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I have read many different studies and theories on this. About how many ancient societies, kingdoms, and nations that lost focus on the family, ultimately fell and were destroyed. Do you agree with this or do you think it is bogus? I think there is something to it. The 1950s - despite all the racial tensions and other issues that were going on, had alot of focus on the nuclear family. Lots of activities, events, television shows, & films were directed towards the family and that was the time that the U.S. prospered the most and was propelled to world power status. It was also the time when people were the most religious. Compared to the infamous roaring 1920s when alcoholism, smoking, gambling, and etc. were rampant in the media and in city life. Of course sexuality was more free as well. After prohibition was repealed, a few years later we were plunged into the great depression. And then a few years later WWII. I'm not too sure on the 60s and 70s but the 80s and 90s from what I know and what my own family has told me were an okay decade for alot of people financially and socially. There were still alot of focus on the family and technological innovations increasing. People were much nicer and so on and so forth. Fast forward to now, we are drowned in debt. We barely produce anything ourselves. Much of the country is practically owned by China. We already had a recession. Millions of Americans have yet to recover from it. We might possibly have a second one that is much worse and might be great depression #2. I don't think anyone has to be an older individual to see how people are much ruder and classless than years before. One only has to flick through the channels on TV, or read a magazine, or see the trailers of new movies on what Hollywood is pumping out these days. There is almost no focus on the family anymore. Divorce rates are sky high. There's more emphasis on sex than ever before. It's permeated everywhere in society. And right now, we're on the brink of a financial collapse.
From all this and reading our history, I have noticed (myself and not studies) how our society's focus on the family and God correlates with how we do financially. I am not saying this is the truth. I repeat - I am not saying this is the truth. I am just saying that this is what I have noticed which you don't have to agree with at all. But I would love to hear your opinions on it and what you think about this theory? I will post up links later to the studies I have read about this.
Last edited by allenk893; 07-29-2011 at 10:26 AM..
I don't think it has to do with focus on the family but more the me, me, me thing. Selfishness and greed destroy and yes, when religion played into the big picture, there was less of that but now, so many are their own god believing indeed that they are the alpha and the omega! Focus on the "Golden Rule", lost!
Do you think that society or nations fall if it isn't focused on the family?
Yes!
"If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world."
A generation is said -- by sociologists -- to be 20 years. That worked until people left the farms for the cities and jobs. It also is interrupted by things like depressions and wars. So, I would say it is now 30 years. My parents were married after WWII and my siblings and I born in the 1950s. We all had kids in the 1970s-80s. Those kids are the generation of "me, me, me". I have 2 girls , both raised in the same house and as different as night and day: one a saver and thrifty and has bought and paid off her house and the other a flighty "spend it all now, tomorrow may never come" type. Go figure. They were at least part of a generation which still went out and played and didn't have parents planning every move. Now, the kids of that generation have lives scheduled to the minute by parents.... will they have brains that can schedule their own lives?
The "family" as a unit changed when Mom had to go work ( like it or not) to add $$$$$$ to the family (not chose to and knew darn well how to manage career and home) or chose to be single . Now it is almost unheard of to know a couple w/Mom home. So, you get families with no weekend to "relax", just one to add more crammed in time. It isn't "family" time. It is "have to get it done" time. Has the family suffered? Drastically. I cannot imagine it in another 30 years with a new generation grown...
Also what we see is a gneration that likely never had a job unitl they reach at least teen years. In past generations kids as young as ten had paper routes ;cut grass in summer on vacation;worked partime after school and on weekends. I can remmeber when a fast food place had managemnt and other than that teens working.Its not just a mom home but the family has a unit with kids if not working at least doing alot to help the family.That alone make a big difference in a kids education by the time her/she graduates high school.I know it greatly influences me in deciding to go and what to major in at college.It alos meant by the time I owned a home I knew quite abite about maintenance on mnay of the things and had actaully helped my dad doing them.
The "family" as a unit changed when Mom had to go work ( like it or not) to add $$$$$$ to the family (not chose to and knew darn well how to manage career and home)
This is a typical Baby Boomer mentality that needs to go. One parent can often stay home with the kids if they want to. It's called "planning". Why bother to have kids if you aren't going to be there to raise them? Isn't that why they invented birth control, adoption, and (my least favorite option) abortion?
Even leftists like Elizabeth Warren, in The Two Income Trap, have admitted that 2 income households have made households less financially stable, not more so:
Some of the weakest nations and societies are nothing BUT all about the family, clan, and religion. Think of Afghanistan today. Think of the Ireland of 50 years ago.
Maybe it is when nations or societies are or become structurally weak that the family ties strengthen in response, as local/family/clan provide the predominate law and order that is missing.
Perhaps it is only when a society extends beyond family ties that it finds its strength. If a focus on family comes at the expense of the common good of the entire society, then the structure of the society is degraded.
Some of the weakest nations and societies are nothing BUT all about the family, clan, and religion. Think of Afghanistan today. Think of the Ireland of 50 years ago.
Maybe it is when nations or societies are or become structurally weak that the family ties strengthen in response, as local/family/clan provide the predominate law and order that is missing.
Perhaps it is only when a society extends beyond family ties that it finds its strength. If a focus on family comes at the expense of the common good of the entire society, then the structure of the society is degraded.
I think that's a good point. Perhaps it's best not to go too far in either direction. The US and the Western world in general have gone too far in the diection of single parenthood and divrce being just normal parts of the landscape and expecting the government to step in to help out when this weak family structure fails economically (and make no mistake, this way of doing things has a high economic failure rate). I'd also argue that our governments actually want the family to be weak so that government can aggregate more power for itself.
... Much of the country is practically owned by China...
You mean China, the country where they toss girl babies down a well because of the one-child policy? Where they kidnap and sell women and children? Yeah, those family values explain how China has become so wealthy and strong.
Sorry, I don't entirely buy your theory - too many other variables involved.
Government is a complete failure in family plannig as we have seen. Governamnt can only providfe a safe palce for families to to proper and only that as long as culture is civil and laws enforced to safe guard them.I thnikwe have seen that society today doesw really give much responsibilty to parents for their actions rather trys to excuse it.
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