Pretty interesting thread.
I grew up in a very provincial, agricultural locale in NW Iowa. My father, a decorated WWII vet, grew up through the Depression, the last of eight kids on a farm and I don't think my Dutch immigrant grandparents-his parents- had the time or energy to pay attention.
He was a quiet farm kid who became a book worm then a taciturn father and professor. He could paint houses, change the oil, and mow the lawn but his aptitude and interest in those things went no further than that. My siblings and I are very similar in that respect though I differ completely in having been a gun nut and hunter since I could lug my hand-me-down Daisy Red Rider around the neighborhood with neither instruction nor a mentor. Somehow I survived partially due to the forgiving Mayberryesque environment I grew up in.
Part of what I think we are observing now in the culture and among the young is the result of modernism followed by postmodernism that is being driven by the cultural elites. When you say there is no truth, wrong or right, jettison Judeau-Christian values, and that reality is determined by your feelings, there is a great leveling of what is good and evil ("they" cannot even say Muslim terrorist let alone that it is from the Pit of Hell), a denial of American exceptionalism and an the embracing of multiculturalism when we know that while we believe in personal equality, all cultures are not equal or add positively to that of another. We have certainly observed that. The elites determining what the culture should embrace in beliefs and world view, Marxists used to call cultural hegemony. Probably still do.
The result of this denial of our traditional values has been stunted public education and turned it into a social engineering process. The constant and instant communication of our technology age enables the cultural centers to impose on us what we call political correctness which is really has a dampening effect on the First Amendment right without being seen as overtly doing it. It's a step toward fascism and our youth in the 20's and 30's know no better and generally are ignorant of our history and have not been taught in our schools to think. Social engineering is indoctrination.
It's a generalization to be sure and there are exceptions but the trajectory we are on is not an uplifting one.
'Course I just had a birthday and probably qualify for curmudgeon status.
