I am afraid we have been badly outmaneuvered with regard to Absolute Standards vs. Moral Relativism.
How many have had the experience of visiting the gymnasium of where they attended grade school?
I did. I attended Kindergarten at Allen Street School before attending different schools for grades 1-through-6.
Then, at age 24 I bought a house in that neighborhood and went to vote in that same gymnasium.
That gymnasium that took 20 minutes to run across...it was tiny.
Young people's stunning indifference to pedophilia
Just as we perceived "growing up" as our parents getting shorter, weights lighter and problems simpler our kids also float through "growing up" using an intertial reference frame where their center-of-gravity is the origin.
They don't perceive themselves as maturing from age 11-to-30, rather they see everybody else changing.
Culture used to whack us between the eyes and tether us to absolute standards. Now, not so much. Consider the vilification of statues. Nobody under the age of forty seems to have whiplash, nor have the considered what happens when THEY become the target of being erased.
Societally, moral relativism is a recipe for chaos and disaster.
We are seeing the leading storm-bands right now.
I don't know what to write except to say batten down the hatches, reef the sails and clutch those you love as close as you dare. Families are ecosystems with lots of moving parts. (Incidentally, oikos is Greek for home and is the root of ecology, ecosystem and economics)
That is the gym where you attended elementary school? I don't see even one White kid in that entire photo.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid in the mid 60's, our folks sent us to a school for one year that was about 90% black, 5% white and the rest split between hispanics and asians. This was in San Diego, CA. The Mexicans and the black girls were the worst bullies. The girls more so because as boys, we couldn't fight back.
DeleteI grew up in St Louis County, Missouri where I attended a boys prep school with a total 9-12 grade enrollmentof about 425. One year our basketball team made it to the semi-finai 3A championships where we played Soldan High School, which was a huge, virtually 100% Black inner city school in St Louis.
DeleteThe game was played in the basketball arena that was the home court for the NBA St Louis Hawks (Who subsequently moved to Atlanta and became the Atlanta Hawks). I will never forget the deafening chant that came from the Soldan side of the arena, which was filled to the rafters. "Whitey, Whitey this no lie !! If we lose, YOU ALL DIE !!"
Fortunately for us, we lost.
Commenting on your post, but in a lighter spirit, I'm glad you wrote this. I've noticed the same thing myself and wasn't sure if it was just me. In my mid-20s I went back to an elementary school and was amazed at the tiny, miniature furniture.
ReplyDeleteA few years back, I visited up north (Detroit) with a cousin who still lives there. We drove past our Grandma's house (sold, after she passed) and it had a yuuge yard in a lot next door. I remember that lot being bigger than a football field and I even mowed it a couple of times while visiting.
A few years ago? You could about throw a can of soda across the lot- what the hell happened? Where did that big field go?