Does this happen every generation? Or is something actually different?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MNathaniel
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
That’s just the thing–the technology they could only dream of was available within a few decades. Not all of it, but if you put yourself back in 1966, the technology we have boggles the mind.

My kids got baseball instruction that used slow-motion video on a level that professionals didn’t have in 1966. Not only is the resolution better, but athletes can be videotaped digitally and look at the results immediately. It can be done so cheaply that children can (and do) do it.

This is not a rate of change or a scope of change that the human race has ever had to deal with before. It is broader and faster by orders of magnitude. Astonishing.

Just the phenomenon of “going viral”–think about that. Even people of ordinary means can publicize commentary or moving pictures of events they witnessed and send the message to all corners of the globe essentially for free. There is no gatekeeper or editor. We have never had that before. This makes the availability of the printing press look like banging two rocks together.

Consider the conversation we’re having here. Consider the body of evidence that people leave about themselves for the entire planet to read–things people would not have posted on the bulletin board at a grocery store in the past!
 
Last edited:
No, I don’t think that the rate of change says we’re at the end times.
 
Modern humans, like the change being experienced right now by modern humans, are unprecedented in the animal kingdom. What animal population has ever been self-aware–understood and manipulated its environment, its reproduction, its epidemiology? I don’t know what we’ll do or how we’ll wind up in the short term.
 
At the moment, statistically, it does. Look it up.

Sorry, but on the contrary, the basis for most of the accomplishments in the west has, indeed, been Christianity. the discovery of real science…the invention of universities. Most important, it was the west that invented human rights, began law and economic systems that didn’t merely help the rich, that fought and ended slavery, too many, many things to mention. Pick up “The Victory of Reason” by Stark and “The Genesis of Science” by Hannam.

The research on illegitimacy or single parenting, or whatever you prefer to call it., from places as varied as China and South Africa, France and Brazil is frightening. Alas, the emotional problems are, for too many, lifelong. The staggeringly higher suicide rate. The much higher ratio of school failure, and later, failure to succeed in jobs. The inability to be able to form a stable marriage later in life. The hugely higher ratio of drug and alcohol abuse, compared to the children of two parent families.

And no, it doesn’t even have much to do with economic issues. The children of the truly rich may not end up homeless, but, if they are not raised in a two parent family, irregardless of their wealth, they are far more likely to end up with drug or alcohol or emotional problems. Look at the children of movie stars; walking wounded, no matter how much fame and money they grew up with.
 
So much, for good and bad, started in the late 1960s and early 70s, which was my college generation. Little did we realize that we were creating and cultivating the seeds of the mess the world is in now. As much as some of us might wish, however, there is no going back to the more tranquil era of the 1950s. Once the genie has been let out, together with the cat, the best we can do is maintain whatever we still have. I tend though to agree with the late 60 minutes commentator Andy Rooney, who said when asked, that the situation in our society and world is only going to get worse.
 
Last edited:
[(name removed by moderator)](

So you will able no doubt to give links to some of this research. I call it parenting. I detest the term illegitimate.

Go to any university. Start looking up articles. Some date back to the early 1900s,.
Or here are some well known books on the subject: Fatherless America by Blankenhorn and Whitehead and The Abolition of Marriage Gallagher.
Some articles I have on hand:
The Kids Are Not Really Alright. worse to be raised by a single mother, even if you’re not poor.
By W. Bradford Wilcox|
“Parental divorce during childhood was the single strongest social predictor of early death.”
Via The Longevity Project: Surprising Discoveries for Health and Long Life from the Landmark Eight-Decade Study:

Robert Rector wrote in the study, “Being in an intact home reduces a child’s chances of living in poverty by 82 percent. While 37 percent of children in unmarried families were below the poverty level, less than seven percent of children in homes with both a mother and a father suffered the same fate.
Even when comparing equally well-educated families, marriage boosted a child’s chance of living above the poverty line by 75 percent. The income gap held true among all ethnic groups.
  1. Adolescents from One Parent, Stepparent and Intact Families: Emotional Problems and Suicide Attempts. (EJ555174)
    Garnefski, Nadia; Diekstra, Rene F. W.
    Journal of Adolescence, v20 n2 p201-08 Apr 1997
    1997-00-00
  2. Family Structure as a Predictor of Initial Substance Use and Sexual Intercourse in Early Adolescence. (EJ412755)
    Journal of Marriage and the Family, v52 n1 p171-81 Feb 1990
    1990-00-00Stringfellow, Erica L.; McAndrew, Francis T.
Father Absence and Youth Incarceration (EJ686827)
Harper, Cynthia C.; McLanahan, Sara S.
Journal of Research on Adolescence, v14 n3 p369-397 Sep 2004
2004-09-00

Journal of College Student Development, v51 n5 p599-600 Sep-Oct 2010
50. The Effect of Divorce on Suicide in Finland: A Time Series Analysis. (EJ451161)
Share this clipboard Share Add this record to My Clipboard for printing, emailing, exporting, and saving.
Stack, Steve
Journal of Marriage and the Family, v54 n3 p636-42 Aug 1992
1992-00-00

Parnell, Allan M.; And Others
Social Forces, v73 n1 p263-87 Sep 1994
without fathers are more aggressive and impulsive than others with two parents.

And sorry, but I think we all need to find a way to end this situation. Our culture is throwing away Christian morals and, as a direct consequence, harming children. And not just harming them a little, or for a short time, but, for many of them, all of their lives.
 
[(name removed by moderator)]
So you will able no doubt to give links to some of this research. I call it parenting. I detest the term illegitimate.

Some more on hand:
Family transitions and juvenile delinquency.Demography. 2012 Jan 4.
There is a large body of research that shows children from non-intact homes show higher rates of juvenile delinquency than children from intact homes

Demography. 2009 Feb;46(1):85-101.
FChildren raised in cohabitating rather than married families were more likely to suffer family dissolution, delinquency , drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sexual abuse, and school failure rates.

Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2011 Aug;45(8):629-37. Epub 2011 Jun 30.
Longitudinal analysis of maternal risk factors for childhood sexual abuse: early attitudes and behaviours, socioeconomic status, and mental health.
Martin A, Najman JM, Williams GM, Bor W, Gorton E, Alati R.
Increased risk for penetrative childhood sexual abuse was associated with the child being female, the mother having failed to complete a high school level education, and living in an alternative arrangement other than marriage.
Am Sociol Rev. 2011 Jun;76(3):465-486.
Nonmarital Childbearing, Union History, and Women’s Health at Midlife.
Results suggest that premarital childbearing is negatively associated with midlife health for women. Only enduring marriage to the biological father is associated with better health than remaining unpartnered.

Dev Psychol. 2010 Jan;46(1):151-64.
Early childhood family structure and mother-child interactions.
With data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (n = 6,449), a nationally representative sample of births in 2001, we used hierarchical linear modeling to analyze differences Mothers living in cohabiting, divorced, or single families, when compared to married mothers, exhibited more negative and more intrusive behaviors; cohabiting mothers also scored lower on the measure of cognitive stimulation.

J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2011 Nov;39(8):1149-61.
Analyses linking instability to child behaviors at age 8 found that a greater total number of maternal relationship transitions predicted higher anxious, somatic, and conduct problems, with recent transitions (in the prior 2 years) driving these results. Consideration of partnership formations versus dissolutions indicated that recent entrances into new partnerships, and entrances into cohabitations, were most consistently associated with problematic functioning across numerous aspects of chi.
 
When we trust God, rely on God, then he protects us from our stupidity.

Read about it in the Old Testament.
 
I cannot say, with certainty, where the world is headed. I can say that it does appear to be in a hand basket.
 
Triple AMEN on your post above.

I’ll also add that the book “How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization” by Thomas Woods gives a very good, easy to read overview of this.
 
[(name removed by moderator)](

So you will able no doubt to give links to some of this research. I call it parenting.

I hope you’ve had. a chance to read through some of the evidence I listed, and most of all, I hope you will pick up a copy of ‘Fatherless America’ or "the Abolition of Marriage’
 
I think it would be good to get back to the OP’s query.

I think there comes a time in every person’s life when they become more fully aware of the “good and the evil,” and they realize that they are part of a God-created universe, and that God is Present and involved with that universe, and most importantly, God has entered the physical universe as a human being, Jesus Christ, Who died and rose from the dead to REDEEM that universe!

And most wonderfully, God is seeking out humans who will believe in Jesus and join His Church, the Church that Jesus Himself established, and participate in God’s redemption of the universe!

We are part of something much, much bigger and more wondrous than anything on TV, movies, sports, academia, ANYTHING, although all of these human activities can and should be included in that redemption!

It’s mind-boggling and humbling and kind of scary and very exhilarating! And becoming aware of God and Man and our purpose comes with the necessity of making a decision–will I join forces with God and become part of His Perfect Will for the universe? Or will I reject Him and His Way, and live out life as just another human animal struggling to have the best possible time before I die?

I think this is what the OP is confronting in their life–this awareness of Who God is, and Who we are and what the Purpose of everything is.

And yes, I think it happens to every generation, every human being.
 
Last edited:
I go back and forth between the possibility that we are just seeing the same old sinful happenings in updated guises, and the alternative, that a paradigm shift has indeed happened.

Artificial Intelligence scares me mightily too. Regardless of whether or not it starts trying to eradicate humanity as in a sci-fi movie, it has to be controlled by someone. If it’s being programmed and maintained by humans, we will be at the mercy of those humans and their ideologies, their template for how we should go about even our mundane everyday lives. There likely will not be a way to “opt out” of it.
 
Yes and yes. Here’s the thing, killing is actually down compared to past generations. Yes things seem to be spinning out of control. What has changed is our knowledge (of good and evil) is known in an instant now because of technology. There is still a lot to be hopeful for. It still not as bad here as it was even in the 60’s with protests and assassinations. We can do better still.

The only difference between the generations is your instant access to what is happening. In the 60’s and 70’s bad things would happen but in most cases it was remedied by the time the news broke. Today we’re put right into the middle of situations as they are happening.

God bless!
 
What is happening now did not start in the sixties but at the end of World War l if not sooner. Germany felt treated unjustly as the loser of that war and ended up electing Adolf Hitler whose government’s policies including the Holocaust involved many people in truly sinful behavior.
We have been 100 years down this path so maybe things are worse maybe we just have more access to information about them.
I am not called to make judgement on the state of the world but to live my life in the way that is most pleasing to God.
 
And How Christianity Saved Civilization…And Must Do So Again, by Mike Aquilina.
 
I was in the same old same old camp but now you’ve given me food for thought.

We are in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution and slowly but surely us humans are being written out. Something diabolical seems to be afoot. 🤨
 
twf said:
Slavery and the normalization of rape (of minority women) could be added to the list. For “wife beating”, no it wasn’t taught, but in past eras there was definitely a sense that the man is the absolute head of the house and as such abused women had few recourses…if anyone even believed them.

If we look at other cultures, beyond the West, there were other evils. Sure abortion is a horrendous evil…beyond the pale and very widespread. But it wasn’t that long ago that fathers in China had the right to kill their born babies, especially if girls.
Click to expand...
I recall one true story of a Chinese woman who gave birth to nine girls, and her husband forced her to kill every one of them – and if she refused, he threatened to kill HER! Actually, she was lucky he didn’t kill her outright for failing to give him sons.
 
Well, most of what you are experiencing is driven by the internet, which is new. An authority on the subject likened the impact of the internet which came into the nineties as something equivalent to the invention of the wheel. The ability to get so many contrasting and often fear driven voices at one time from so many different outlets makes it seem like the world is in chaos.

Well, I think the Vietnam War and Korean War during the sixties and seventies with their drafts was a worse time than this. The early 2000’s and 2008 were worse times than this, although I write we as a society haven’t fully recovered. So, what you are responding to is in part change and in part resistance to change driven by fear.

Also in the seventies there was the Oil Embargo where people literally had to ration oil and hyperinflation, which is why some boomers remember when milk cost a dollar. Since then it seems monetary policy holders have learned from previous mistakes and most countries are more energy independent.

So, for me a lot of the American fear is driven by internet, social media, radio broadcasting, and cable news. All of this stuff is new. A lot of this stuff earns revenue by creating strong emotions like fear and anger. The best thing to do is not give in and consume it.

I wrote a thread on my realization of a Hell and Evil. Well, this isn’t new and the fact that those in sin may now have a greater reach and outlet in the internet is new. The best thing to do is to have Faith in the Catholic Church, have Faith in your common man, have Faith in God and Jesus Christ. It sounds like you are an American and America is changing and with that change comes a lot of fear. So, yes, there will be extremes on both sides of the political spectrum and both lack Faith.

Read Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians and Colossians where essentially Paul argues that as Christians we are to pray and be grateful.

Finally, the internet isn’t regulated so, yes, you will encounter extreme voices on both ends of the spectrum who are not indicative of the common man or people in your community.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top