We are living in an anything-goes era. Doing “your own thing” has become a basic tenet of our modern culture. Instead of conversing with each other at dinner family members get on their phone to communicate with someone else or play games. Everyone seems to want to appear to be youthful at all costs including massive cosmetic surgery. Teenagers dress like adults and adults dress like adolescents. Our language no longer follows grammatical rules, vocabulary is shrinking as the f-bomb is constantly used as an adjective and people do not follow logical thinking. Our feelings are more important than reality. We are driven to act and look different from others but since everyone is doing the same thing we wind up conforming to a uniformity of nonconformity. Adults attempt to act like empty-headed phony Hollywood celebrities to appear chic. There is little talk of virtue and morals.
Everyone including children talk too much and express opinions with little knowledge of facts. Diversity of thought is limited to a very few. Behavior is out of control. Children are grazing instead of sitting down to a meal and eat directly from their hands instead of using utensils. Many middle-aged people are wearing their baseball caps backwards to show they are youthfully carefree. This style of wearing hats backwards was begun in prison so criminals must be those to emulate. Lying, cheating, stealing, even knockouts where a gang member hits an unknown person for absolutely no reason except for ”kicks” is becoming almost acceptable. It is no big deal. This goes beyond the bounds of not proper or mannerly, it is approaching cultural free fall.
Almost anyone and everyone now are equally important in their own minds. They incessantly take “selfies” and communicate with the social network what they are doing by the minute as if the world revolves around them. Their delusional existence has a lot to do with this psychological high self-esteem and the PC movement that denies anyone being critically honest. Giving your personal opinion is now considered intolerant even when it is correct.
In the past, straight, honest talk gave a person a clear and valid picture of how others saw him. Most of us without this direct feedback are more prone to a life of deceit. This is especially true in this virtual existence where we can post anything and everything on a Facebook page that makes us appear too good to be true. We can describe ourselves as slim, beautiful, smart, and socially brilliant when we are not even close to these descriptions. People have become celebrities in their own minds. The only limiting factor to how a person can present himself to others in the virtual world is his lying creativity.
Without knowing what is proper and mannerly there is no way to accurately evaluate one’s behavior. The ignorance of moral values and virtues by many is produced by not giving appropriate consequences, which encourages us to participate in self-destructive addictions and thinking. When “Facebook friends” or voyeurs replace family and personal friends, all actions become more acceptable. Without loving and caring feedback a person’s ability to negotiate reality becomes dangerously limited.
When someone cares enough about you to keep you on the right tract you have a legitimate loved one. Telling someone honestly what you see is one of the greatest gifts you can give to another person. At the moment he receives a valid criticism no one jumps for joy but eventually understands the value of this accurate assessment. “You are obnoxiously drunk.”” You were a glutton today by eating so much.” “You do not look natural by defiling your body with piercings and tattoos.” “The drugs you are taking are changing your behavior.” “You are disrespectful.” You don’t care about anyone but yourself.” “You cannot go to church dressed like that.” Only when people know what is proper and mannerly you have a behavioral compass to judge your own behavior.
When everybody looks and acts similarly it does not make them stand out as exemplary people or even appropriate. The tattoos, piercings, self-mutilation, CEOs dressing down to be hip and fashionable drug consumers does nothing to increase a person’s social abilities or actions. It does place the participants in a significantly large group following the lowest common denominator of appearance and behavior. Converting large numbers of youth to this movement allows an individual to feel he is not being weird or slovenly but it does nothing to improve the person’s spiritual and social standing.
The superficial similarity in appearance gives many Americans the delusional belief that their appearance and actions are not being judged. The ignorance of proper behavior does disguise some of the differences but does not eliminate them. People have a right to know where they stand to better themselves. We should have these rules and standards of behavior to make ourselves more efficient, harmonious, and a socially united society. We should again be given a clearer picture of what is socially appropriate and inappropriate. Eliminating these cultural norms leads to an over-whelming number of disjointed subculture groups that weaken the cohesiveness of society.
There are families who understand reality and are training their children to join the ranks of being dignified. They are teaching their children manners and proper behavior. They are preparing them to be authority figures that can teach others the importance of how to act. Our culture can only be revitalized by parents and other authority figures demanding standards and expectations of proper and mannerly behavior.