Every generation… But the future REALLY is messed up.

In the 80’s Mike + The Mechanics released a song called, “In the Living Years.” The song lyrics open with,

Every generation,
Blames the one before,
And all of their frustrations,
Come beating on your door…

Growing up, it was common to hear older generations say, “I just don’t know about your generation,” or “What a sad day it will be when your generation runs the country.” In essence they were blaming the new generation for all the changing woes in society. Just like the song says, the new generation thought, “those old ways of thinking need to go and we need to move forward with new ideas.” What we didn’t know was that this would, truly contribute to the decline of society and has led us to where we are today. I can’t help but wonder what life would be like if we hadn’t blamed the generation before and embraced what they were trying to teach us, instead of rejecting it.

My parents and grandparents stood firm in their beliefs. They were unwavering in their convictions of what was right and what was wrong. They never compromised or justified immoral or bad behavior with some lame weak excuse like, well if it makes me happy, why is it so wrong or maybe genetics makes me act or behave this way. They held people accountable for their actions and were not afraid to speak up when something wasn’t right. Most importantly they respected and valued life. The flip sided to this concrete conviction was common sense. Sometimes bad behavior was met with a firm talking to and other times it was corrected with a leather belt to the backside. No, it wasn’t abuse, it was punishment. In all the times I can recall getting punished, I never recall feeling like I was being abused. Somewhere along the way and over a very short period of time, the notion that they were full of BS took hold and now we have a couple messed up generations.

I remember hearing or reading about generations before blaming long hair, suggestive dancing er gyrating hips, clothing, TV, and video games for the decline of morality, but the real problem ended up being complacency and compromise. We now have more young kids committing suicide than ever before. We have a generation overdosing on drugs. We have a generation that thinks how they feel is more important than the effects their behavior has on the community. Everyone seems to just, feel entitled. I’ve never read more news stories in my life about young adults and kids assaulting or murdering people. Elderly people are getting assaulted by groups of teens for apparently no reason. Just recently, a man shot and killed a 12 year old boy who stole the man’s vehicle and then shot at him when he tried to recover it from the youth. While media is blaming the tools used, I wonder what changed in their minds that made them think it was okay to act this way. All I can think is, these kids just blatantly disregarded the previous generations ideologies and developed their own moral standards.

So where does this end, I have no idea. I feel that the morality, restraint, and fortitude of my parents and grandparents’ generation will one day be gone. The opening lyrics concludes with, “I know that I’m a prisoner, To all my Father held so dear, I know that I’m a hostage, To all his hopes and fears, I just wish I could have told him in the living years.” Instead of telling my parents and grandparents that I was a hostage to their hopes and fears, I wish I could tell them thank you for passing their beliegs on to me because as it stands, I would rather live in their hopes and fears, than the fear of what I see happening all over from a generation who disregards it. I can honestly say, the generations after mine really are messed up and I, more than my parents, am afraid of what lost morality and the sense of entitlement will look like in leadership and community in the very near future.