Age Old Recipe

I had an interesting lunch conversation today regarding manners in present day society. I don't necessarily have full conversations on this topic frequently, but, quite regularly, I hear remarks voicing sentiments of a similar nature. It is easy to look at the children of a younger generation, be appalled by their behavior, and think to myself, "Things were not that bad when  I was their age." Depending on the behaviors being witnessed it can even cause anxiety thinking the world is headed to hell in a dishevelled hand basket.

Think for a moment. What is more likely:
A. Society is rapidly deteriorating further and further with each generation
or
B. As we age, our perspective changes and our behavioral expectations increase making it appear that we are in a downward spiral.*

This is an age old concern. As far back as 8th Century B.C. There are records of this depressed view of the future of youth. Hesiod  said:

I see no hope for the future of our people if they are dependent on frivolous youth of today, for certainly all youth are reckless beyond words...When I was young, we were taught to be discreet and respectful of elders, but the present youth are exceedingly disrespectful and impatient of restraint.

Socrates is credited with saying in 4th Century B.C.:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

Socrates pupil, Plato, followed with:

 

What is happening to our young people? They disrespect their elders, they disobey their parents. They ignore the law. They riot in the streets inflamed with wild notions. Their morals are decaving. What is to become of them?

 

 

All of my theories are based on my own life experiences. I am not a philosopher and I certainly have no hard evidence on the matter, but I believe the trend of youth behavior looks more like this graph I found from Anxiety Culture:



 

 

Perhaps it is a bit "Glass is half full" of me, but I am inclined to think that as I have grown, my understanding of proper behavior and human interaction has improved. Have I -- dare I say it -- matured?

*All theories are based on my personal life experience. They are not backed by any hard sociological or experimental data. They are developed after significant and long term pondering of all that is found in my repository of knowledge.