The early 1960’s certainly were not perfect but the vast majority of people in America led fairly honorable lives back then. The mid 60’s probably were the very last of the Happy Days of Richie Cunningham. That TV program and programs like the Andy Griffith Show or Ozzie and Harriet were not that far off the mark for small town white America in the 50’s and most of the 60’s. There were a lot of children in those days, birth control was limited, abortion was not legal or acceptable, and there was little confusion about the role of males and females. People in most of America were living pretty honorable lives in those days. My, how things have changed from the honorable toward the dishonorable in much of America in just fifty years.
If there is any one thing that changed our culture, it would be the destruction of the family unit. Fifty years ago people basically stayed married. The man of the house worked and the wife stayed home and raised the children. The family with an extended family of relatives in the same vicinity was something most of us had in common fifty years ago. The family and not government took care of those in need. The family had a stabilizing influence because most were held accountable to the values of their family.
The destruction of the family unit can be viewed from both a sociological and a religious perspective. Creeping socialism with its entitlement programs and big government social engineering is the major sociological reason for the breakdown of the traditional family and liberal teachings coming from our religious institutions was the major religious reason.
In just fifty years America has “progressed” from almost all of our children being raised by two parents to half of our children being raised by one parent. If that is not destructive enough, that one parent usually has to work so children are really being brought up by the social system and by peers. Without strong leadership in the family, the most influential people in many of the lives of American children are street smart punks and the bad characters of our “entertainment” media. They teach children to be disrespectful, foul-mouthed, and to emulate all that is dishonorable in any civil society.
Some Liberals will label me a racist for just giving the history of the family breakdown in America but nothing could be further from the truth. The real racists are those that put their race above the Human Race that most of the rest of us are in (psychopaths could be soulless exceptions). With that said, the breakdown of the family structure in America first started among blacks in the 50’s.
After World War II many southern black men that honorably served in the military looked for jobs in the industrial north. Many of the jobs that black men could only get hired for were the low paying jobs that white men would not do. Many black men lost self-respect and became frustrated and angry. It led to the downward spiral into hostility and behaviors that destroyed many two parent black families.
Some black fathers eventually abandoned their families with the rationalization and the reality that their wife and children could receive welfare benefits and government housing if they had no means of support. Rentals in the northern cities were scare and expensive in the 50’s. I know some of this firsthand because I lived almost a decade in a government housing project in Buffalo in the 50’s because my blue class father could not find a rental that he could afford. In the early 50’s, that housing project was all white and most had working fathers in the home, but by the early 60’s, it was almost all black and mostly single mothers. The same can be said for most housing projects in the big northern cities.
By the 60’s black absentee fathers became a major factor as to why black teens were becoming increasingly out of control in the big cities. The solution by the white Liberals of America was the Great Society promoted by President Lyndon Johnson but black anger still led to the riots of the late 60’s in many American big cities. Johnson’s Great Society should have been called the Great Socialist Society. These socialistic programs did not offer many employment solutions, instead they increasingly made blacks dependents of the state. The same white Liberals would also encourage black women to abort their babies as the ultimate solution to absentee fathers.
The welfare society soon spread to all the population as godless humanistic social engineers took over media, education, and government. In the late 60’s there was also the antiwar counterculture movement that led much of the baby boomer generation into hate and disrespect for everyone in authority. All who did not agree with their drug influenced paganism, sexual promiscuity, and Communist idealism became their enemy. Police officers were called pigs, war veterans were called baby killers and spit at, many women became whores, and marijuana was worshiped as if it was God.
The feminist movement that disrespected men and the hyper environmentalism movement that disrespected the needs of the human race played out not long after the hippies. The late 60’s and 70’s were a very disrespectful dishonorable period in our nation and all this rebellion contributed to the breakdown of the historical and honorable family unit.
By the early 90’s some of these disrespectful dishonorable people advanced within government, media, education and corporations. The Bill and Hillary White House and some of the people that were appointed by Clinton reflected the values of the counterculture movement more than traditional America. The Clinton’s pushed communistic socialism dressed in the garb of liberal or progressive programs and these programs continued to expand to this day.
I thought the honorable people of America would never have elected and certainly not have reelected the likes of Bill Clinton, yet they did. Many dishonorable Americans are still talking about putting his tyrannical and ruthless wife in the Oval Office. Bill Clinton gave away America’s jobs and secrets to the Chinese that eventually destroyed the American economy. Even after the likes of Bill and Hillary Clinton, I never thought that Americans would soon elect and reelect a Communist that would put America under the submission of dishonorable atheistic socialistic globalist billionaires, powerful world bankers, and Islamic ideologues, but that is what happened.
I always thought it was possible to elect a black President in America, white America is not as racist as Liberals and black race baiters like Americans to believe. However, I never thought a black Muslim leaning Communist President was remotely possible in America. Obama got elected on a message of hope and change after Bush became a failed presidency. Obama got reelected, but not because he delivered on hope and change, but because the Republican establishment bucked their own Conservative and Libertarian base of support and instead went all-in promoting a Liberal only pretending to be a Conservative.
It is rather ironic that the Democrat Party that once represented adequate waged blue-collar industrial workers, today mostly represents people working near minimum wage service jobs, government employees, and unemployed people on federal assistance. The Democrat Party today also represents multimillionaire and billionaire control freaks that wish to control the lives of all Americans. The party of small business and the Middle Class are the Republicans, but they are labeled the party of the rich by the Liberal main stream media. The irony of it all, is that the super rich promote and vote with the Democrats and it is they that control MSM.
The MSM has become very dishonorable and is now the mouthpiece of big socialist government and is the enemy of traditional America. The socialistic elites see nothing wrong with redistributing the wealth to help even out the incomes of others as long as they can continue to grow richer and gain more control over everyone.
The socialists control the American education system and the MSM, so most people in America get disinformation and socialist indoctrination even on regular entertainment programing. If it were not for talk radio and the Internet, you would only hear big government’s version of the truth. The government plantation poor do not even get educated enough anymore to even learn how to learn for themselves. What they are doing to the masses through government controlled MSM can be equated back to the days of slavery when blacks were not allowed to learn to read. Once again the plantation dependents have to get their information and marching orders from the very plantation owners that keep them enslaved.
Most do not have a clue how they are being oppressed by the super-rich. The complicit MSM tells people the top two percent make too much and do not pay enough taxes, but they never mention that the super rich in the top one thousandth of one percent control all MSM, run the world and escape almost all taxes.
Talk about irony, fifty years ago who would have thought that the USSR would dismantle their own Communist union and the United States would then embrace their failed communistic model. Now Russia is run by a strong President that promotes Russian Orthodox Christianity and morality, opposes the Islamists, and opposes the destructive influence of homosexuality in society, while the United States is run by a weak President who wars against Christian morality in America, embraces or appeases the Islamists, and promotes homosexuality in society.
Fifty years ago the honor of a man was sealed by a handshake, today many Americans promise anything but deliver nothing if they can get away with it.
Fifty years ago the Bible was the moral and spiritual guide to live by in America. Today the Bible is discredited by even Christian universities and is not allowed in the public square.
Fifty years ago Pastors in America taught a moral Biblical message to believers. Today many American pastors teach a prosperity message and how to find God within yourself so you can live a better immoral life now.
Fifty years ago homosexuals were in closets and their sex acts were outlawed by government, but today they are being promoted in public schools and on media and some are being married in American churches. They came out of the closets, started marching in parades and started acting out their perversions in public within just two decades. Americans went from respecting what was honorable in marriage to embracing what was dishonorable in any society in just twenty years.
Fifty years ago the governments in America had laws against gambling because the bookies gave unrealistic false hope to the poor who government viewed as victims. Today the government is the bookie and they promote unrealistic hopes to the poor using TV commercials. The odds of winning are worse than the days when the Mafia ran the numbers racket, and if against all odds you should win, they tax you to take away much of your winnings. That is a perfect example of “progressive” big government at its finest.
Fifty years ago porn was something that perverts watched, today it is something that half the men in America view regularly. In Richie’s days, porn was illegal and expensive; today porn is legal and free to almost everyone that can punch a few keystrokes.
Fifty years ago abortion was illegal in America, 55 million dead babies later, Americans are wondering who will support them in old age but their taxes are still paying to export this abomination to other nations.
Fifty years ago the federal government ramped up its war on drugs. Today the government’s war is more about government control over everyone than it is about stopping the use of illegal drugs. If the government really cared about stopping drugs, it would first enforce its national borders through which most illegal drugs come and outlaw any gangs in our cities that peddle them. The truth is that most of the politicians in Washington and their aides use illegal drugs. All the drug wars really did was enable gangs, fill prisons, kill people, and militarize all police forces in America.
It is quite amazing to me that America could make the transformation from a nation of mostly honorable people to a nation of mostly dishonorable people in just 50 years. That really should not surprise me. America has always been an exceptional nation, even if some world leaders say otherwise.
Another great post Don. I can’t even imagine what our country will look like in another 50 years. As for Hilary, all I can say is that I sense she is far worse than Obama.
Don,
Good article, I think it addresses some of the origins of our downfall as a nation quite well.
We do have to realize also that women in the workplace, that women fought so hard for, was originally to be a “supplement” to needed incomes, not mandatory, as it has become today, for a family to survive.
I have also talked to some women from back in the day that told me that there was also a big problem “back in the day” of abusive and cheating men..and there was nothing the women could do about it, because she was so dependent on his income.
I am not advocating that the breakdown of the family through female economic empowerment is a good or bad thing, I’m just bringing up a perspective.
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Don, I’m sure you realize that it was GB1 who had already agreed to NAFTA, of course Slick Willy was the one who signed it into action and falsely gets credit for the entirety of it….and it was GB1 who commercially made popular the phrase, “New World Order”….I think Mr Skull and Bones had a big impact and helped lay the foundation for the America we see today.
Great post. The only thing I would add as a powerful reason for our present state of affairs is the removal of prayer from our schools in the early 60’s. I believe you can follow the “dis-integration” of our society from that moment forward. It’s as if a protective covering was lifted from this country which exposed us to all of the events you mention.
Hi David,
Some men have always been abusive to their wives it was not a bigger problem back then then any other time in history. Yes, the ability of these women to liberate themselves from these men cured that problem with that man, but it created other problems in society as we see. It also did not stop the same women from finding some other abusive man if they could even find a man at all. Let’s face it, some women some chose to marry macho men and some women show disrespect toward their husband and reap what they sow. Back in the old days, abusive men had to deal with extended families – treat our sister or daughter badly and you will answer to us. Now government laws would put the family in jail if they dealt with these guys.
I am aware that George Bush Sr is a globalist that promoted NAFTA but China was not included in NAFTA. The real problem is not global trade it is trade that is destructive to workers in our own nation. The huge payment imbalances started because we traded with slave wage nations like China that also had no regulations so we could not compete. Clinton gets most of the credit for that.
Whew! What a whirlwind read. Excellent summary that the majority off Americans have no idea about. It certainly appears that God has given many over to a reprobate mind. Might sink into depression if I did not know that He is in control. Thank you Don for your hard work. Might need to forward this to my retired parents in NM. Scared it might disturb them too much though. They are 76 and almost 80 and I think they are just doing their best to put a smile on their face and lives their lives best they can in this crazy, fallen world. Not easy for my 80 year old dad who retired after 30 years in the WV Air Guard and whose life was obviously very much like you described life was 50 years ago.
Hey Don. It’s been a while since I posted. I appreciate the continued hard work and especially this article.
I don’t know if it was my upbringing (divorced parents) or my faith that has dictated how I outlined my own family. Or possibly I was born “late”.
I have been married for nine years (on the 23rd of this month)and have two children (ages 5 and 7.) As soon as my wife had our first child we managed for her to go part time. she is still part time. Even though it was a substantial cut from monthly income, we felt it best for our children. As well, my children are being raised to pray at meals, night and learn Bible versus, which they enjoy. They are allowed one hour of media a night and Saturday morning cartoons (old school cartoons of course.)
At 5 and 7, they are already loaded with chores and responsibilities. They both recite the pledge in our home. Even though I am ashamed of our current countries condition, I want to try and teach them the meaning behind America and the importance of our Country as it was intended to be.
I am far from a perfect father, but I am at least trying to raise my children with them seeing first hand what (I hope) is a structured functioning family is supposed to be and the responsibility that comes with it. I get flack from my fellow friends and co-workers about this. They say “there kids, why are you on them so much?” I respond with “they are my kids that’s why!” I see children when I am out and I am proud to say that we have been complemented many times. As far as my children, they are far from perfect. I have a boy and a girl. At two years apart, I am sure you already know what I deal with on a daily basis 🙂
I am not here to toot my own horn, but come hell or high water, I am going to give it my all and hope and pray that they follow and surpass my lead when they get older.
I am a product of the 80’s growing up but somewhere in that time, the traditional way was instilled in me, so I will attempt with my all to pass this way of life to my offspring. I can only hope in 50 years that my children will be a speck of light somewhere in our country. Take care
That’s a sad tale of America. I too never thought it could come to what it is now. Not only was 1950’s America more moral but it was safer. Small town rural America didn’t lock their doors. They probably didn’t even know where their house key was. People trusted their neighbors and parents didn’t worry about their children being abducted from their beds or yards. I don’t disagree with anything written in this article but I do have a perspective on the 1950’s woman; if I dare bring it up on a Christian blog.
In reality, Harriet Nelson and Marian Cunningham were working women being paid to pretend they were stay at home wives and mothers. Were they ever shown in a scene down on their hands and knees scrubbing floors or hanging the family wash out on the line while standing in a foot of snow? The housewives I know from that era worked hard. Before automatic washers/dryers, dishwashers, etc, it took all week to keep up with the chores. Maybe that’s where the cliché came from, ‘a man works from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done.’
This is where I’m bound to get in trouble. Ask a kid what they want to be when they grow up. What little girl ever said, “When I grow up I want to scrub floors, clean toilets, constantly cook, wash, and clean, clean, clean and be submissive and let my husband rule over me.”
Please don’t send scripture, I already know it. I’m just saying that maybe the traditional female role didn’t appeal to some of us and we tried to break free. I don’t mean we joined the feminist movement. Maybe if we all could have been ‘Stepford Wives’ everyone would have been content with their lot. Idk. Maybe we contributed to the breakdown of the family by not wanting to conform. I wanted to be an astronomer. Just me, a telescope, the universe and my cat.
Good night John boy.
I’m running on the 20 years (give or take) to Armageddon watermark. The [Amerian] culture is determined to breed hate and division and immorality and coveting / selfishness, all the while putting the blame on everyone else who doesn’t agree, propping up inferior man-made attempts at solutions to humanity’s flaws, sweeping their failures under the rug and putting on a [lying] happy face.
And the real evil of these socialists haven’t even begun in ernest.
Interesting comments on Russia, as we see all the powers mentioned in Revelation taking strong foothold, while the non-mention of the Americas is becoming quite apparent. To the world, America is a folly.
To those with kids, you need to bring them up in the ways of the Lord with ferver, as the wicked are wolves with their own fervor for moral destruction. I would not be disillusioned by the culture’s same ole evolution/global-warming go-to-college-and-plan-for-retirement-social-ObamaCare nonsense.
Watch and pray. And you probably shouldn’t try to run over anyone in downtown D.C. (just sayin).
Caitlin,
We know that actors were just actors but they generally were acting out a reality that some families lived in those times when both parents were home. My two examples may not have shown woman doing housework but they did on I love Lucy and the Honeymooners. The producer of the program gets to portray the reality of the family situation that he wants to sell. They did not show Mr Nelson and Mr Cunningham doing much work either but obviously they had jobs.
I know one thing, being a housewife is not as difficult as women like to make it out to be. My mother was a housewife and us children did most of the cleaning chores. Being a mother can be difficult if you actually have some kids and home school like women should and make meals from scratch. I heard the stories about all the hours that housewives work. It is bull, unless they are Amish and are keeping a farm. Everyone multitasks, so what some says takes 90 hours actually takes 15.
With most parents working, it seems that stuff around the house still gets done. And who says your house has to be so clean that you can eat off the floors? Neat freaks make their own work.
Yeah, woman don’t want to be moms and housewives anymore today but who put that one or two child family and a 9 to 5 job routine into their head? It was media. I won’t quote scripture, but I assure you the Bible does not teach that women should be taking men’s jobs and lording over them.
Nice post Don and this entire thread (blog) reads like everyone has watched “Grinding Down America”. It is a documentary on youtube which was done very well. It explains how the USA has and is being attacked by the social (communism) agenda. They know the way to destroy America is by destroying the family. It is spot on and talks about how kicking God out of our country is one of the major factors to destroying the family.
In the end though, second Timothy chapter three comes true and the more and more you listen things are actually moving that way. How bacteria on Mars is considered life yet an unborn fetus is not. I pray that the Lord comes soon because how is a Christian to survive when doing the right thing gets you persecuted. I trust in the Lord that he will see to it his people are taken care of. It’s just getting tougher each day.
ps. Highly recommend watching Grinding Down America, I sat my family down to watch it so they can understand what is happening and that as Christians we will be persecuted more and more each day before the coming of Christ.
Hi Don, Wow, I got a reaction from my comment.
I understand your opinion and you’re well respected; otherwise I would not keep returning to your website.
Without saying too much about my own life; 1. I’m probably older than I pretend to be. 2. I never heard stories about the 50’s housewife, I observed them. It was my mother’s life I saw and my aunts and neighbors. They were all [mostly] good housekeepers but it was my dad who was the neat/clean freak. [So am I.] If my shoes were in the living room when he came in from work he would deposit them in the trash can as he went through.
Also, before I ever started school I noticed boys were favored. I was four years old and I thought it would be better to be a boy than a girl. We didn’t have tv.
I did get married, I did have kids and I did play the part. I don’t want to take a man’s job or rule over him but when you end up divorced [it happens] and have to support those kids you need something more than a minimum wage slave job. Most women then weren’t prepared.
I don’t want to be an astronomer anymore. I want to be a tiger trainer.
Caitlin,
Obviously single women have to support themselves today because we are not living in the America of fifty years ago. We are talking about the changes that occurred in America in just the last 50 years. Fifty years ago most women got married young and stayed married or got remarried if they lost their husbands. At that time, marriage in America had not yet been destroyed by the liberating theology of the rebellious.
My point is that Women would not even need to prepare for a career for after they get divorced, if things were the way they were 50 years ago.
By the way, if the divorce is caused by the man, there was and still is such a thing call alimony and I am sure the states would not be changing these divorce laws if women were not now showing themselves to be so independent of men.
Taxpayers did not provide much support for other men’s wife and kids fifty years ago because we did not have Socialism. And Socialism would be good if it actually improved our society, but history has proven that socialism replaces individual and family responsibilities with government programs dictated by disconnected amoral humanistic government bureaucrats.
To Caitlin and to others,
In my observation of Don’s blog here, Don is not one who minces words, he comes from a very logical and strong perspective.
I don’t think Don opposes a counter argument as long as it is somewhat coherent and logical.
It does not mean that you (Caitlin) don’t bring up great points, you do…and your counter points are appreciated.
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As far as males being favored over females, that has been going on for a very long time and even in the Bible, the Jewish culture showed it.
When a woman was going to have a baby, it meant a big party and a big attendance.
They would even have musicians, it was a big ordeal.
Now, if the newborn was a boy, the big party would commence…if it were a girl, everyone would pack up their gear and go home.
To The Tram,
“…how is a Christian to survive when doing the right thing gets you persecuted.”
Well, I think we know as Christians that we are going to be persecuted, it hasn’t become totally illegal YET to be a Bible believing Christian…but that is only a short amount of time away, the way I see it.
We, in the United States can not fathom real persecution.
In the news daily, we are seeing Islam persecuting Christians all over the world with death.
I think it will be a litmus test for many in the United States when the persecution does come.
How many will turn away from Christ or become silent to protect themselves from persecution ?
All the apostles, except for John, were persecuted with death because of their love of The Lord Jesus…and John was put in the prison of Patmos for his “crime” of being a Christian.
I think we, as true Christians, should expect persecution in these last days.
Don,
I agree with a lot of what you say in excellent post, but I’m not so pessimistic. There
is still lots of good people out there, and many still serving the Lord. The younger generation is waking up to the deceit of current leadership. The media can make us pessimistic, but my hope is in revival and Christians being bolder with testimonies.
By the way your analogy of the government being the bookie, made me laugh.
Robert,
You think there is going to be a revival in this nation, I do not. You might read my latest post. “Where is that great revival in America” (For those who read this comment in the future it is dated 11/23/13.) The younger generation may be waking up that the current Obama administration lies to them but they still want everything for nothing and they are rejecting Christianity in droves. Just getting a new leader is not going to change the root problem in this nation.
Don,
Revival maybe will only come if there is persecution. God chastens those he loves. Living in Alaska is little different than the lower 48, there is a large number of young people here serving God. I don’t see large numbers of young people rejecting Christianity outright, I see them being seduced by the culture and love of pleasure,but see them open to authentic love and forgiveness. Witnessed to younger gal who was a party type, and told her story of prodigal son, she was deeply moved and cried. I don’t think she had the unconditional love of a natural father.
Although I tend to agree with you in the macro, your article is very eye opening. I still believe that the Lord can change peoples hearts quickly &
change a nation one person at a time.
Agree with you that a new leader won’t cure root problem. Which I believe is
little or no value placed on spiritual life, & emphasis on materialism, instant
gratification and self, which is pervasive in culture & government. But I’m optimistic that could be a revival.
Robert,
Alaska is not Urban America where 80 percent of the people of America live. If they are being seduced by the culture as you say, that means the culture is in opposition. So there is no repentance among the majority in the culture. Obviously some people are still repenting and still being saved but the nation generally is not and that is what we are talking about here.
Sure, The Lord can change people’s hearts if the people repent of their ways and let Him in and I am sure it will happen to some. However, thinking that there will be a large revival in a nation that is rapidly rejecting Jesus and promoting sins of the flesh will not become a reality.