[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Social engineering is what got us to where we are now.

Welfare programs originated in the 1960s truly appear they were designed to break up families and encourage the least equipped to raise children by rewarding for having more. I like the idea of prison reform, but maybe it would be more efficient to spend the money on these guys smarter when they are younger and the possibility of redeeming them is not quite as remote.

People like to blame movies, tv and video games for the rise violence and sometimes shocking lack of respect for life. The media hypes every atrocity like a carnival barker, and we don't educate them like we used to, so they fall for some really stupid stuff. I always tell people it is not one thing, it is everything. You are a fat bastard hyper(tensive+cholesterol+glycemic) with heel pain. First off, you are carrying more weight than you should. Colin Chapman had this right. Excess weight stresses the chassis, so your foot/knee/back hurt. More stress on the pump, so you have high blood pressure. Poor eating habits, so your sugar and cholesterol get jacked. Pancreas can't keep up with the sugar, so it starts crapping out. Cholesterol starts sticking to the plumbing, so your arteries get hard and narrow, taking out the eyes, kidneys and finishing off the heart. Bang, you are a 60 year old diabetic with retinopathy, nepropathy looking at open heart surgery, what are you worrying about your foot.

Mr Higgins, I think that it is not one thing it is everything applies to more than your health. We have devalued life itself with our society using many different tools. Movies and video games glorify killing and mayhem. You can play the knockout game and be a Youtube sensation. You can become famous for mass murder. The blonde woman on the news with the perfect teeth will talk about you and show a picture of you looking cool in your leather jacket if you kill enough people in a spectacular enough fashion.

I think maybe he is not so far off with the abortion thing being a part of it. We have made it like getting your teeth cleaned, scraping away something insignificant. It has become a right, something to speak of with pride and fury.

How could this not contribute to how much life has been devalued in our society?

I think the optic at play here, and at play all too often in our society, is that we have convinced ourselves that this is a "modern" problem, a result of our decaying society and moral values. I disagree. We have been encumbered with violent, recidivist criminals for the entire history of mankind. I'm not convinced it's any worse (or better) today than it has ever been. I do believe that we have dealt more effectively with them in other times and places. Our current "kid gloves" approach is, I believe, a modern phenomena. One that has become glaringly apparent to be ineffective. I think we all agree on that.