I agree with what you are saying. It seems to me however that the problem is two fold. First we seem to have an utter lack of personal responsibility and second a refusal to reason things out to the obvious conclusion. As this younger generation is suffering from both of these afflictions at once things are more and more rapidly spinning out of control.

Lol. I don't know. I'm a Scoutmaster and I work with 12- and 13-year-olds every week.

Really? you know all about it???? anyone who claims they know everything expose themselves as ignorant, you speak for everybody everywhere?
MANY weak minds out there, men and women are actually proud of their ignorance, so proud they are unwilling to even consider looking into anything that falls outside of their normalcy bias. I spend each day encouraging folks with concerning information believing that they would be complelled, nope, most met are 'thumbsuckers'

It's not that hard. Just don't settle for the first thing that comes along, and have some standards about what you want in a mate, so you know what to look for.

In the Jewish community, 12 year old girls, and 13 year old boys endure a bat or bar mitzva, which makes them adults in the community. From that point on, they're required to think like adults, and as you can see, most of them do just that. Maybe we should take a page from the Jewish example if we want to head off the kind of behavior described in the article.

Stop insulting 12 year olds.

The schmuck in the story never once was taught the realities of life. Why did the girl's parents let that loser live in their house?!? Why didn't the girl get rid of that ass? Everyone around him was enabling his fantasy. Why should he change? What was in place to prevent such behavior? Why wasn't he living in his parents' house? Could it be that they weren't coddling him, but his girlfriend's parents were willing to do so? Stories like this just leave me wracked with yawns, because it's nothing but drama; if I want drama, I'll go to the movies.

Oh, my!
When TSHTF they will be without any hope for survival.
( It seems nature AND stupidity have a way of culling the herd...)

Thank you for this post :-)

"What would life have been like 500 years ago if every young adult said to their parents, “I refuse to work on the farm, nobody should have to work hard, I want to just sit around and think”. "
The amazing thing is technology has made it possible for people to work very little and enjoy the same lifestyle people worked hard for 500 years ago. As the article points out, though, the people saying this want cars, iPhones, and an affluent life without working for it.

Funny you should use an example like that... We moved to Raleigh, NC, a bit over ten years ago. My wife described the area as "The sophistication of the Northeast meets the Genteelness of the South."
I hold doors for anyone and everyone who is near enough to the door I've opened and they all seem to feel comfortable with that.
Yep, I wouldn't expect that in NYC, but not expecting it, it might not bother me, other than a disappointment that more folks there don't enjoy the 'social lubrication of such acts that let us all glide more smoothly through life.'
I had a coworker in San Jose some 40 years ago who'd walk into the office, go to his desk and start work every day. Not so much as a good morning or hello. "He was there to work," he put it. One day I mentioned the "social lubrication" concept to him and amazingly enough, over the coming weeks, he started to use words like "Good Morning" and "Hello" and it really looked as if he was happier during those 'working hours' too!
Ah, well... life, cultures, etc...

Yes, of course pushing a kid off the seesaw isn't ok, but beyond that imo, it has become an overall neuterization of both genders. No wonder transgenders seem to be proliferating- male and female roles are so confused today. Just as long as everyone gets a trophy it's all ok !

I'd love to talk to a sociologist about it, but my guess would be the 'women's lib' movement, which ( being female ) had a good intention, but some really bad implementation. For example, poor men, tried to be gentleman, holding open doors or relinquishing seats on public transit, only to be sneered at by "liberated" women who can open their own door ! I think those gals confused the word 'liberated' with 'bitchy', so men, for the intervening generations, have been given TONS of mixed signals ( on a date do I pay or not pay ? Open the door or not ? Etc) and have mostly just collectively said screw it. So we now have no gentlemen, because we have no ladies. Except maybe in the south where I think women might be smarter about how to navigate such things.

It has been said that the whole point of automation and robotics is to eventually take physical labor out of the hands of humans. But there's a caveat. How long will it be before those same machines develop the ability to do creative thinking? Some say never. As the saying goes, never say never. At the end of the 19th century it was commonly believed that man could never travel faster than a mile a minute. If the above comes true, then humans will become superfluous. The only answer to keep that from happening is productive work. Productive work means everything from the arts, to science. Otherwise, in the future, humanity will be no ore significant that a flesh pudding.

Actually,being told not to be loud, rough, etc.
is good advice, another way of advising 'good
manners' and applies to girls equally. But I get your point......too sad; too bad.

Actually, I think self-discipline was the process of realizing that if you didn't work your butt off to grow food, you would starve. There are few motivations quite as powerful as simple self-preservation. The problem is that our society has gone out of its way to eliminate that (IMO) very healthy need for self-preservation by presenting social welfare programs and even prisons as surrogates.

I fear that the only way that society-in-general will return to seeing themselves as their own owners - not only the solutions but the causes of their own problems so that they will muster up the courage necessary to act - will be an economic collapse. And the way we are going, the next one is going to make the Great Depression look tame.

There must have been a time — eons ago, in the remotest and most benighted prehistory of our species — when the concept of "self-discipline" had not yet been arrived at. Since millions (or billions?) of our kind are plainly hurtling in that backwards direction, as fast as they can go — do we have any inkling at all of how and when some long-forgotten prehistoric life-form (maybe not — or not yet — a human) managed to arrive at the concept of "self-discipline" (and ways to instill it) in the first place? Whatever was done, the first time around to spread the notion of self-discipline (and of effective ways to instill it) may need to be RE-done (and not lost or undone, this second time around, now that the work of that forgotten eons-ago "first self-disciplined one" is being erased at every moment).

Well said. There is nothing like the pain of other-discipline to teach one self-discipline - and most effective when one knows that the discipline was entirely merited. I fear, however, that many of today's generation have grown up so self-entitled that the notion of self-discipline is utterly foreign. I look at the Bernie Sanders supporters and only wish they had spent a few years living in a foreign nation to help them properly appreciate what the United States has to offer.

I really hope she ditches the guy. He's a 12-year-old in a 19-yr-old's body - probably expecting someone else to pay for his video gaming and party life.

I'm just glad my daughters know what to look for in a young man: someone with a strong work ethic, good skills, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to get a good education.

+1 or more for realizing that and making that comment.
For generations, women were seen as being inferior to men in pretty much ALL ways, despite evidence to the contrary.
Recently, say, in the past three or four decades, they've demonstrated their capabilities to compete on men's 'playing fields' and tie or beat a lot of the men!
If the 'men' can't stand the 'competition,' get those pussies 'out of the kitchen.' They don't belong there in the first place, and their whining just demonstrates their lack of ability to compete.
Or is 'ohio' suggesting that Education's "Goal" should NOT be to encourage Every Person to be the best at what they can be the best AT?
Very puzzling train of thought, imnsho...

And what would you guess was the origine/cause of that childhood indoc?

I'd like to be able to agree with you, but I think the indoc starts in childhood to boys these days - being told not to be so rough or loud or aggressive. Sadly, I think shifted society norms have squashed masculinity out of men. Dare I say - "Caitlin" Jenner !?

Certainly not all of them. And having a good set of parents can overcome the indoctrination. But the odds of a John Galt coming out of the modern educational system is lower than it used to be.

and it isn't just the u.s. which is losing it. . take a look
around the planet. . ISIS fights and tears things down;;;
the Belgians pretend at life;;; the Pope decries capitalism.
we are losing it. . if it weren't for gulcher-like people,
the planet's human life would collapse. -- j
.

Hello kategladstone,
Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin used the term “polyezniy idiot” or “useful idiot” to describe sympathizers in the West who blindly supported Communist leaders.
It is a mental state, born of flights of fancy, utopian dreams and propaganda.
Respectfully,
O.A.