Michael Barone Writes: Meet the New Victorians

[4est_4est_Gump]

By almost any standard of behavior, Millennials are more virtuous than the previous generation.

Public policymakers and political pundits tend to focus on problems — understandably, because if things are going right they aren’t thought to need attention. Yet positive developments can teach us things as well, when, for reasons not necessarily clear, great masses of people start to behave more constructively.

One such trend is the better behavior of the young Americans of today compared to those 25 years ago. Almost no one anticipated it, the exception being William Strauss and Neil Howe in their 1991 book, Generations, who named Americans born after 1981 the Millennial generation and predicted that “the tiny boys and girls now playing with Lego blocks” — and those then still unborn — would become “the nation’s next great Civic generation.”

The most obvious evidence of the Millennials’ virtuous behavior is the vast decline in violent crime in the last 25 years. The most crime-prone age and gender cohort — 15- to-25-year-old males — are committing far fewer crimes than that cohort did in 1990.

Statistics tell the dramatic story. In two decades the murder rate fell 49 percent, the forcible-rape rate 33 percent, the robbery rate 48 percent, the aggravated-assault rate 39 percent. Government agencies report that sexual assaults against twelve- to-17-year-olds declined by more than half, and violent victimization of teenagers at school declined 60 percent.

Binge drinking by high-school seniors is lower than at any time since 1976, and sexual intercourse among ninth graders and the percentage of high-school seniors with more than three partners has declined.

...

And today’s young are better behaved despite what blind statistical trends might seem to hint at. Compared to the young Americans of 1990, their ranks include a higher percentage of Hispanics and blacks, who statistically tend to have above-average crime rates. Today’s young are also more likely to come from single-parent households — another high-risk factor. Demographics suggested there would be more bad behavior. Instead, there is much less.

What accounts for this virtuous cycle? ...

My theory is that young people do what is expected of them, in two senses of the word “expected.” One is statistical expectation. Americans in 1990 expected young people, especially from disadvantaged backgrounds, to commit lots of crimes. They had been doing so, after all, for 25 years. But Rudy Giuliani and others adapting his methods reduced crime dramatically, and statistical expectations rapidly changed.

The other sense of the word “expected” is moral expectation. A parent tells a boy he is expected not to shoplift, bully, rob, rape, or kill. She tells a girl she is expected not to sleep around or get pregnant. The parents of the last 25 years grew up in years of high crime, high divorce, and high unmarried births. Evidently they wanted — expected — something better from their own children.

...

... [T]oday’s America, like Victorian England, shows that virtuous cycles are possible as well. People can learn from experience, and those who have seen the downside of bad behavior may choose to behave better.

So, what do you think?

Especially you youngsters.

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/397230/print

 

[Queersetti]

Strauss and Howe were startlingly right about a hell of a lot of things.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

So it appears from this sampling.

I do not know if it was possible to rebel by acting even more horribly...

So the easiest path to rebellion was to be better.

 

[Queersetti]

So it appears from this sampling.

I do not know if it was possible to rebel by acting even more horribly...

So the easiest path to rebellion was to be better.

Their theory of generational cycles was not well received by historians when they first advanced it, but, at least in the short term (and yeah, for historians 25 years is the short term) it's been holding up.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Federal school lunch programs chemically geld them.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Their theory of generational cycles was not well received by historians when they first advanced it, but, at least in the short term (and yeah, for historians 25 years is the short term) it's been holding up.

What do historians know?

They dispute almost everything the other guy says.



I wonder if they have their own Lit forum...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Federal school lunch programs chemically geld them.

There's an insane and kookie assertion.

 

[Busybody]

Michael Barone

I don't read stuff that is written by WHITE GUYS

 

[RobDownSouth]

What do historians know?

They dispute almost everything the other guy says.



I wonder if they have their own Lit forum...

You gonna add "HISTORY BAD!" to your repetoire now, chief?

Gonna get a bit crowded in there with "MATHMATICS (sic) BAD!" and "SCIENCE BAD!" and "EDUCATION BAD!"

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Lets save some time here. Miles apparently laughed at Bobs having been indiscreet enough for someone to locate ordinary pictures of his children.

Miles is (I gather) Jewish.

This gives Bobs the unquestioned right to make anti-Semitic remarks and suggest Miles children die in a fire.

I called him to task for his anti-Semitism.

This gives him the right to openly fantasize about my daughter (he assumes) using cucumbers for masturbation.

Basically, he is a psychopath with borderline personality disorder. He is incapable of feeling actual human emotion so he fakes it and assumes that all of his actions are reasonable and proportionate.

Now we know why the kids could go no lower. The only path left to them was upwards...

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Michael Barone

I don't read stuff that is written by WHITE GUYS

What about white Jews?

 

[CandiCame]

Old people are horrible. That's not rocket science. Every one of you scares the shit out of me. It's why I'm here. With your murdery, rapey, thieving ways. And your somehow pretending that that was a better way of life, both intrigues and confounds me.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Old people are horrible. That's not rocket science. Every one of you scares the shit out of me. It's why I'm here. With your murdery, rapey, thieving ways. And your somehow pretending that that was a better way of life, both intrigues and confounds me.

I've never murdered, raped or stolen.

You must be confusing me with your family wreath...

 

[CandiCame]

I've never murdered, raped or stolen.

You must be confusing me with your family wreath...

I don't know what a family wreath is. That sounds like it might be a real thing that I just don't know about, but it also sounds like it might be an inbreeding joke, which is cleaver, but which I am unwilling to laugh at, because if it is a real thing, but my brain went strait to redneck inbreeding, then I look like the dumbass. And then how will I ever recuperate the loss to my ego? For shame.

 

[RobDownSouth]

"Family Wreath"?
#derp?

 

[Bidin~Time]

Old people are horrible. That's not rocket science. Every one of you scares the shit out of me. It's why I'm here. With your murdery, rapey, thieving ways. And your somehow pretending that that was a better way of life, both intrigues and confounds me.

I just want to say that i have never murdered, nor have I ever stolen, or raped. Neither has my husband or any of our friends or family members. I can't even think of an acquaintance, or an ancestor that would answer yes to any of those things. That you seem to think this is a 'thing' with the older (than you) generation puzzles and saddens me.

 

[RobDownSouth]

I just want to say that i have never murdered, nor have I ever stolen, or raped. Neither has my husband or any of our friends or family members. I can't even think of an acquaintance, or an ancestor that would answer yes to any of those things. That you seem to think this is a 'thing' with the older (than you) generation puzzles and saddens me.

but...but...what's on YOUR "family wreath"?

 

[Bidin~Time]

but...but...what's on YOUR "family wreath"?

MY family wreath would be taken from the leaves of my family tree; thus making my answer the same.

<refrains from doing a smartass hashtag>

 

[CandiCame]

I just want to say that i have never murdered, nor have I ever stolen, or raped. Neither has my husband or any of our friends or family members. I can't even think of an acquaintance, or an ancestor that would answer yes to any of those things. That you seem to think this is a 'thing' with the older (than you) generation puzzles and saddens me.

Those stats support it. So does the entire necessity of the Civil Rights Movement. So it really shouldn't be that difficult of a puzzle.

 

[CandiCame]

but...but...what's on YOUR "family wreath"?

C'mon. If it's an incest joke it's funny.

 

[Bidin~Time]

Those stats support it. So does the entire necessity of the Civil Rights Movement. So it really shouldn't be that difficult of a puzzle.

The first thing I learned in Statistics 101 was how to make any set of numbers say what I wanted them to say; it all depends upon where you want to put the emphasis.

 

[CandiCame]

The first thing I learned in Statistics 101 was how to make any set of numbers say what I wanted them to say; it all depends upon where you want to put the emphasis.

Racism, sexism, violent crime, etc are all less in my generation than in past generations. It's just how we roll. People fought and died for that. You're going to deny their accomplishments just to make your generation look better?

Part of it is expectation; certainly I expect my kid to do better than me. But a lot of it is also advancement. People are normally aggressive because of fear and ignorance. We're more connected so we don't fear things anymore. Of course we still fear, as an emotion, but it's easier to assuade those fears now. We don't have to fear people who are different because we can talk to them.

And, this study is discovering things that psychology and sociology have been saying for years, things like extended families producing more productive, happier children than nuclear families. There are far more factors that just expectations.

 

[eyer]

One dismaying characteristic of the millennials it seems (as difficult a generalization tag as that is to post), is their almost total apathy for being authoritatively/governmentally watched and observed and tracked in all their activities, from birth to, no doubt, their deaths.

No surprise since they are really the first generation to be completely tracked from birth digitally and they've known no other option like the old American standard of the natural right to privacy, which may fully be gone before they even get close to middle age...

...even scarier than their apathy about authoritative/government surveillance is the reason for it: many millenials are said to believe the 24/7 moderation of everyone's activities actually promotes better social behavior.

Of course it does...

...and enforced 6pm-6am curfews across all of America would cripple the crime rate, too.

If millenials already trust government as much as that over their lives, and allow so naturally that government is the supreme arbitrator of moral behavior, then what's been up to now science fiction portrayals of a society full of basically mindless lemmings going about their daily lives totally in accord with what Big Brother dictates, is surely not quite fantasy at all.

I feel so, so sorry for the millenials in that regard: so unconsciously surrendering something so dear because we elders, ourselves so apathetic, too, never instilled them with the glorious, human freeing gifts of individual liberty.

However...

...they do show some really encouraging compassion signs which may bode well for even eventual rebellion against Big Brother to not be out of the question:

The gay marriage thing is an absolute non-political issue to them, which means that millenial government on all levels may eventually consider it a non-issue, too. Which means that as soon as the SC can dictate what it should - that the issue of marriage, regardless of the parties involved, is of no business to the federal government - then the sooner government at all levels can get their noses totally out of individuals' sexual lives.

And then there is the abortion issue...

...it seems many millenials view human life as human life and have a difficult time believing that it should be so convenient to kill. Which means America's declaratory, founding principle of every individual's unalienable right to life may just be getting some significantly new life after all.

 

[Bidin~Time]

Racism, sexism, violent crime, etc are all less in my generation than in past generations. It's just how we roll. People fought and died for that. You're going to deny their accomplishments just to make your generation look better?

Part of it is expectation; certainly I expect my kid to do better than me. But a lot of it is also advancement. People are normally aggressive because of fear and ignorance. We're more connected so we don't fear things anymore. Of course we still fear, as an emotion, but it's easier to assuade those fears now. We don't have to fear people who are different because we can talk to them.

And, this study is discovering things that psychology and sociology have been saying for years, things like extended families producing more productive, happier children than nuclear families. There are far more factors that just expectations.

I never argued the premise of the article, Candi. I just stated that my particular circle of family, friends, and ancestors didn't fit your generalization, which you made to seem to be your personal experience. I maybe i should have out and out said what I was thinking, which is, if those experiences are common within your your circle of family and friends, then I am sorry that has been your experience.

 

[CandiCame]

One dismaying characteristic of the millennials it seems (as difficult a generalization tag as that is to post), is their almost total apathy for being authoritatively/governmentally watched and observed and tracked in all their activities, from birth to, no doubt, their deaths.

No surprise since they are really the first generation to be completely tracked from birth digitally and they've known no other option like the old American standard of the natural right to privacy, which may fully be gone before they even get close to middle age...

...even scarier than their apathy about authoritative/government surveillance is the reason for it: many millenials are said to believe the 24/7 moderation of everyone's activities actually promotes better social behavior.

Of course it does...

...and enforced 6pm-6am curfews across all of America would cripple the crime rate, too.

If millenials already trust government as much as that over their lives, and allow so naturally that government is the supreme arbitrator of moral behavior, then what's been up to now science fiction portrayals of a society full of basically mindless lemmings going about their daily lives totally in accord with what Big Brother dictates, is surely not quite fantasy at all.

I feel so, so sorry for the millenials in that regard: so unconsciously surrendering something so dear because we elders, ourselves so apathetic, too, never instilled them with the glorious, human freeing gifts of individual liberty.

However...

...they do show some really encouraging compassion signs which may bode well for even eventual rebellion against Big Brother to not be out of the question:

The gay marriage thing is an absolute non-political issue to them, which means that millenial government on all levels may eventually consider it a non-issue, too. Which means that as soon as the SC can dictate what it should - that the issue of marriage, regardless of the parties involved, is of no business to the federal government - then the sooner government at all levels can get their noses totally out of individuals' sexual lives.

And then there is the abortion issue...

...it seems many millenials view human life as human life and have a difficult time believing that it should be so convenient to kill. Which means America's declaratory, founding principle of every individual's unalienable right to life may just be getting some significantly new life after all.

All I could think was

http://25.media.tumblr.com/0e6aaff6e49b8bee9ac9eb32a44d6260/tumblr_mu4dsvJAc31r4yh8wo6_r1_250.gif
http://24.media.tumblr.com/ca7ce85226f8a382760bdd1adad5d3cf/tumblr_mu4dsvJAc31r4yh8wo4_r1_250.gif
http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g246/sey115/tumblr_mu6cvoPHGK1ruhi5ho2_250_zpsf278136d.gif