there is somewhat less respect for authority these days.
I can think of a few possible reasons for this. Teachers (authority figures for children 7-17) are not allowed many tools to enforce their authority. The strap, or the ruler, or any other corporal punishment are no longer allowed. About the worst punishment the school system can hand out is expulsion. We know, intellectually, that ten years later that punishment will have far worse effects than any reasonable corporal punishmen could have. But it doesn't have the same educational effect!
Also, households with two working parents are more and more common now. Which means that both parents are more tired and less inclined to spend time with their children. So the moral education of the children is left more and more to the schools.
At the same time, authority figures are seen more and more as fallible, immoral creatures. The Monica affair would likely have been ignored by the press, and left alone as bad publicity by the opposition, if it had happened back in the sixties, to JFK. (And who's to say it didn't?) |
