
Originally Posted by graciegirl
Well since you asked............
I think the ethical generation(s) came from the children raised by moms and dads who beat the livin' crap out outa kids if they stole something, or got in trouble at school. I think that the ethical generation spewed forth from being monitored 24/7 by someone who loved you to death and had a very intense interest in how you turned out. I think we were scared into having a conscience and I think that a certain group of us learned a lot more about values because we didn't have as MUCH as the people who are now under 55. I think that those of us who had our shoes repaired and our vegetables canned and our fannies spanked belong to the ethical generation(s).
The rest of the folks running around with their underpants showing and those who weren't expected to have summer jobs or need summer jobs and those who are given new cars and fished out of "slight embarrassments" at school, who never lived in a family with one car and one bathroom and two to a sleeping room, and didn't HAVE to do what they were told and couldn't afford dance lessons or tutoring to get them through school belong to the not quite so ethical generations. FEAR of consequences is an awesome catalyst for ethical behavior.
I may be wrong and frequently am.
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I can see any number of things about your "ethical generation" that I wouldn't be too proud of. Thinking of the Vietnam war, the history of discrimination against people of color in this country; the history of discrimination against women in this country, and so on. The baby boomers started questioning social values and had a more altruistic bent. They formed protests against the Vietnam war, and paved the way for our withdrawal of troops; had heroes like Martin Luther King and oversaw integration; passed laws giving women rights they were entitled to....and each generation that follows will build on the previous generation. I don't think it is valid to say any particular generation has the moral high ground.
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Um....are you a LOT younger than most of us here in The Villages? If not it is
your generation too. I only missed the Boomer generation by a few years I think. I am 73,
I pretty much expected this kind of response.
That is the reason that we hang out with the people with whom we feel most comfortable. There is room for all kinds of groups in The Villages.
I am glad that there are many who look at the world the same way I do.
There are many to the right of me and many to the left of me and they all think they are correct.
I didn't know any hippies or any druggies growing up. I did know quite a few drunks. I never met an Indian, East or American, a Chinese person or a Japanese person or a person from Australia or other continents until I was in my twenties. and found we were very much the same. I had a lot of black friends and a lot of Jewish friends who I went to school with. I didn't see much difference in any of them from me. I knew women could do anything because I grew up with a line of strong matriarch ancestors. The men weren't too bad either and never made me feel inferior by their words or deeds. Everyone I knew worked. They kept things clean, they took care of themselves except for the folks my grandmother called bums who would come to the back door and she would give them dinner to eat on the back porch. I didn't know bum was a bad word. She didn't treat them badly. She called them Mr. So and so and they called her Mrs. so and so. and it was just part of our life. Sometimes they'd help with jobs around the house like taking in the coal, but they always got fed.
I guess maybe a lot of bad things happened but I didn't see them or hear them except for the chickens getting killed for Sunday dinner and flopping around headless. I hated that a lot.