Where Has the Self Respect Gone???

[JiveTurkey]

Being an observer of people, as I am, I have noticed something that has bothered the shit out of me for the last decade or so.

Rather quickly, the average John Q. Citizen seems to be losing all sense of self respect.

What the hell is going on in the world?

Am I the only one who still remembers when women were ashamed of having slept with XX number or guys?

Am I the only one who remembers a time when people would have hidden their drug and alcohol problems from the world because of the shame?

Am I the only one who still remembers when it was okay for women to be pretty instead of dressing like 2 dollar hookers?

Why is it that I find myself feeling like the outcast because I am the "smart one" of a group that prides itself on it's collective stupidity?


As I write this, there is a guy outside of my room talking to one of his coworkers about the horrible shape of his teeth. This, in and of itself isn't really a "bad" thing. However, the fact that I hear him now laughing and joking about the fact that his oral condition is what is known as "meth mouth" disturbs me.

Is that something to be fucking proud of these days???


Why are there so many 19 year old girls with 3 kids by 3 dads running around???

Why is this socially acceptable?

Sure, I can believe that some of those girls just stupidly fell into bad situations. However, I have to believe (if I'm being honest with myself) that the likely truth is that they are just little sluts who would open their legs to whomever they happened to find cute at a certain period in time.


And what about men?

What happened to the days of settling disputes with fists and nothing else?

Does anyone else remember when it was considered "pussy" for a guy to go after someone with a bat/gun/whatever weapon?

Now it's like a status symbol.


Speaking of status symbols; Since when did we start judging someone's worth on the particular style/color/functions of their cellular telephone?

Why is it that a 14/18/30 year old can take pride in and baby their Razr or Blackberry and not themselves?


Am I just fucking weird because I have a sense of pride? Am I a freak these days because I am proud of the fact that I don't cheat on my wife even if she isn't still with me?

Am I socially unacceptable because I find "Girls Gone Wild" and one night stands disgusting?


Is morality dying? Or is it just me?


Am I wrong to be disturbed by seeing a 21 year old sitting at the bar with his 36 year old dad getting drunk and discussing sexual escapades?

Can a high school student, this day in age, even provide an accurate definition for the word "pride"?

Dammit! I feel like I am on some kind of bad trip or something. Everywhere I look I see TRASH. Not only that, this trash is being glorified.



Don't get me wrong here. I'm not saying someone who decides to smoke the occasional joint or who may have one or two sexual escapades they regret is trash.

However, those that actually take pride in the fact that they have managed to develop severe drug habit or those that consider 20 notches on their bed post a "good start" truly fucking disgust me.

Since when is being a goddamn junkie a good thing?
Why should a man/woman have to count themselves lucky because they found a partner who has only been with 19 other people?
Why do a large number of the people I come into contact with on a day to day basis find it strange that I "read all the time"?



Where the fuck has the self respect gone?????






I wish I could wake up.

Jasn



EDIT TO ADD: Yea, I know this is very similar to my other post in regards to the mother/daughter and their struggles.

However, that was a more "direct" (for lack of a better word) observation while this is just my feelings about the majority of those around me for the last 7 years or so.

[Bitchkoma]

Two things.

Nihilism, the breakdown of the family unit and apathy.

Okay that's three things. [insert snide remark here]

[mojo]

I agree with most of what you've said jasn. I guess with a lot of
things particularly relationships i am old fashioned and find the
current socially acceptable norms not to my liking.

On the other hand when it comes to drugs and alcohol i'm
completely open and honest with my family and friends. That
doesnt mean i brag about it, except maybe on internet forums
where im relatively anonymous. :D

I also read a lot, not many of my friends do, but i also like to go out
and party hard.

I think the thing that disturbs me the most about society as a
whole these days is the fact that nobody is willing to take
responsibility for their own actions. Take a look at Britney Spears.
Heath Ledger for christ sake. A guy over here who is a famous
footballer is in trouble for glassing his girlfriend and assaulting
police. Instead of this guy getting slammed for anti social
behaviour a tv station is going to pay him $200,000 to tell his
story. How the fuck does that work. You get rewarded for
unacceptable behaviour and then trot out the old "i had a poor
childhood" excuse.

Burglers are suing people for injury while committing an illegal
offence.

It aint just America my friend, the whole worlds fucked up, thats my
excuse for getting off my face. lol. J/K.


mojo

[Deadflagblues]

I'm a big fan of your threads concerning the integrity of modern day society, Jas. I feel exactly the same. Maybe we've both been watching too much Fight Club, but the point still stands and maintains it's validity. Where the fuck IS self respect, self importance, self worth? The loss of these moral standards are snowballing for the worse. Big trouble in little America.

[Oblivion]

its not a self respect problem, but respect in general.

they have no self respect OR respect for anyone else either.

myself, i hate the meat heads you have to work with that think beating their chest like an ape while belittling, harrassing and bullying others with immature intimidation tactics to be amongst the lowest.

these same people are the ones who brag about them and all their friends banging some "gangy" on the weekend to which i usually reply "aah, so you and your friends not only share women but your dick sores aswell?

and as soon as you reply with logic and home truths they get VERY abusive and hot headed because they arent smart enough to say something smarter than the usual "your a fat useless cunt" comments.

respect is something you have to earn from someone, you cant demand it or bully it out of them. :!:

down with meat heads!

[JiveTurkey]

Maybe we've both been watching too much Fight Club,


EGADS!!


My filthy vegan compadre has discovered the secret behind the ever powerful "SimiusDei" threads.


Damn you to hell you evil bastard!!!!!!



/silliness



Thanx for the kind words bro. I am also a fan of yours.

Well, except for the not eating meat thing. I'm fairly certain that veganism is a mortal sin.



:P

jasn

[Yo Mama]

Well, I am too tired this morning to give this the attention it really deserves -- older kid sick, younger kid just not sleeping as his toddlerhood vanishes and he becomes a little kid.

I will, however, say this:

WTF is with the Girls Gone Wild? Do these stupid young bimbos not know that their dads, uncles, granddads, brothers, male cousins and perhaps their teachers might see that shit?

How many times across this country has it happened that some guy, bored of his long marriage, looking for a little spice, gets one of those sent to him and sees his nearly adult daughter in Cancun, kissing some other chick with her clothes off?

Self-respect is mostly dead. The corruption that set in at the end of the Roman Empire is setting in for us. As the sun sets on the US being the greatest nation on earth.

[vckums]

I am so with you on this post Jasn....

We lived in a bad part of Vallejo about 4 years ago. I was 7-8 months pregnant and walking to my car with my kids and some little punkass about 12-13 yrs old talks some smack to me. I stopped and said "What did you jsut say?" And he didn't reply. As I walk away to the car the little bastard threw some rocks at me. I handed my youngest who was about 1 1/2 to my oldest and waddled after the punkass as fast as I could. He was gonna get a beatdown if I could catch him, pregnant or not.
We even had some tiny little punks(6-7) talk shit to me cause I told his ass to get off my car. *side rant* wtf is with kids that think that they can sit onthe hood/roof of your car and you're going to be ok with it? I called the popo on the next door kids once cause all 3 of them were on my car. The officer gets there, talks to me I tell her what was going on and that it wasn't a first time. She goes next door and talks to thier mom. The mom goes " well they are only like 40-50 lbs they couldnt do any damage". Even the officer was shocked and told her that's not the issue. It isn't THEIR car.
These hellions would run around unsupervised and destroy things and I had to keep myself in check LOL

[Occam]

I am totally cracking up at this thread. Honest to god, I'm 77 years old and I've lived through a great deal more of these changes than any of you. In one way you're right, but in another you're wrong.

Yes, there's much less self and other respect now, but the difficulty is that everyone shows less respect for everyone else. I find that even kids as well as adults respond surprisingly well when they are given respect first. Each of us has to start treating everyone around us more gently.

While you get upset with promiscuity and the easy discussion of it, things were far more polite and genteel in the old days. Everyone cheated and screwed just about everyone, but nobody admitted it. Pregnant girls "went away" and either had an illegal abortion or gave the baby up for adoption.

As I approach the end of my life, I admire how society has become far more honest. I just hope that the next step is learning to care for each other and to help each other.

I'll dig up my five principles and post them in a few minutes.

K/O

[Occam]

I took a hell of a lot of years and mistakes, but these are pretty much what I try to live by now.

1. Treat everyone and everything fairly, justly, and lovingly with respect and understanding, even if I disagree with their actions or beliefs.

2. Help others to grow, but give them the freedom to forge their own path without limiting or directing them.

3. Think carefully, independently, and work toward meaning, truth, understanding, and consensus.

4. Work to make the life of every being happier, easier or fuller, and if possible, to avoid ever hurting anyone or anything.

5. Live my life joyfully for the benefit of others as well as myself.

You may think these are dumb, but they work for me.

K/O

[mojo]

My father left us when i was 7. For the next 15 years of my life my
grandfather was my role model AND my hero. One of these days i'll
sit down and commit his life story to a thread, trust me it's worth it.


There is one thing in particular he told me that i have lived my life
by.
"Never ask anyone to do something you are not willing to do
yourself."

Pretty basic but, Not only does that advice work for me in my
employment but it works for me in Life as well. I employ a lot of 20 - 30 year olds and they have no fuckin' idea!

mojo.

[WhispersInTheDark]

Present company excepted, it can be ironic at times that some people who consider that they are outside a group for being "smarter" are permanently locked in their own inescapable stupidity, a collection of malformed impressions from influences that have retarded any growth.

Those were interesting times at Amkon. What happened?

[lala]

I am totally cracking up at this thread. Honest to god, I'm 77 years old and I've lived through a great deal more of these changes than any of you. In one way you're right, but in another you're wrong.

Yes, there's much less self and other respect now, but the difficulty is that everyone shows less respect for everyone else. I find that even kids as well as adults respond surprisingly well when they are given respect first. Each of us has to start treating everyone around us more gently.

While you get upset with promiscuity and the easy discussion of it, things were far more polite and genteel in the old days. Everyone cheated and screwed just about everyone, but nobody admitted it. Pregnant girls "went away" and either had an illegal abortion or gave the baby up for adoption.

As I approach the end of my life, I admire how society has become far more honest. I just hope that the next step is learning to care for each other and to help each other.

I'll dig up my five principles and post them in a few minutes.

K/O

[theeindiee]

Nice bump! These days... I kind of look at myself and I kind of see how hypocritical I've been. I mean... the depression and stuff... some of that stuff I mean, like a bad leg.... it can't be written off as "just try harder" because I do try in my own way. But other stuff, like mojo said "Don't ask anyone to do anything you wouldn't do yourself"... it's not like I've intentionally done so.... but I've been all hung up about being lonely and stuff, and when I stop to think about how many opportunities I ACTUALLY have had to have companionship from the opposite sex, I realize I was waaaay too picky at the time. It's not like it had to be permanent, but why I didn't give them a chance and be open, really open (not just spewing shit outta my mouth, but open like air) to THEM instead of whiz around and around in my own head wondering if it was right for me or if I was right for them...

And now that time has passed and I have become kind of clueless as to what to do around society and especially around women, I really sometimes regret that I didn't practice some of the things I would later preach hypocritically when things weren't going my way.

[theeindiee]

I'm not a bad guy. I've got "morals" far beyond most people. But I've come close to abandoning even the most basic human morality just because ... well just because... nobody gave a shit.... but the problem is.... I had surrounded myself with these fucking assholes for so long that I could not see, and still have a hard time seeing, who does really care... who does really still respect things that humans hold sacred, like loyalty and trust and dignity and community and sharing and helping...

It's gunna take take time for me to remember how to do these things, same as it will with everyone maybe. I dunno. There's still a lotta pain and dissonance, both personally and socially.... just a lot of pain. Maybe it had to get this bad. I mean... there are people out there who LOVE pain and debasement and angst and death and misery... and as long as society doesn't see how far you can fall before that obsession can't be maintained anymore... the bottom of the barrel... the most that Darkness will do for an individual or an organized entity of any sort before completely ripping it apart into oblivion... they'll keep pushing the envelope.

We're there at the threshold of pain now. We don't need to take it to it's bitter end, because not even the most evil person in the world truly wants to be ripped apart into oblivion...non existence....

[Infinite`Eternal`Forever]

Yes, there's much less self and other respect now, but the difficulty is that everyone shows less respect for everyone else.

^This.

[Martian Exile]

Is morality dying? Or is it just me?

Most of what Jason brings up in the OP can be attributed to President Johnson and the unintended consequences of his "Gene Pool Pollution Program".

[BE2]

Jasn's puritan instincts always emerged when he was drunk and stoned.

[Martian Exile]

Or as Bob Russell said:

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed
our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it
the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it
welfare..

We have killed our unborn and called it
choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it
justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our
children and called it building self esteem....

We have abused power and called it
politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions
and called it ambition .

We have polluted the air with profanity and
pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values
of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

[egg]

I have put chicken on a baguette with some spicy dressing and called it lunch...
It's delicious!

[lala]

Or as Bob Russell said:

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed
our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it
the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it
welfare..

We have killed our unborn and called it
choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it
justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our
children and called it building self esteem....

We have abused power and called it
politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions
and called it ambition .

We have polluted the air with profanity and
pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values
of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Not seen that before nice one Bob :salut:

[mojo]

worth revisiting. :)