We have all seen and been part of the generational groan of how the current generation does not live up to or meet the expectations of the one before.
We tend to highlight mannerisms, sayings and behavioral shifts and compare them to how things were "when I was your age". The typical retort to anything like that would be: "Times have changed!", "That's so old school!" or "Who even does that anymore?" The problem however is glaringly obvious and indeed valid, even though some may want to justify current mannerisms, behaviors and sayings used in common day scenarios. Society has become so self-absorbed and loathsome, that common courtesy and a general respect for our fellow man has fallen by the way.
Looking at this brings some clear examples into context, and one can start seeing how problematic things have actually become.
We just need to start with the most basic behavioral building block, which is greeting. We have seen over time how this very basic courtesy has been eroded over time by different generations.
People don't greet each other anymore, and there are so many excuses and explanations offered to justify the discarding of such a critical behavior.
We would get slapped by our parents and elders for not greeting people in social and home settings, and great shame was attached to such behavior, where some would be branded as Neanderthals or uncouth for neglecting to greet the next person.
We cringe as parents when our kids do this, and sadly, our first response is to justify their behavior by saying they are shy or offering some arbitrary excuse to spare our blushes. The fact of the matter is that it is just plain and simple good manners to greet people in the different social settings, as we lose nothing in the process of doing so. We have lost our humanity in discarding our basic set of manners.
We then come to a personal favorite of mine, and that is conducting yourself in a respectable manner.
Previous generations would come down so hard on kids for not respecting their elders with the way they conduct and present themselves, but the fact of the matter is that some adults are so frightfully guilty of the same offence. Respect for the next person has flown out the window! We rate and value ourselves so highly that it just becomes natural to look down on, or even ridicule the next person.
Factors such as social status, esteem, family background and financial standing are the motivating factors behind the decaying value of respect for the next person. It's so easy to degrade people who don't meet the standards put down by society or our friendship and family groups, and by the same token on the other end of the spectrum, it becomes so easy to flatter or esteem those we perceive to be of better standing than ourselves in a bid too seek favor or position from them.
We no longer see people as human beings, and sadly we seek to use, manipulate, destroy and humiliate others as we see fit, albeit through a warped lens created by society at large. The dignity, respect and reverence previously held for our fellow man by generations gone by has been eroded so badly that justification for being a horrible human being is so commonplace in our society. Sadly, it's simply a case of people valuing objects and using people, where the opposite is the way things actually need to be. We have lost our Humanity in the pursuit of vanity. It is easier to justify bad behavior than to be a decent human being today.
Sadly the decay continues, as we now also find that society has adopted this terrible attitude of self importance, where everything has to revolve around and benefit the individual. People go to great lengths to gain benefit for themselves, often at the expense and to the detriment of others. We can perfectly encapsulate this behavior with the old saying "I'm fine, stuff you Charlie!" Every person and their cat always has to outdo the next person to emphasize their misguided notion of self-importance.
Kids today embody this trait to their own detriment, as it erases all sense of humility, respect and acceptance of others, as they feel that they should benefit from all situations. The sad reality is that these kids have this warped sense that the world owes them a debt of gratitude, and they go through their childhood with this false sense until they have to enter the real world, only to find that nobody cares and then those fragile persona's are shattered, leaving them incapable of dealing with the harsh realities they then come to find in the real world.
As parents, it is all to easy to perpetuate this phenomenon by taking away any sense of responsibility they need to foster, as well as always excusing their terrible attitudes & lack of application. Sadly many a parent has contributed to where we as a society now find ourselves in this respect. We have lost our humanity in the pursuit of gaining benefit over others.
Accountability and responsibility are two attributes which can exist separately, but generally work in tandem with each other. We are so much poorer as humanity for the erosion and destruction of these two critical attributes. In years gone by, these two attributes were salient features of society, and when we look at how they were used to regulate behaviors, it's so easy to see why society thrived and many great things were accomplished through the enabling and inculcating of these in everyday living.
People were brave enough to own up to errors made, and were also able to correct the error timeously. Today we experience a sad and debilitating departure from these attributes as it is easier to shirk accountability and responsibility as society has made it normal to pass blame onto others and in so doing place the responsibility elsewhere. We have lost our humanity by trying to always place blame at the door of the next person,
We have also as a society suffered a loss of respect for critical vocations in our lives, and these are teachers, nurses, police and doctors. The sad reality is that these were critical vocations many years ago, as they were the pillars of our society and many great things were built out of these vocations,
Our Educational system, Primary Healthcare system, Rule of Law and Medical systems emanated from these hallowed vocations. Our society was shaped, molded and protected by these four pillars. The people in these four sectors were revered and put on a pedestal in our society, as the populace knew that there was learning, healing, protection and medical expansion to be found in the servants who took up these vocations.
We find that today these vocations are not held in the highest esteem anymore due to various sinister reasons. Primarily the love of money has decayed these vocations to a point that human lives no longer carry any real value, as these vocations are used to exploit, demean, humiliate and fleece people of their money.
Our Education system is used to control the populace by keeping them to a large extent functionally illiterate and vulnerable to the whims of the Capitalist, as their monetary demands have not been met.
The Primary Healthcare system seeks to degrade and put at risk the lives of the vulnerable and destitute as their monetary demands have not been adequately catered to.
The Rule of Law is by and large no longer there, as the very institutions have been corrupted by every man and his cat who is able to facilitate a bribe, also due to the fact that monetary demands have not been adequately met.
The Medical system has set itself up in such a way that the only means of getting medical care is through copious amounts of money. The system is proficient at fleecing society of their money in exchange for their medical expertise. It is so easy to be denied medical help if one does not have cash up front or medical aid cover. The very soul of this critical vocation has been lost to the pursuit of money and power.
The picture may sound extremely grim, but in all of these vocations, exist those individuals who do it simply for the love of being of service in the requisite sector. They get paid, but will go above and beyond in the pursuit of teaching, caring for, protecting and medically advancing our society. We have lost our humanity in the pursuit of money.
Looking at it all and seeing how far we have fallen leaves one with a profound sadness. We seem to think we have reached the height of ourselves and we want the plaudits, reverence and praise. Our ego's have become the driving force behind us in our pursuit of having and wanting more. Society has become so angry, and everything done is driven by ire and the need to dominate the next person, In all of this, we have lost our humanity!
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