The End is Nigh

I believe it's the right (or, at least, the clear determination) of every generation to complain to anyone who will listen that the world is in much worse shape than when they were young, and that the end of days is surely approaching.

There are some moments, though, when it seems that, as we begin the second decade of the 21st Century, this really could be the case.

I don't think at any time in my life have I read so many news reports that leave me speechless at the behavior of some of my fellow primates. Below are two links to stories, one from the US and one from the UK, that have struck me dumb:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/08/05/florida.boxing.baby/index.html?hpt=T2

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100804/tuk-baby-thrown-in-front-of-bus-in-attac-45dbed5_1.html

Perhaps it's selective recollection on my part, but I simply don't remember things like this happening in my earlier years: Wanton acts of extreme cruelty without any discernible benefit for the perpetrator. It's one thing to mug someone for their wallet or jewelry, there at least is an arguable financial upside for the thief, but to throw a baby into the path of an oncoming bus seems not only abhorrent and evil but also pointless: what is this act intended to achieve?

I try to find humor in most situations, but there are some (the above salient examples) in which no bright side can be located. Nor should it. Human beings have always behaved terribly towards one another in the pursuit of persuasive goals like power, money, territory, and religious conviction (the Holocaust, the genocides in Sudan, Rwanda, and Bosnia, Saddam Hussein's massacre of the Kurdish population of Iraq, the list goes on and on and on...and on...), but there now seems to be a particular viciousness exhibited between what one might term as 'ordinary' citizens. Just regular people like you and I but with their morality turned off, they don't feel pity or remorse and seem unafraid of repercussion.

We could argue the sociological reasons behind this phenomenon until we are blue in the face; the breakdown of the family unit, crumbling education systems, the complete divorce of effort, attainment and reward in all areas of life, the neutering of authority figures...this list also stretches off into the murky distance, but unless we take a long, hard look at what is happening and why, our future and that of our children is in serious peril.

There has been talk of lost generations before now but the threat to those born since the turn of the millennium feels more immediate and far more sinister. This is not just a loosening of morals or spirited rebellion against the establishment, it is a complete breakdown of social order where compassion is construed as weakness, and laws are essentially meaningless...unless, of course, you are someone who tries to abide by them, but that is another discussion altogether.