The Craze That Swept a Nation

With great fondness, I look back on a life well-lived. Sure, there were times of anguish and sorrow, but overall, I remained steadfast to my convictions. But, as I remember, many a time those convictions got me into a whole lot of trouble. Nonetheless, I managed to survive with just a few scrapes and bruises. Now, when I compare the times of my youth to today, the sharp contrasts are so evident, especially the behavior patterns of society. In many ways, there has been a steady decline throughout our whole society. The morals, ethics, individual responsibility and integrity many of my generation possessed was instilled by our parents and our schools. Some 60 years later, much of what we see today reflects the retardation of many of the basic principles we were taught so long ago.

There are a lot of factors as to why society has descended into a quagmire. One of the most significant factors is the disintegration of the family unit. This is where both parents, father and mother, worked together in raising their child or children. There is plenty of blame to go around for this collapse. When we consider the so-called evolution of the entertainment industry, which includes music, movies, games, and toys, we see a disturbing trend that has manifested itself to where we are today.

It was back in the late 1960s that the Dr. Spock mentality swept over the nation. That period was the turning point of our whole society. You could almost see the transformation happening right before our eyes, and yet nobody realized the extent of the collateral damage that this philosophy would do to our society. As if overnight, the refinement of a generation that was instilled by our parents and our schools was casted aside by a less-structured, more casual type of behavior. It was this radical change that fostered a relaxing of the discipline, moral character, and code of ethics that was an eternal part of the upbringing of prior generations. The sweeping changes that occurred decades later and the results on our society have been so profound in a reversal of not only educational standards, but of the moral and ethical standards across this nation.

So, for the past 50 years, this nation has seen three generations being systematically duped by an educational system that no longer exists. By unintelligent design, the results we are seeing today have made it possible for much of the population to be duped again into accepting and even embracing the Trump doctrine that we have today. Too many people are now incapable of fully understanding what the implications of what Trump and many Republicans and even some Democrats are doing to this country. Many of our elected officials today are products of the Dr. Spock mentality that overtook this nation 50 years ago. And, for that matter, so many Americans are products of that same mentality, too.

Ignorance is like a parasite that has grown to unimaginable lengths and prevents the United States from realizing just how dangerously close we are from turning our backs on the democracy that our Founding Fathers forged for this nation. When we have a presidential candidate like Senator Sanders, who realizes the dangers we face today and is ridiculed, ostracized and considered crazy for his sincere proposals that will ease the suffering that too many face today, this is again attributed to the inadequacies of not only the substandard educational system, but of the family structure that has been decimated by failing economic policies and a general moral decay that resulted from our overwhelming acceptance of the Dr. Spock philosophy.

Many from my generation have begun to realize the scope and depth of the dangers of not realizing what our society has become. And, as a nation founded on the principles of Liberty, Justice, Education and Morality, these principles have been dismantled by disingenuous policies, Supreme Court decisions and the Dr. Spock Craze only to leave us ignorant and dismissive of the reforms that would reestablish our basic rights and the truth of our history. This is an agenda that this nation cannot afford.

Until we as a nation realize what our own history is supposed to teach us, wake up to the fact that we were so gullible in accepting an ideology that caused more harm to our society 50 years ago, and embrace the reforms that rectify many of the crises this nation faces, America's days are numbered.