tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post5143366539212949010..comments2024-03-26T06:17:49.527-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: American AnomieStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-36526371913975498992015-03-14T01:47:39.765-07:002015-03-14T01:47:39.765-07:00Breaking things is easy. Building (or re-building)...Breaking things is easy. Building (or re-building) them is hard.<br /><br />The old ways (40s & 50s) were cruel for many (blacks, gays, vulnerable children). But we could have fixed, not broken them.<br /><br />And just who is "we" kemo sabe? Not most of us. 97% of us drafted in VN era, reported for duty. We don't rule, legislate, or make laws or change social mores or destroy millions of jobs or guard the border.<br /><br />I talked to an old teacher at Grayslake High. She's retired, but volunteers. Good school, good teachers when I graduated in 64.<br /><br />She said, "You kids wanted to learn. Most kids now don't".<br /><br />How do you re-build that? I'm getting v pessimistic.<br /><br />Stuart! I'm shocked! "discrete"??? -- Rich LaraAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-50858324997915148682015-03-12T13:49:01.932-07:002015-03-12T13:49:01.932-07:00And especially not from The Won.And especially not from The Won.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-9368780417425738612015-03-12T13:48:36.002-07:002015-03-12T13:48:36.002-07:00"Politics is honest discussions in the facts ..."Politics is honest discussions in the facts where you assume not all virtue is on "your side", and all vice, on the other side." I'm not seeing that from the Dems.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-4366400268499539702015-03-12T11:51:02.299-07:002015-03-12T11:51:02.299-07:00p.s. Dennis, there's a difference between part...p.s. Dennis, there's a difference between partisanship and politics. Partisanship is spin and posturing to distort the facts. Politics is honest discussions in the facts where you assume not all virtue is on "your side", and all vice, on the other side.<br /><br />Here's a related commentary, a book by Isabel V. Sawhill called "Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex & Parenthood without Marriage" and a related talk. <br /><br />I suppose family planning is a liberal plot to destroy America, but if it isn't there's probably something worth talking about here.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9pXuE6L4g<br /><br />http://www.amazon.com/Generation-Unbound-Drifting-Parenthood-Marriage/dp/081572635X/ref=sr_1_1<br />---------<br />Over half of all births to young adults in the United States now occur outside of marriage, and many are unplanned. The result is increased poverty and inequality for children. The left argues for more social support for unmarried parents; the right argues for a return to traditional marriage.<br /><br />In Generation Unbound, Isabel V. Sawhill offers a third approach: change "drifters" into "planners." In a well-written and accessible survey of the impact of family structure on child well-being, Sawhill contrasts "planners," who are delaying parenthood until after they marry, with "drifters," who are having unplanned children early and outside of marriage. These two distinct patterns are contributing to an emerging class divide and threatening social mobility in the United States.<br />------------------<br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-30976717355409917172015-03-12T05:32:57.735-07:002015-03-12T05:32:57.735-07:00I have to admit that I revel in Ares "digging...I have to admit that I revel in Ares "digging rhetorical holes" for himself. If politics was not a major factor then a significant part of his commentary lacks any reason to be stated. "Ergo it does not follow."Dennishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14962996070458991675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-64955445138582395332015-03-12T01:21:09.092-07:002015-03-12T01:21:09.092-07:00Sam L, David Brooks has long been writing against ...Sam L, David Brooks has long been writing against the limits of moral relativism, for at least the last 10 years, at least looking for some sort of balancing tensions to avoid all fundamentalisms...<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/26/opinion/26brooks.html<br />------<br />...<br />The central weakness of the liberal case is that it is morally thin. Once you say that it is up to individuals or families to draw their own lines separating life from existence, and reasonable people will differ, then you are taking a fundamental issue out of the realm of morality and into the realm of relativism and mere taste.<br /><br />You are saying, as liberals do say, that society should be neutral and allow people to make their own choices. You are saying, as liberals do say, that we should be tolerant and nonjudgmental toward people who make different choices.<br /><br />What begins as an appealing notion - that life and death are joined by a continuum - becomes vapid mush, because we are all invited to punt when it comes time to do the hard job of standing up for common principles, arguing right and wrong, and judging those who make bad decisions. <br /><br />You end up exactly where many liberals ended up this week, trying to shift arguments away from morality and on to process.<br />...<br />Then, if social conservatives tried to push their moral claims, you'd find liberals accusing them of turning this country into a theocracy - which is an effort to cast all moral arguments beyond the realm of polite conversation.<br /><br />Once moral argument is abandoned, there are no ethical checks, no universal standards, and everything is left to the convenience and sentiments of the individual survivors. <br /><br />What I'm describing here is the clash of two serious but flawed arguments. The socially conservative argument has tremendous moral force, but doesn't accord with the reality we see when we walk through a hospice. The socially liberal argument is pragmatic, but lacks moral force.<br />-----------<br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-4969028723809205442015-03-11T14:45:33.045-07:002015-03-11T14:45:33.045-07:00Is Brooks renouncing progressivism? Kinda sorrta s...Is Brooks renouncing progressivism? Kinda sorrta sounds that way.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-63494380884060426522015-03-11T09:25:53.735-07:002015-03-11T09:25:53.735-07:00Really, why does everything have to be partisan? I...Really, why does everything have to be partisan? I don't understand. <br /><br />But maybe we can get back to Brooks and Robert Putnam?<br /><br />Like Brooks says: Reintroducing norms will require, first, a moral vocabulary. These norms weren’t destroyed because of people with bad values. They were destroyed by a plague of nonjudgmentalism, which refused to assert that one way of behaving was better than another. People got out of the habit of setting standards or understanding how they were set.<br /><br />In this regard there's a local nonprofit to Minneapolis called "Search Institute" which looked a "community values" 20 years ago, and had open meetings and each city picked their core values. I remember going to those meetings aroud 1995, although the only visible effect was my sitting put up "Values" signs with our 7 core values listed, with a pretty rainbow!<br />http://www.search-institute.org/about<br /><br />Maybe the schools were more active, and they found 40 "assets" that helped kids succeed:<br />http://www.search-institute.org/content/40-developmental-assets-adolescents-ages-12-18<br /><br />On a different front for young parents, there's ECFE (Early child and Family Education) in Minnesota where they'd have free daycare for parents, and classes, although its probably 90% women attending. Perhaps it has helped keep Minnesota near top in the nation in many measures?<br /><br />http://education.state.mn.us/MDE/StuSuc/EarlyLearn/ECFE/<br />------------<br />Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) is a program for all Minnesota families with children between the ages of birth to kindergarten entrance. The program is offered through Minnesota public school districts. ECFE is based on the idea that the family provides a child's first and most significant learning environment and parents are a child's first and most important teachers. ECFE works to strengthen families. ECFE's goal is to enhance the ability of all parents and other family members to provide the best possible environment for their child's learning and growth. <br />---------<br /><br />But what if all these efforts are only half-way there because they help mothers and not fathers?<br /><br />And how do we help people who slide through high school and get some income, and a girlfriend, and poof a family is born?<br /><br />How do we reduce unmarried couples from having kids too young?<br /><br />How do we prevent people from going onto the "easy credit for everything" debt escalator which guarantees short term pleasure for long term pain?<br /><br />Can we dare set limits on access to high interest credit cards to poor people?<br /><br />Can we dare eliminate pay day loan companies that exploit poor people?<br /><br />Can we dare set limits on the size of our softdrinks without the libertarians crying out against tyrany?<br /><br />Can we dare support mass transit so not every person over the age of 16 needs their own car to survive modern life?<br /><br />Can we dare declare Sunday as a day of rest, and allow employees the freedom to refuse to work on Sundays?<br /><br />There's lots of ideas, but with every single one of them, someone is going to say "But I want my freedom" and once you allow all the loopholes for personal freedom, we're back to a free-for-all where discipline is a daily chore of willpower for every citizen, and the devil shouting in every ear "Oh, you deserve it." and on and on...<br /><br />Ares Olympushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09726811306826601686noreply@blogger.com