I'm afraid I don't get it, but then I've never been to the States. Whatever that "cultural thang" is, it needs to be changed.
My "macro" theories of what is going on in the USA listed below. The problems with our violence in youth stems from a culmination of the following:
1. The "war on drugs" ....yes, the ying and yang of it. People still do drugs so an entire system of selling/transporting/packaging/creating it exists in an underground sort of way. This creates a violent society and a gangs.
2. Welfare where minorities were able to 'collect' only if the household consisted of single mom's raising children (as reportedly happened during the 60's and 70's). This provokes a breakdown of a family structure.
3. Any race that harbors resentment of it's treatment for generations about things that happened in the past. This provokes anger which will be unleashed invariably. Right or wrong, correct or incorrect---> it is what it is and there are more than one race that I feel experiences this. And I feel there are people that purposely stir this up for political reasons. Some suspect that our leaders want to 'divide and conquer'.....but who knows?
4. Private prisons that make money based on prison counts (i.e. how many prisoners do they have = more money) and how they can keep them in jail so the prisons themselves stay funded. This additionally facilitates repeat offenders (recidivism). Overcrowded public prisons let the offenders out too early which is another problem.
5. Violent video games: yes, I believe they desensitize and almost 'brainwash' our youth into violence. These videos have a rating on them to deter youngsters who are too impressionable to watch them. Heed the ratings, please!
6. Social Media, Music, and Hollywood: Yep, I'm lumping them together 'cause they are so meaningless and yet are so responsible for directing the social norms of the day. Anything goes nowadays and bad behavior is glorified.
7. It's a 2-income society due to inflation (that is, if a marriage even survives; we're at a 50% divorce rate). So who is really raising our youth? Who has time? And what will become of a teen who can't cut it in school?
8. The decline of neighborhoods. "It takes a village to raise a child".....where's our villages? We have either urban sprawl or we have cities. There are few true neighborhoods left.
9. The decline of popularity in churches. Believe or not believe in a higher power---> somehow it gives many a conscience not to kill if they believe. It's one of the 'biggie' rules; thou shall not kill. Attendance at church is shrinking.
10. Income disparity. We are a nation of 'haves' and 'have nots'. The American Dream is a remote fairy tale for most as it is a true exception for an individual to get out of the ghetto. It is an exception to break the mold of a previous generation (alcoholism, lack of higher education, single-parent, welfare, etc)
11. America has historically been a violent nation. It started out that way to begin with (1776) and we have been involved in most major wars all over the world for hundreds of years now. Many Americans don't want to be involved in all these wars but we don't get to vote on it---we blink our eyes and our leaders have our boys marching in! We have a fairly frail sense of culture 'cause we are a melting pot of many cultures due to massive immigration out of Europe and Asia and the importing of slaves. I'd like to think America was a true 'melt' but maybe it wasn't? It is a lot to expect of people to not clash based on our quick growth and expansion as a nation with so much input from folks all over the world. Maybe it wasn't as successful as we'd like to believe?
But I feel that we need to have research and stats to look at the data and then try to address where the root causes of our violent society lie.
Please don't confuse the USA with anywhere else.....we are like an 'experiment' in some ways.
And the violence is getting very bad......I'm sorry to say.
Thank you all for listening to my long-winded theories about American violence and our youth. All moo.
