I think we have all heard the stories of our grandparents, and parents, on how life was different when they were growing up, and living their lives. Much of that culture change can be attributed to changing technology. My grandmother was actually born on a covered wagon, as the family completed their trip on the Oregon Trail. Travel my automobile was non-existent. Roads… not in the sense that we think of them today. Train, only for the well off.
Much of the culture change is also based on the values and fear of “the people”. I think that most of you have a pretty good idea of what I mean when I say values. Basic, traditional, American values of self, of family, and of community.
What do I mean when I say fear? Well, somewhere along the line in the past 50 years or so our culture has shifted and I intuitively believe that part of that shift was caused by fear. Could I pinpoint the root cause, could I point to a tipping point or event that might have generated that fear? I wish I could. It would be nice to tie this hypothesis up with a bow. All I can point to are symptoms and anecdoteal evidence.
Over at We The Armed, there is thread going “Memories of The Good Old Days”. There are a lot of interesting thoughts there. One of them that kicked some of these thoughts loose in my noggin is this:
I’m 37 and things have really changed. When I was a kid in the single digits we ran around town with pellet guns. When I was barely into the double digits we all had 10/22s which we adorned with as much crap from the Ram-Line catalog as financially possible. We wandered all over town and through the countryside with our .22s and spent time shooting rats at the dump or terrorizing the woodland creatures in season. We’d buy entire bricks of ammo at the store without so much as a second glance from the clerk. Now days five or six 12 year old boys toting semi-automatic “assault rifles” buying 6 or 7 thousand rounds of ammo would result in the activation of multiple SWAT teams and eventually end with some bill named after someone being passed. The Precious Roy Pre-Teen Militia Prevention Act or something.
In high school we built crossbows, muzzleloaders and gun cabinets in shop class. Probably 60-80% of trucks and cars driven to school had rifles or shotguns behind the seat or in the trunk. Heaven help a whackjob who decided to shoot up our school. There was more firepower in the parking lot than was possessed by the city and county police. Knives were simple tools or fashion accessories. Everyone carried a knife of some sort. In the 5th grade until high school boot knives were all the rage. If you were poor you had one of those cheap Pakistani imports and if you had a bit more money to spend you had a Gerber Mark I or II. In elementary school the big thing was to keep a .22 round in the tag of your levi jacket. Remington Yellow Jacket and Hornets were the most popular. Those truncated bullets looked cool you know. A regular round nosed bullet was a fashion faux pas unless it was at least a coated hollowpoint or something. A kid with a bullet in school these days would be expelled and subjected to psychotropic drugs and extensive deprogramming.
It’s kind of funny, because yesterday there were actually some kids in the neighborhood out playing with some cap guns… and it put a smile on my face.