Reply #29: Not a Golden Age Myth [View All]

[malthaussen]

It's a reasonable thought that the OP may be based more on rose-colored memories than reality, and certainly the point of immediate access to bad behavior through 24/7 media coverage is well-taken. But there are a couple of other considerations to take into account.

The population of the Earth has doubled since I was born. If there are a given percentage of barbarians born in each generation, then the simple doubling of population will create a greater incidence of barbaric acts, and thus a greater incidence of reportage. Then there is the "rat population threshold" problem -- the rate of incidence of barbaric behavior might also be going up as a function of increased population pressure, thus creating even more incidents which can be spread all over the Internet.

Then there is anecdotal evidence, which is what is most subject to the "Golden Age" influence that you address. One of the other problems with anecdotal evidence is also that one must consider who is reminiscing and how their particular environment and experiences may have differed from another's. For example, in my schools there were bullies in sufficiency, but no one ever beat up kids, stole their lunch money, and locked them in their lockers. One might argue that incidents of that nature occurring now or at some other time demonstrate an increased degree of antisocial behavior from what was present earlier; OTOH maybe I just went to nice schools.

Yet some anecdotal evidence is also verifiable in other ways. For example, NASCAR drivers recently refused to meet the POTUS due to disagreement with his political views. The same thing happened when members of the Ryder Cup golf team (the team that represents the US in international competition!) refused to meet with Mr Clinton circa 1990. That refusal generated quite a bit of comment at the time, because it was the first time on record professional athletes had refused a Presidential invitation. Therefore we might conclude, since that was the first such incident, some deterioration of manners kicking in around 1990, at least among privileged white country club children. Many golfers of more seasoned vintage were quite critical of their younger colleagues, arguing that such a thing "would never have happened in their day." There is of course a critical difference between "would" and "did," nevertheless, such a thing never had occurred in their day.

There has never been a Golden Age, and one can produce plenty of evidence of barbaric conduct from the Sixties or any other decade of one's choice. I reckon one would have to get himself a fat grant from the government or a private institution, do some computer and spreadsheet work with interviews and statistical analysis, and write a monograph to produce an "objective" answer to this question. I wouldn't be surprised if someone already has, although I haven't seen one. Pour moi, I believe I am capable of a tolerable amount of judgement as to whether or not my memories are tainted by nostalgia, weltschmertz, or schadenfreude, and so am reasonably comfortable with my subjective impression that people are less "civil" than they used to be. But remember, all human conduct is subject to the tyranny of the bell curve.

-- Mal