The World Needs Another Mr. Rogers -- Wedges Driven Between Us All

Great post Simius, I'd have to say I agree with you completely and I'd like to add that it's not a change thats only taken place in smaller communities. I was born and raised in New York City, not a small town by any stretch of the imagination, yet even here there was a sense of neighborhood and community.

As a child my mother would take me to the playground nearly every day, there was a great wealth of wonderful playgrounds back then and all my friend's mothers would take them as well. As we played until the sun went down our mothers would spend the day together on the benches, socializing, laughing, talking about us kids. There was a strong sense of community among the parents back then and an equally strong sense of duty to the community.

Halloween is a perfect example, it has always been my favorite holiday. I remember when kids would look forward to it, planning their costumes for months in advance. My neighborhood would throw a gigantic 2 block long party, every brownstone was a haunted house and every apartment lobby was decorated. The entire two blocks were shut down and reserved for trick or treaters, the whole neighborhood looked forward to it and the streets were packed with kids.

Things have changed quite a bit in the past 10-20 years. All the wonderful playgrounds have been torn down and replaced with small, unimaginative "safer" versions. The groups of mothers have been replaced by immigrant nannies and babysitters and Halloween is a quiet night with the rare sighting of a few very young children in store bought costumes. The block party has ended many years ago.

Life is very different these days and I'm pretty positive I don't enjoy the change. I remember the days I spent outside playing with my friends and using our imagination. I remember how many hours I could entertain myself with a GI Joe or even just a tennis ball. Now I watch my girlfriend's young nephews and it makes me rather sad. They wake up, turn on the tv, grab their PSP and start playing video games. They alternate between their Gameboy, their PSP, computer games, their Xbox and then back to the television. Going outside to play is a punishment half the time!

Life has been cheapened by the constant intrusion of media we experience these days. Almost all our values have been devoured by the internet and television. We are constantly fed this stream of unreality so often that people no longer know the line between fake and real. The only thing of real value these days is what we own, how much money we make, whether or not the junk we have is better than the junk our neighbors have.

I really do feel bad for the children of today, i feel as though they're missing out on their childhood, that they're being deprived of the simple joy of running around with their friends until the sun goes down. They're absorbed by their IPods and cellphones, their MySpace pages and their video games.

I agree that we need another Mr. Rogers but I fear that todays version would have to be tweaked and "improved" to fit today's society. Mr. Rogers would have to be a lot younger and cooler, he'd have to solve mysteries and drive a cool car. At least one of his puppets would have to be a robot and all of his little friends would have to be more socially conscious. He would most definitely need more gadgets and would have to be supplemented by mandatory webisodes. He would probably need an arch nemesis who would be a japanese anime inspired space pirate. His neighborhood would have to be a space station and his neighbors would be aliens to help promote cultural diversity.

It's a sad, unimaginative, isolated world we live in.

Simi..by far your best post yet.Starred and flagged.
Honestly I was never a fan of Mr.Rogers, but his idea of a great neighbourhood does mean something to all of us.We all remember what it was like when we were younger.How I could ride all over the place , even downtown on my bike when I was 10.Now I barely let my 13 year old out of sight after dark for fear he will get jumped by some of the gangs that lurk around.
I also notice a lack of parenting happening..discipline wise.
It pisses me off when my kids are bullied by another, and when I call them out on it, I get a 6 year old that tells me to **** off.
You go to the parents and they just brush it off or tell you the same thing.
Nice future these kids will have.
The decline in shows like Mr. Rogers came about the same time as the decline in parenting I noticed.At least in my humble opinion.I wish I had a good outlook for the future, but I don't.I fear for my grandchildren, when they are growing up..what kind of a society will we have then? 10-20 years from now?
I shudder at the thought.

2nd Timothy Chapter 3

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.

Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God: Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Yes, this society we live in today is what was foretold.

God bless

I grew up in a place and time without computers and our TV sets were seldom even on. The neighborhood I lived in was also occupied by several relatives. Not only did we respect our elders but Mr. Jones had full authority to swat us in the butt when he saw us doing wrong. So too did our teachers who all had paddles and used them but not surprisingly, very little. Yes the adults were in charge and did their job as parents to their own as well as sharing the task when your kids were in their yard.

I agree with th OP on many respects and loved Mr. Rodgers as well but I am of the opinion that God is being driven out of middle America, especially at Christmas! This is slowly having a detrimental effect on society as it falls further and further into the abyss of not loving thy neighbor as I love myself.

Today the PC is the friend and lets face it, it's much safer than having to actually talk to real people and deal with real issues. We are raising a generation of Americans that feel no need to socialize outside the home when they can easily do it online.

We definitely need Mr. Rodgers back as well as many other wholesome examples of what we should be or should I say, what we used to be.

I don't even think kids know the meaning of "imagine" anymore.....

Simius, I've only been here for a few months so I'm not familiar with your other posts, but this one is great. I'm eighteen, so I'm sure my perspective is different from a lot of others who've posted in this thread, but even though I missed out on the 'golden age' of the neighborhood I still recognize it's loss. I don't know what the problem is. Maybe it's our generation being emasculated, or the growth in gang culture, or the breakdown of the family. Whatever it is I'm sure that I know the root. People are hollow; they have no concept of self. Everyone's fake. You're defined by what other's see you as rather than what you are, what you want to be, and your actions. We are domesticated herd animals, and the pen just keeps getting smaller. That's not a political statement; it's about the collective psychological state of our society. People now don't live in a community, they live inside houses that happen to be next to each other. How can we fix it? Another Mr. Rogers would be a great start.

Originally posted by jbondo

Today the PC is the friend and lets face it, it's much safer than having to actually talk to real people and deal with real issues. We are raising a generation of Americans that feel no need to socialize outside the home when they can easily do it online.

Very true. It is a problem that I see even in my own life. I really only have one close personal friend, everything else is about the computer and my books. I am like a real life "nerd" who says, "Books are my friends."

Hell, we live in a society where it is a miracle to find someone who can string a line of two coherent sentences together when speaking to real people. It's sad, but it's the truth.

my friend and i were kinda talking about this..we were like "its sad that when someone on the street says HI or WAVES or does anything friendly we're shocked."

reply to post by TheBadge


Yeah, it has gotten to that point. Hell, down here in Texas if someone even bothers to make eye contact with your ass it's nothing short of the miraculous... It kind of irritates me, really.. But, that's just the society we live in.

Here's a -- no doubt controversial -- theory that also fits into the conspiracy category this thread is in: I think it might have to do with the fact that most families today are two-income families and stay-at-home moms have become a rarity.

Now, I'm a working woman myself and certainly don't want to make a case for "pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen," but I did read something a few months ago -- I believe it was in an interview with the late Aaron Russo.

He said he had had a chat with Illuminati member David Rockefeller years ago, in which Rockefeller laid down their plans to turn the "Great Unwashed" (that would be us) into slaves. Rockefeller said that part of the plan to destroy the American middle class was to destroy the family. He said they had achieved that by supporting and sponsoring the feminist movement...

Personally, I think what also played a big part in destroying the family was to keep wages low while our currency was devaluated over the last four or five decades and prices for everything rose... thus making it impossible for the average family to get by unless both parents work.

Add to that the fact that most families these days are "nuclear" families, with Grandma and Grandma out of the picture (i.e. stuffed away in nursing homes or living in Florida), so that parents now have to put their kids into daycare as soon as they take their first breath, and are too overworked in the evening to play or do much else than crash in front of the TV.

I know what I'm talking about. I'm still trying to make time for my son when he comes home from preschool, but it doesn't always work that way. At the end of a long day I'm usually more exhausted than he is by the time I read him his bedtime story.

Originally posted by sylvie
Here's a -- no doubt controversial -- theory that also fits into the conspiracy category this thread is in: I think it might have to do with the fact that most families today are two-income families and stay-at-home moms have become a rarity.

Well, I am not going to get into a long drawn out debate about this, but in my estimation, that is when society's problems began to escalate.. Two parents are working. The kids come home to an empty house and basically do whatever the hell they want, no guidance... Well, I think you see where I am going to go from there...



[edit on 4-12-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

reply to post by SimiusDei


No the world doesn't need another Mr. Rogers..... what it needs is an enema.

-Euclid

I think we all remember the world being different in the not so distant past. It was a different world for every generation before us, and they all thought the world was going to pot because of what the next generation was doing. For better or worse we are evolving and moving forward. The children of today do not have fun in the same way that we did, but that's not to say that they aren't having a spectacular childhood. I say "hello" to the people on my street in Chicago. Some are shocked, some nod and smile, and some say "hi" and stop to talk. The world is not the same place anymore, but I will pass the warmth of my childhood to everyone I come in contact with. Be well!

A very thoughful and giving post Jasn. The world has changed so adroitly not for the better. Dorothy we're not in the 60's anymore. Yes, people were much kinder and gentler. They didn't tail you by 10 feet at 60 mph.
The dragon has been loosed. Let us hope it is for only 7 years.

I've only had 13 years to see the world and get a feel for it, and I've always been a bit of a recluse. Please excuse me if I make any stupid mistakes or assumptions, and feel free to correct me on those.

The first thing I noticed after coming to the US last year was the humidity. The first thing I noticed after moving into the neighborhood was the lack of people greeting me, which was something that I thought people used to do. After a bit of time in the public education system (which SUCKS. Your colleges are great, but the public education is rather...... you know, I looked at the stuff that the Algebra class is doing, and found that I did it two years ago. D: 7th grade was like repeating years 5 and 6!! Anyhow..), and after I had gained a few friends, I noticed that all of them had parents that ere either divorced or getting divorced. According to our father, lots of our neighbors are getting divorced, too. And I thought that having two biological parents still together was the norm..

Thanks for posting this, Simius. I've been thinking that the continuing decline of people acting as a community wasn't a very good sign. In my school, there's also a lack of intelligent kind people who are willing to share their things with a student who lost his/her only pencil or pen. If children are the future, then the future looks fairly bleak, with a light dash of myspacey and lonely.

i know what u mean! Today i was going to post the same thread. it seems like the world is scared of one another on the global scale. countries protect themselfs to the point that it is not funny. this seems to rub of on the citizens. people are afraid of "terrorists". what are "terrorists" in the minds of the government (i think i will make this a thread!?!)? this reminds me of my friend being called a "hacker" because he left clicked an image and set it as the background. why can we all just realize that everyone is feeling the same?

since i was a kid i have noticed several things change. i remember i used to play hockey with 10 other kids and i would rollerblade and ride my bike. it is not the same anymore. i am the kind of person that will give the benifit of the doubt . dont judge because i know the feeling of being judged. i will say "hi" and "have a nice day" to strangers. i hold doors for people and let people go in front of me in lines if they are in a hurry. i know that the care for the fellow human being has deminished.

i believe that TV is also to Take the blame.it detracts people from the true problems of this planet. i mean come on look at the stuff on these days Prison break nip tuck reno 911 ugly betty falvor of love that play boy show (not the good ones ) and all that crap called television (now that i come to think of it most shows only live 1- 3 seasons on fox). i have stopped watching a majority of it (still watch the simpsons discovery national geographic history sparringly).

Excellent OP Simus, truly a star among your many awsome posts.

This "dehumanization" effect is one of the final phases in enslaving the American public. I agree with sylvie in that I am of the opinion (very strongly I might add) that this problem started with womens lib. Like any person capable of coherent thought, I'm supportive of equal rights. But, I believe that ones wants and desires are (or more appropriately should be) far outweighed by that persons responsibilities to their children. They, by executing the womens lib movement, created a double standard. If a man wished to stray from his role and say, stay at home and let the woman support the household, he wasnt considered a "home maker", he was considered a bum or a mooch. But, when a woman deviated from her role and left her family to work, it was considered brave and courageous. This was one of the first phases of the plan, to destroy the american family.

Now, through the creation of a truly "virtual" world, they control our reality. They pull us into a game of control and deception in which "they" are the moderators.

I'm currently working on exposing the "master plan" phase by phase. An outline in the cause and effect of each step in the process. Dont hold your breath for it, this isn't a rabbit hole I've jumped into, its a network of them.

Thanks again for the great post SD, star and flagged.

SD I just read your work. Very insightful analysis and solution model. I agree. But wait there's more - you are an artist of the highest caliber! That was well written, I'm verklempt.

Consider the "what if's" of it. There may be an opportunity in this. Try and leverage the idea somehow.

This is the general sort of thinking this century needs. So many things that were secure anchors are slipping by - this century needs some aspects of the past century that served the public good recreated - albeit different. I feel encouraged by your piece and will point it out to friends.

I saw a tiny waif on this site "playing"... the thread was closed.

Mr. Rogers is dead. Times changes, so does society and not always for the better.

Cheers,

Vic

Very heartfelt and eloquent post.

Most replies have touched on the two main reasons for this disintegration of society, they being declining income levels and invasive media technologies. Both parents must work to support the family, leaving children anchorless and resigned to the belief that the future will be worse for them than the present and generating financial anxieties for the parents, and free time is filled with TV and the internet--one a passive "entertainment" ridden with violence and tawdry titillation, the other a virtual, ersatz society.

American society is increasingly fragmented and debased by the wearying effects of the rat race, and we increasingly find solace--or withdraw into--anti-social pastimes. It's a vicious spiral that is only accelerating with technological advancement. Text messaging, which didn't exist a decade ago, has replaced a human voice on the telephone. E-mail has replaced the letter. Myspace has replaced sleepovers. And on and on.

In a way we are going back to the future, since if you look at the lives of the peasantry in medieval Europe up until the industrial revolution, you'll find it was a brutal existence with precious little joy in it. Feast days and Sundays were spent in binge drinking and early factory bosses spent much of their time and energy attempting to control and suppress rampant drunkenness. You see similar behavior today with adolescents who turn to pot smoking and drugs to turn off their minds and withdraw into themselves.

The innocence that Mr. Rogers represented has been repeatedly sneered at with the cynicism that has overtaken the medium he was a part of. He seems as distant from our present reality as the horse and buggy.

Your best post by far, my friend.

I often contemplate the same thing, and all the causes for the current state of constant mistrust we seem to find ourselves in. It honestly brings feelings of anger and sadness, and I don't really mess around with those emotions. As much as people don't think our society has changed, we have, and rapidly in the last ten years. Even faster in the past seven.

Even personally, I remember similar childhood memories. We used to have seasonal block parties hosted by two Mormon families, and they were something you'd see out of a movie. This sense of community filled the air, everybody was happy, everybody dropped their differences, or petty grudges and just had an amazing time. Together.

Now it seems all of us here are in the same situation. There's almost no communication with our neighbors. We're shutouts to the world, just trying to maintain stability in our own families with no time to spare for our neighbors, our community. It's amazing to see how outside pressures can come between people so quickly and easily.

Media has a lot to do with it, but where is all of our responsibility? To reach out to our neighbors with open arms. As much as media portrays the outside world as murderers, thieves, child molesters, we're not. We're so afraid of what our neighbors are capable of in a negative light, seems we've almost given up or disregard what they can do in a positive one. We let outside pressures run our lives to such an extreme that we've given up hope in our fellow human being. I can tell you right now, if I was your neighbor, prick or not, I would do anything I could to help you out. Money, shoveling your walk, fight your abusive husband (jokes), you know? Whatever.

What has happened in the last 15 years? The last 10 years? Though, I know what's happened the last 7, but I feel that the change in community structure was coming long before 9/11/2001. I do feel the kind of distrust, suspicion, and anger has accelerated since then, but I still don't find that the root cause of the state we're at now and currently surpassing.

Makes me afraid that this world keeps getting uglier and uglier the older I get. I can't tell if it's my outlook, or if my environment is being dismantled as I go. Maybe our immediate environment isn't changing, but maybe we're becoming more aware of our surroundings and the weight they carry in every single one of our lives. It's hard to say. All I know is I miss that sense of community. The times when you could rely on your neighbors instead of ignore them except for the pathetic attempt at noticing one another in the form of a hand wave. Bums me out.


"Oh, the times they are changin."

Great post simius.

Sylvie posted earlier that the destruction of the family unit was contrived by the powers that be. I believe she is correct and I'll tell you why. Money and profits. The idea is simple. If you want to sell more fridges, stoves, cars and homes then split up families. Then mom needs her place and dad needs his. Two of everything. Essentially you have two folded your entire potential cliental. They do not care about us. This is obvious.

I'm 42 and I remember those good old days. We should note that these values are alive and well as this thread proves. I have always held these personal feelings and thereafter actions close to my core. I will not give in on this. I've always been the guy with the helping hand to offer and I have many good friends. Maybe thats' why. When I die I hope people miss me. I do what I can.

The discontent out there today however is staggering. I think that one of the biggest factors was the stay at home parent, one income household. We have underestimated the value of this persons contribution to society. No one is holding the fort anymore and it's darn near impossible to do so unless you have a high paying job which only maybe 5% of us do. Through in a divorce, illness or accident and whamo the family splits.

Other factors are also obvious like drugs. I live in a upscale area where so many people are basically sedated on Xanex, Vicadin and booze. They are useless like a skipping album. Like they are out of faze with reality. What ever happened to a bowl of joints among friends. Old California stuff from when I grew up.

I'll leave it here for now because I want to read the other posters on the thread.

It is a brave new world.
LGF.