Why Is It Now Wrong To Cherish The Way Of Life, That We Once Held Dear?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2337702/SIMON-HEFFER-Coronation-dream-politicians-betrayed.html

Is it now wrong to still cherish our way of life?

/// But steadily over the past six decades — particularly in the past 15 years or so — those aspects of Britishness and key institutions have all too often been insulted, rebuffed, ridiculed, despised, attacked and, to all intents and purposes, destroyed. ///

How very true, but not just by politicians.

[annieigma]

An old asaying "We live in hope, and die in despair." I think this is any decade, just the first bit is your teens, the second bit your 50's.
for most people. and a majority of us were born just after the war, it was the 60's for us that were the good old days.

[emmie]

perhaps, i don't think there has been a time in my life that was idyllic, it just was, you worked, got on with things.

[FredPuli43]

The 1960s were the good old days ? Blimey, I'm glad someone has told me. I can't remember a thing about them ! It's a total blank :)

[annieigma]

You know Fred, they say if you remember the 60's, you wern't there!! Well, i was, but never took a drug of any kind ( loads now, but not then). I have clear recollections, best days of my life, and i might add, my parents and uncles and aunts were having a good time, even though we were in the east end of london, they were all in this new era of well being, which has gone.

[FredPuli43]

Don't understand how being "rooted in Christianity" is meant to be such a good thing. The Church in 1953 was hardly an institution all of whose ways most people now would approve of. And to read Christianity as being the same as morality, as though other faiths or atheism do not have morality, is just foolish.

[jno]

shows how young triggs is; chicken used to be quite rare. (In shops, I mean, not in cooking preferences.) I've never quite understood why.

[annieigma]

Fred, I went to Sunday school, and that made me very slightly understand about christ and the bible, and I now realise the bible is all about being a good person, nothing more, no magic, no miracles, just a book of laws that if every one in the world stuck to it would be a peaceful happy existance. It does not mention killing anyone etc. But whats that got to do with better way of life now I don't know. Strange thing here in lincolnshire, they have had to open up some old Churches, as the polish people are mostly real catholics and go to church on sunday.!!

[jno]

The Bible has nothing against killing people. Leviticus demands the death sentence for all sorts of peculiar reasons; if the daughter of a priest becomes a prostitute, you're supposed to burn her. I've never met anyone who actually uses Leviticus as a guide to life, though.

[Kromovaracun]

"just a book of laws that if every one in the world stuck to it would be a peaceful happy existance."

Including: don't resist evil (Jesus says this numerous times), murdering those who preach different faiths (Deut 13:13-17), publicly stoning people to death (Deut 22), unmarried girls being obliged to marry to their rapists (Deut 22:27-29).

"It does not mention killing anyone"

I'm afraid this is totally untrue. In both the new and old testament, God either kills or threatens to kill his followers quite a few times. To take the numbers given in the bible alone, God kills just under 2.5 million people:

http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.co.uk/2010/04/drunk-with-blood-gods-killings-in-bible.html

So do his followers - the Book of Joshua contains numerous massacres carried out by the Israelites. The book is essentially one long list of them, and that's not even a fraction.

I'm afraid your Sunday schools did not give you a very balanced view of the Bible.

[emmie]

many people have turned away from Christianity, not just because they can see that it hasn't served them well, but because science has been proving that many of the stories held to be true from biblical times are patent nonsense. I don't doubt there are good Christians, full of love and comfort for their fellow man, but we have seen ever increasing examples of religion being used for nefarious ends, not least the Catholic church stance on abortion and their cover ups over many years of paedophile priests, abusers who literally got away with it.

[sp1814]

AOG

Perhaps people have realised that that what was held so dear has been shown up to be corrupt? Respect for the police began to erode in the 70s (SPG, fitting up innocent Irishmen, attitudes to rape victims). The Royal Family damaged themselves when we found out they were no better than us. That started in the 80s.

Respect for the church began to erode when we found out about child abuse scandals.

So many of the institutions that form the fabric of this country have demonstrated that they don't deserve the respect that they once had.

[anotheoldgit]

FredPuli43

/// aog, just how old does someone have to be to make a proper comparison between 1953 and now ? At a guess you'll say it's whatever age you are and older. Am I right? ///

Well that seems obvious surely.

Since this debate is regarding life in 1953, it seems obvious to me that one must have at least been of an adult age back in 1953, to be able to make a comparison between those days and today's.

If we were talking about life as a child back in 1953, then it is also obvious one must be old enough to have been at least a child back then.

[anotheoldgit]

FredPuli43

/// As we get old, our mind goes the same way as our joints; gradually stiffer and more set until totally inflexible and unbending, ///

If that is to be believed then there must be many on AnswerBank who are also very old, considering how their minds are also totally inflexible and unbending.

[THECORBYLOON]

What age are you, anotheoldgit?

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// For most people, there best time in their lives will be their late teens / early twenties. At this time, we fall in love for the first time. We get jobs and have money for the first time. We may marry and have children. Make our own nests, and still have youth and health to enjoy it all. ///

This is also showing your age Gromit, the above isn't the modern view on things, for many their teens and early twenties are not the best time in their lives, according to what some say, they are angry, and think the whole world owes them a living.

As regards falling in love (if that is what they call it these days) they don't wait till they are 20, they do so while still at school and have gone through many sexual partners by the time they reach their 20s.

They also find it very hard to get jobs, some of them don't want to get jobs, and money is hard to come by, unless it is 'state money', yes granted some do have children, but many by different fathers, and very few marry.

/// Perhaps AOG is not having a nice time now. Or perhaps, for some, they are saddened that their best time is long behind them, and that spoils their present and future. ///

I am still having a great time, I just despair at what is going off around me, but then I do not have to join in, I live my life in the way my parents brought me up to, but of course taking the necessary precautions due to today's more violent and unsociable climate.

[emmie]

AOG, i already mentioned that age isn't always the issue, way back in the thread. Some aspects of life then was tough, in fact very tough, if you look at the time just after the war, lot's of men didn't come home, so left widows, many with children, rationing was still on, and for a long while for many it was make and mend do.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// So many of the institutions that form the fabric of this country have demonstrated that they don't deserve the respect that they once had. ///

Exactly my point, the whole fabric of our society has somehow collapsed around our heads, and this country isn't half the country it once was.

What caused this to happen?

[Kromovaracun]

AOG

You have the most ridiculous stereotypes in your head regarding young people today. You're always telling people that they're not qualified to talk about the olden days without direct personal experience, yet that's exactly what you're doing about contemporary youth.

"As regards falling in love (if that is what they call it these days) they don't wait till they are 20, they do so while still at school and have gone through many sexual partners by the time they reach their 20s. "

Whether one falls in love or not, and how many sexual partners one has had beforehand are completely irrelevant to each other. And if young people conduct safe sex (which they actually seem to do more often than the over-45s according to STI statistics), then it is really none of your business.

If you think that contemporary young people don't develop romantic relationships, then you are simply ignorant.

[Brenden]

There is a flaw in your argument Kromo, illegitimate children amongst the young seems now to be the norm (and acceptable) and on the increase, that is not safe sex - think they fall in lust.

[Gromit]

AOG

Your view of modern youth is wrong. You were lucky, after national service, you entered a world of full employment. Youth unemployment is too high now, and those on the scrapheap do recent how the world is screwed up at the moment, and blame the previous generations. Are they wrong? Contrary to what you may read, most school children are not going at it like rabbits. The youth are not on a rollercoaster of sex with many partners. Most have stable, monogamous relationships just like you did and I did at that age.

Most are not getting state money. Most have jobs. Most are happy. And most are having what will be their best times.