Basically, I am asking questions that I believe need urgent answers. I have had the theory for a long time that the reason we were able to go to the moon, design computers, and achieve so much in the 20th century, was because each successive generation since the dawn of time has passed on skills and intelligence through their genes. I know that this is obvious, but to my worried mind it has an unpleasant corollary. I come from a generation that was relatively honest, reasonably hard-working, enjoyed simple pleasures, and without even thinking about it, had high moral standards. That was in the 20s and 30s.
I said that I was worried, and I believe with reason, not for myself or even mine, but for the nation as a whole, because those standards that we took for granted, have been watered down, twisted out of shape, and the world is an entirely different place. I’m not suggesting that there was no crime, greed, and malpractice, but the degree as a percentage was minuscule by today’s standards. I admit that the rewards for the majority were poor, but as their expectations were commensurate it wasn’t a problem.
A number of things are outstanding, we have greater global communication, moral standards at all levels, which to some extent are engendered by religion, have reduced, as has religion itself, and especially as it has also become more of a political tool. In a rush to be unique, when so much in the past was of such a high standard, I believe even our aesthetic has dwindled. Those in charge seem to take it for granted that in certain elements of our society, criminality is inevitably endemic. This alone shows a level of acceptance, which in itself is criminal. We are having criminality and mindless violence as a daily diet, parochially and worldwide, in low places and high places. Is this primarily because those with influence or by situation, are greedy, selfish and irresponsible, or would it have been inevitable with the increase in population, and outside influences?
It is not my business what all these people are doing, but like the rest of us, I have to bear the upshot of their actions. What worries me even more, is if there is this tremendous change in society, and my proposition about the genes is correct, are we now in a different spiral from that which I was born into, and if so, where will the spiral take us? I have said previously that we are in the incredible era of celebrity worship. Youngsters always admired film actors, sportsman and possibly the extremely wealthy, with no hope of achieving the status. Over the last 30 or so years, commercial changes brought on by high-pressure communication, have altered all that, the celebrities now seem to have more sway, their excesses emblazoned, almost applauded, and perhaps aped. In other words, have our values totally changed, not for the better, as one look at the opening page of broadband demonstrates?
There is some hope. I know many families where the genes have successively produced cleverer, well mannered, and considerate children, generation upon generation. The question that I find unanswerable, however, is whether this is still the norm when one sees and reads the terrible headlines from around the world. If we, in Britain, are to come out of this credit crunch successfully, we must harness the abilities of these young people, train them and give them a future, as a priority, because they are the future. Our manufacturing ability must be enhanced, we must stop farming out a lot of our production to be manufactured overseas for profit, which translates as greed, before our ability to manufacture totally disappears, even if we have to pay more for the product. In some ways this culture of greed and selfishness must be overcome, by the example that success is not measured by popularity, overexposure, and excess, but by respect, diligence, and a desire to achieve for its own sake, rather than popularity. Whether this would be accepted, or is even achievable today, is open to question.