guss

breakins/ home robberies arent their cup of tea either. we know what they want. few of us know that info, or if you did, i would keep quiet. i question hectors judgement in this matter. stay away, mind your business, enjoy your time here. 

.................sounds about right.

G

I very well remember the values of the past Guss.  I don´t have time to go into this in great detail but let´s look back at the 1940s when I was born and the decades thereafter.  Some 50,000,000 people slaughtered or starved in the prelude to or during WW 11.  Racial segregation and lynchings against African Americans in the U.S.  Colonial empires exploiting millions kept in subjugation for the benefit of exploitative colonial masters stealing the birthright of third  world countries all over the globe.  Japanese fanaticism resulting in the rape of Nanking among countless attrocities in the Far East.  Burning alive countless Japanese civilians with atomic weapons by the United States, the Bataan death march, apartheid in South Africa, the entirely immoral humiliation and exploitation of African Americans in my native Alabama, the treating of brown skinned people all over the world as incompetents to be detested and exploited, the western alliance with the fiend Joseph Stalin to defeat the Axis powers and the subsequent enslavement of all of Eastern Europe with western acquiesence and approval while he exploited and murdered millions and the west looked the other way.

 

Terrible times of gross injustice.  Your not  having to lock your door back then, if that is the case, is only demonstrative of the fact that the misery was happening in someone else´s backyard..

Commenting on today's obvious breakdown of society does not equate to condoning past injustices of an earlier era. This kind of argument reminds me of a bumper sticker I read once that said something like "if one person is oppressed, all are oppressed"; while true in one sense, it ignores the fact that we are all divided into microcosms of existense, parallel universes if you will, and in my small universe I was able to leave the door unlocked (among other things). Unlocked doors are a much bigger metaphor for past freedoms now relinquished to rising insecurities thanks to increased lawlessness and random acts of terror. Grandparents in Connecticut attending their grandchildren's funerals would agree.

BTW, you overlooked the point I already made when I said: Were things in the past perfect? To which I answered: Of course not...... It's unfortunate when people suggest that only two extreme views of an issue exist.

Ultimately, we're having the wrong conversation. The original article asks us to seriously reconsider what many think about the Mexican experience before feebly succumbing to all the negative hype. The author invites us to consider a reality where Mexico is not maligned as a dangerous failed state but, rather depicted as the dynamic and complex place it truly is. I, for one, accepted the invitation.

G  

Very well put Guss. My problem is that even as I approach 70, I have a far too good memory. For example, when I was a young man just beginning life, well over half the U.S. population weren't using or had used drugs. Druggies were ostracized, not tolerated. The divorce rate wasn't north of 50 percent and the majority of children weren't living in one parent families. We didn't have all the stuff that even those on welfare NOB have now but we did live in neighborhoods that were so safe no one locked their doors and everyone watched out for everyone's kids. We didn't go to schools where the kids dressed like bums and studied like them too.

We didn't watch much TV and when we did, we weren't treated to non-stop sex and violence and moral decadence. Ditto for the movies. Half of the major cities weren't drug and gang banger infested hell holes. Yes there was poverty, there's even more of it now after 3 trillion spent on government programs that seem to have mainly disintegrated the families of the poor and created those hell holes. Most poor people were moral people and there was upward mobility. We didn't have generation after generation living in squalor on the dole. Sorry, but I don't see that as an improvement.

Is the U.S. some sort of safe first world country? I don't think so. More like an emerging police state IMO. Is Mexico a place of everyday crime and danger everywhere? I don't think so. In both places, I think you have to create your own safety as much as possible and that will usually, but not always, work for you. Overall, it is inescapable that the social fabric is fraying and declining all over the developed world and in much of the developing world. You can run but you can't hide from that reality and politics, when it isn't adding to the problem, have basically nothing to offer that could turn things around.

That would require billions to re-embrace values and life styles that have proven by actual experience to create strong and cohesive societies. Those times are past in this cycle of history IMO.

Agreed. You can't teach what you don't know. Once the traditions and values of the past are completely lost it will very hard to rediscover them.

G  

I don´t get this.  Moderator-2 edits a thread for partisan political statements and then we find MC´s thread which is, in fact, a political screed seemingly intact.  I don´t begrudge MC his written opinions but just a comment here.  I am not simply approaching 70, I am there having been born in February, 1942.  Don´t be telling me that the U.S. or Mexico or, for that matter, most of the world were better places back then.  I have a great deal to say on this subject but, as the moderator has threatened to lock the thread if more political positions are  taken I´ll respectfully refrain from responding in a civil manner.  It seems to me to me that to be fair, MC´s highly charged political statement and. perhaps, this rejoinder should both be deleted or I should be allowed to publish a contrary opinion.  I request the opportunity to dispute MC´s commentary point by point or to request omission of all of this political chatter.          

I am also old enough to remember a time when phrases like "school shooting" and "home invasions" didn't exist in the collective vocabulary of Americans. A time before local radio stations issued "Amber alerts" or schools having procedures in place resembling that of jails referred to as "being on lock down." Were things perfect in the past? Of course not, but things have gone far amiss in our modern society. And the trend continues.

Back to Alan's idea of needing lots of money to fix our social ills; No amount of money can accomplish this.

Standard of living is relatively easy to quantify, quality of life is a little trickier. Quality of life is the stuff that life is truly made of and the Mexicans have it in spades. Meanwhile, too many Americans do whatever is right in their own eyes, making society a very unpredictable place. Like news of yet another school shooting plot (in Oklahoma) that was thwarted by police.

Rubbing where there is already a rash; Dec 21st is right around the corner and I would not be surprised to hear of another loon committing more violence.

G    

 

The paradox of our time in history is that some of us have more stuff on the outside, but less stuff on the inside.

 

That's not about stuffing our bellies or much about safety in Mexico, but it might have something to do with the growing  polarization of haves and have nots.

 

 

The Paradox of Our Time, while not addressing safety or social decay directly, hits the nail on the head about the anomalies in modern affluent societies and gives us some ideas as to how things can quickly go awry amidst the profusion of "technological advances" Alan spoke about, making it very relevant to public safety.

The OP's article was not only about safety in Mexico but also to how it related to safety in comparison to the United States. This seems to always bring out comments from those who balk at the mere thought of comparing what is typified as an advanced and safe first world country, the U.S., with that of a violent and backwards third world country, like Mexico. Hypocrisy has been called the outside of cynicism, and in light of recent events in the U.S., it was just too easy to point out the blatant double standard that habitually seeks to hold the U.S.(and others) above reproach.

G