Reality Percentages

All throughout history, some folks have said over and over things like "The youth are going to hell in a hand basket".

I was reading the newspaper years ago and there was a great big long tirade about this very subject. The author was talking about how the young people of that day and time had lost all respect for their elders. How they were beyond redemption and hope and needed to be handled with an iron hand to relearn these things. It was quite a long piece and as I was reading it, I thought to myself that the author must be some politician or the other mouthing off to get people to vote for him, so he could be the one to force these wonderful changes on our wayward and misled youth, to make them good, contributing citizens again. Well, when I finally got to the end of the piece, guess who the author was? It was Adolph Hitler! Turns out that was one of the main themes of his political platform back then. He was saying that a lot of people and especially the youth were falling apart and losing their humanity. He was saying if the people elected him, he would whip all those discontents back in shape and save their way of life. Well we now know how well that worked out, don't we?

Years later, I found out that Socrates pretty much said the same thing about people in general and especially the youth way back in his time also. I pretty much discovered that some people, mainly politicians, ultra religious groups and others have been saying these things throughout the history of mankind. Of course they want you to join their agenda or affiliation and mainly give them money to solve this pressing issue.

One of the cool things about my business is I get to talk in depth with lots of very intelligent folks in all walks of life. I've learned that in general the theory that "most" people, young or older being bad or slowly going to hell in a hand basket has always been and is today bullshit. As proof, ask any teacher anywhere if most students are screwing off, not paying attention and generally causing nothing but problems and he/she will gladly tell you that it's just not true. He/She will tell you that it's true for a very small percentage of them only. They'll tell you that the vast majority of students are serious, caring, studious young people who are trying most of the time to do their best.

Look around you at everyone you personally know in your life. Look around at those you see in your normal workday and weekend. It's pretty easy to see that the percentage of bad/good people is probably on the line of something like 95% good and 5% bad. That means that 95% of people are hard working, caring, honest, compassionate folks who are generally happy with life and would be willing to help a neighbor, friend or even a stranger if the opportunity or need came about and they could. I'm going to step out on a limb here and say this is most likely true everywhere in the entire world, not just in America.

Now that leaves the reality of that other 5% percent who are truly bad. In the student world, those are the ones who are our future denizens of the juvenile justice system and eventually our prison system. The only other alternative for those types without some serious medical, psychiatric or social help would be death, one way or the other.

So, is this the reality you see in your life? Are most people you know pretty good folks?



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