I'm sitting here watching The Andy Griffith Show and wonder....

What happened to our society, what happened to us as a culture in general?
If youre not familiar with the show, It takes place in a sleepy rural town in North Carolina, where everyone knew each other, and went out of the way to helop each other, and things were solved over a bottle of dime store pop.

I truely wish we would go back to those innocent days, where the biggest crime was a local moonshine still, or jaywalking.
Does anyone else feel this way?
discuss

Innocence isn't dead and community exists.

You know the biggest difference I noticed
between Hawaii and the Mainland?
In Hawaii one sees old people
out in public, about 10%.

Where are all of our
old people. Do
we lock them
up?

The only credit I'll give the Griffith show
is that at least old people were still part of the culture.


David Grouchy

Except that Andy Griffith is fantasy. Small towns have always had many of the same problems as larger towns. Whether it be theft, rape, public drunkenness, homeless, vandalism, fights and the like. The only difference is that the victims and the police know the criminals.

reply to post by Kaploink


I have always looked at the 50s and early 60s as America's golden years, though we were well on our way down the tubes by then, it was just an equilibrium of sorts. It was where Americans benefitted the most by our type of economy and global empire. Before that time, people had more liberty but they didn't benefit from the supremacy of their empire and after that time period we started losing far more of our liberties and the empire started to solely benefit those who were keeping it strong.

So, the 50's and early 60s were an equilibrium, where that generation benefitted the most from the influences who got a hold over our American experiment.

On another note, people just seemed to care more, as folks actually took pride in what they did. If you went to a general store, the employees would care about your business and even the cashier would care whether the business succeeded or not (for the most part). These days, people could care less if there wasn't something extraordinary in it for them. If you make a complaint about an establishment these days, the kid on the other end of that compaint is likely to not care one bit and even chastise you for making the complaint/suggestion. Instead of making it right, they are much more likely to just tell you to go somewhere else if you don't like it. Your business is no longer really valuable as they are going to succeed with or without you. I blame this mostly on corporations cornering the market, instead of "mom & pops". With that, business is no longer really personal, as most people don't even know their doctors on a first name basis or even what town he lives in or what school he graduated from.

Also, You have to give employees incentives to care about their work, such as stock options. When you start employement at a company, you no longer expect to work there until retirement, where you would get a pension. This would make people care about the company and I can only assume, take pride in that company and the work they do. Retirement now is something that many people don't even consider and hardly anyone expects to stay with a company over 10 years. Because of this, there is no loyalty or pride left.

Even outside of the marketplace, people seem to care less about things. It used to be that people would wake up in the morning, get dressed to look their best and not go out into public otherwise. These days, it is extremely rare to go to the supermarket and not see multiple people in their pajamas and shower shoes. These days, unless you are going out to a pace that requires a dress-code, you are just likely to throw on a shirt and pants, with some people not even going to that length. People just no longer really care abotu anything anymore.




--airspoon

Originally posted by Kaploink
Small towns have always had many of the same problems as larger towns. Whether it be theft, rape, public drunkenness, homeless, vandalism, fights and the like.

At about a level 100 times less than in your cities and third world countries.

I grew up in a tiny tiny town in Kentucky.

To this day it remains the same and is as close to Andy Griffith as it gets.

These places still exist all over America.

Community is what one makes of it.

I live in the city I hate it, and I could definitely do mor to foster a sense of community, but I prefer the solitary life here at the moment.

The problems we have now existed back then and always read ancient history, human nature is what it is.

This is a toughie. Yes there was more respect for each other and the community as a whole but there was also paternal rule. Dad was the ruler. Little to no rights for women and kids. If we could find something in the middle it would be great.

ah mayberry ...fine television programming.
it's like comfort food, nice old familiar feelings..
no darkies, homos were in the closet, no drugs..
just oatis ,the funny drunkard..no illness in mayberry land.
proud to be just plain poor folks.
lets ship the dimwit off to nam -
gomer pyle usmc..
barney and howard sprague were outed and moved to san francisco.
oatis died in a pool of vomit.
floyd the barber was found to be murdering hobos and collecting their scalps.
opie went to hollywood..still in therapy..
andy..got wrapped up in fleecing old folks on tv..
Heres a tv tip- it's not real-
it's designed to trigger little goo-gaga receptors in your brain.
watch fox and get all riled up - then an add for some drug is displayed.
less brain wave activity than sleeping ..
a nice empty brain to fill full of spew..
or to lull into a 1950s notalgia coma..
you can still recite the jingles and feel all happy..
things go better with coca cola...

The Andy Griffith Show tells us a lot more about the entertainment culture than it tells us about society in general. Even in the sixties, The Andy Griffith Show was nostalgic and was more like America of the Thirties and Forties, or at least how some people remembered them.

What is to be noted most about The Andy Griffith Show is how people can be entertained by excellent writing and excellent ensemble acting, without the need for insolent children, sexual situations, and foul language.

In fact, the introduction of Ernest T. Bass was probably when the show "jumped the shark."

Originally posted by p51mustang

lets ship the dimwit off to nam -
gomer pyle usmc

Gomer Pyle never went to Vietnam. In fact, during the entire run of the show, Vietnam was never mentioned nor was any Marine ever shown wearing Vietnam Service or Campaign Medals.

Like other comedies at the time, Gomer Pyle was a "deep escapis[t]" show; it avoided political commentary and offered viewers a distraction from the social changes of the 1960s.[10][11] Despite being a military-themed show and airing during the peak of the Vietnam conflict, the show never discussed the war.[12][13] Instead, the show focused on "Gomer's innocent simplicity [and] Sergeant Carter's frustration and later concern for Gomer's well-being".

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by HomerinNC


Are you aware that Mayberry was a fictional town with fictional characters on the boob tube?

Show me such a town like that. I doubt that any exist or ever existed.

reply to post by p51mustang


I like the way you think. I'd like to recruit you to produce a TV show to appeal to conservatives that miss a bygone era that, get this, never existed!