The cry of every generation



Before I return "Family Secrets" by Deborah Cohen to the library I wanted to share one paragraph with you because it made me smile.  I don't know how often I have read about how bad today's society is - moral decline, increased violence, more divorce, increase in one-parent families, more delinquent children etc..

I think this is the cry of every generation - because in 1940 they bemoaned the same story - in fact what is written below could fit today! 


First detected in the 1930s, the breakdown of the family had become nearly a truism by the following decade.  There were the so-called "problem families", whose acute poverty and neglected children brought them to the attention of authorities. Even worse, though, were the signs of a moral breakdown among the populace at large. Skyrocketing rates of illegitimacy; a huge rise in the number of divorces; an epidemic of juvenile delinquency, personified by the spectacle of degenerate and rebellious Teddy Boys; an influx of colonial subjects with their own distinctive patterns of familial life; bombed-out families doubling up and getting on each others nerves: everywhere the fragility - but also the centrality - of family life was apparent. . . . Britain was in serious trouble. (page 197 "Family Secrets")


The answer to the moral woes of the 1940s . . . the introduction of family counselling with Marriage Guidance Centres set up across Great Britain.  Did these centres stop the moral decline and halt divorce?  No, divorce continued to climb.  I remember my brother reading me a line from a book written several centuries prior about the moral decline of the younger generation and how badly they were behaving. I think we often look at previous generations with rose-coloured glasses, however I do think each generation is slipping a little further. But I do think with the internet and television we are "seeing" the moral decline whilst, in the past, the seedy underground was much harder for "nice" ordinary people to see or hear about.








Comments

  1. I just read a great article that gives one woman's perspective for why there is no "underground" anymore. Everything is so commonplace which makes the innocent and pure unbelievable. You might find it interesting.

    http://annailonamussmann.blogspot.com/2013/10/death-doesnt-care-if-youre-sexy.html

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    1. There is no underground as people no longer care who knows what and happy to "air the dirty laundry" in places like Facebook. They aren't ashamed and we no longer have any "social etiquette" that says that we as a society don't want to know, there is no line in the sand anymore. An interesting article, thanks for the link:))

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  2. Hello, Really I love my rose colored glasses!!
    I Guess we must realize sin is sin, and has always been working on the human race. Thank God we have a Saviour!
    Blessings, Roxy

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    1. We know how long sin has been around but I think today its so much in our face its impossible to miss, but in the past it was hidden away. Just turn on the TV or read a magazine and you can't miss it.

      On another topic, I had to turn the horrid word verification back on as spam and hits rose very quickly yesterday. I don't like it either but I don't know how else to stop the spam (which I delete).

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  3. I agree - and I think the point is that the sin has always been there, only some of it was behind the scenes so it wasn't as noticeable. But in the Bible we also see quite a bit written about the "last days" and end times and how we will be able to know it's the last times, so I do think things are perhaps at least in some sense, worse than in past eras. Possibly one of the biggest differences is, as you said, the fact that not much of it is hidden - it's all aired for everyone to know (and even be a part of - gossip at its ugliest, often!).

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    1. One of the reasons why I don't buy women's magazines is because they are full of gossip - who is sleeping with who, who is getting divorce etc.... For some strange reason people seem to think we all want to see and her their "dirty washing". At least in the past people generally knew the "rules" of society and knew when they had crossed the line - these days they don't have a clue.

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