[mbank]

Reading Hagakure (Japan, 1716) really helps putting things into perspective here: Even back then the author complained about moral decline. And in the author`s eyes the sad low point of this degeneracy is the trend that the young lords won't e Perform their beheadings themselves anymore...

[atoav]

My grandfather (an actual nazi, who fought in the Wehrmacht on the eastern front) complained about us young people not wanting to go hunt with him (which had more to do with the man than with hunting). He complained about how his generation was strong men and how me and my small brother are corrupted by television and anything with a screen on it. His greatest fear was us becoming "verweichlicht" (literal translation: "softened"), being perceived as weak was one of the worst things for him.

Yet he was the man that could never face what he did, never talk about what his real ideology was, he could never face how bad of a father and husband he was. In fact his eating disorders and his silence took 4 generations to heal. If only he could have faced his past and lived in the present, strong men — in my world — can do precisely that.

The point is that generational differences exist and very often a simple "the young people do it different" will become a "the young people are morally corrupted" — because the alternative would be to face your own weaknesses and demons or question how your society has done things up to this point.

Men being afraid to look weak (something that only bothers men that feel weak) is a huge driver of all kinds of problems, even today.

[dmm]

Maybe the Hagakure observations were correct and afterwards morality improved only to decline again in the 20th century. Or maybe his observations are irrelevant to a 20th century phenomenon.

[atoav]

I think it is normal for younger generations to try to differenciate themselves from the older ones. This differenciation necessarily puts the older generation into a situation where they have to question themselves or — the easier route — you don't do that and go all Seymour Skinner: "Am I so out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong" and call it a day.

Morals are a fluid thing. My Wehrmacht-serving grandfather for example would say talking about one's feelings is weak and therefore morally wrong and this was a common view in his generation. I would say talking about one's feeling is hard and not talking about them is a sign of a weak person. He fucked up his whole family by insisting to look strong, my father was strong by breaking with the morals of his father.

[local_crmdgeon]

Potentially the mass murder, rape, and genocides of 20th century Japan were bad