Do modern "free" societies create cream puff citizens?

[Incognito]

I was reading someone else's thread about their dealings with stupid people in the customer service industry. That made me think of customer service in other, less developed, countries. Speaking specifically of food, you pay money and you get what you get. If you don't like it, well don't come back there. There isn't any "oh well I didn't like it so I want something else instead at no extra charge" like in the US. People do that here because they are allowed to, and they are allowed to because everyone feels like they should be catered to.

I started to wonder if this feeling of entitlement was because of the amount of freedom US citizens enjoy and what "freedom" really means to US citizens. This "Land of the free" used to be called so because it was less restrictive with regards to religion and because common people had more of a say in the system that governed them. Nowadays it seems that "freedom" means doing anything that you feel is right, or having anything that you want. That, in my opinion, is how political correctness got started. Apparently included in this "freedom" and having everything that you want is the notion that no one is supposed to offend you at all, ever. So no one can can tell you that something is off limits unless it is really wrong like pedophilia or murder, and they cannot openly disagree with you're lifestyle or choices. It is like always giving a child what it wants (barring dangerous items). Eventually that child only wants more just for the sake of having more. The same is true of Americans and freedom (perhaps this is true in other developed countries as well). People are constantly coming up with more ridiculous (and sometimes perverse) things that they claim are an expression of their freedom.

Going back to the title of the thread though, I have wondered how US citizens would fare against less "free" (and therefore less spoiled and whiney) societies. If, say, North Korea successfully invaded the US (lets leave out military involvement) would its citizens be more or less likely to overpower US citizens? How about Iraqi citizens occupying US land? Would they be more likely to take over? I think that in both instances the foreign entity would prevail. Why? They are not pampered and spoonfed socially. They are more hardened (for lack of a better word). While US citizen would be saying "well its not fair that...." or "its not right...." the invading citizens would kick ass and ask questions later. Maybe it would be more fitting if is said that US citizens and Iraqi citizens were dumped on a deserted island. That takes all of the other variables out. I fully believe that the US citizens would be more caught up on what is "fair", "right" and on political correctness to have any type of edge over citizens from less developed countries.

[SelflessnHumble]

To answer your post: we (as Americans) have fallen pretty far from the tree.
Our education curriculum at present is a joke, our society has been creating dummy/powder cake "citizens" that don't know what
type of government they have: they bicker, argue and even fight for what they "believe" in when they don't even know what they're fighting for.

However I find your argument concerning food service pretty near sighted.
No matter where I go: I know that while it is an appreciated service/privilege to be served food: YOU, are paying for that.
So, if I don't get what I want, how I wanted it: rest assured it will be made right or I get my money back, and I don't even have to argue, nor cause a scene to get it.

1st point: America isn't and has not been the Land of the Free for quite some time, despite what you are led to believe (there's that word again)
Americans are given privileges, which they complacently ask for and demand as some sort of freedom.
While of course America can bee seen as far more "free" than an underdeveloped or imprisoned scale...this does not diminish the fact:
We as Americans have been stripped of our rights, deemed incompetent by the State.

The problem with your entire diatribe is that we are not citizens, at least I am not.

The fact is: The average American won't do SHIT unless they are put up against a wall, or when it hits their own pocket -FACT-
The average American looks at what happened in Egypt, then begins to eat their cheetos, update their facebook status while enjoying the purported "freedoms"
they've come to enjoy as if they were "American" traditions baked into the very fabric of a free nation.

No offense man, but it's all bullshit.
Religion enslaves many people into believing they will burn in hell for "sinning."

If you are going to censor a post by only attacking one position and certain angles? What good is this discussion?

[Incognito]

I only mentioned the food industry because it is what got me thinking about American society as whole, as well as the reasons behind Americans' feeling of entitlement. I agree with a lot of what you are saying since you seem to understand my overall view, but I certainly am no censoring anything. I didn't want to try and cover everything in an essay because no one would read it. I hate when someone posts 10 pages of text, and I always refuse to read it. I try my hardest to not be hypocritical, so I didn't post an essay. You bringing up other issues means that a proper discussion/debate is taking place.

I didn't even think about the education system and the fact that it constantly churns out idiots and dullards. I can say, without batting an eye, that the stupidest Japanese child is smarter than the average American child on any day of the week. At an elementary school near me they decided to not teach social studies to give the students a double session of math for the remaining two quarters. If they were being properly taught at school (AND at home.... yes learning doesn't stop at school) then they wouldn't have to do this. Its also sad that they just whacked social studies so quickly.

[Junket]

We need mob rule.

[SelflessnHumble]

WE have mob rule: it's called a democracy. Google it some time.

[SelflessnHumble]

I only mentioned the food industry because it is what got me thinking about American society as whole, as well as the reasons behind Americans' feeling of entitlement. I agree with a lot of what you are saying since you seem to understand my overall view, but I certainly am no censoring anything. I didn't want to try and cover everything in an essay because no one would read it. I hate when someone posts 10 pages of text, and I always refuse to read it. I try my hardest to not be hypocritical, so I didn't post an essay. You bringing up other issues means that a proper discussion/debate is taking place.

I didn't even think about the education system and the fact that it constantly churns out idiots and dullards. I can say, without batting an eye, that the stupidest Japanese child is smarter than the average American child on any day of the week. At an elementary school near me they decided to not teach social studies to give the students a double session of math for the remaining two quarters. If they were being properly taught at school (AND at home.... yes learning doesn't stop at school) then they wouldn't have to do this. Its also sad that they just whacked social studies so quickly.

Ask yourself how many vaccines a Japanese child gets? (4)
How may does an American child get? (24)

Yeah.

[Junket]

WE have mob rule: it's called a democracy. Google it some time.

I thought you were smarter than this.

[SelflessnHumble]

I thought you were smarter than this.

Please. The only Government that this nation was founded on was a Republic.
Not the Rush Limaugh republican party...The old republic: for which it stands, remember?

I have to ask: what is your party?

Your one liner posts are always: empty.

[Junket]

Please. The only Government that this nation was founded on was a Republic.
Not the Rush Limaugh republican party...The old republic: for which it stands, remember?

I have to ask: what is your party?

Your one liner posts are always: empty.

So you admit that democracy does not exist here.

[Bo]

I think we the way our society has been constructed and shaped over time overwhelmingly creates naive and weak people. I mean i'm young and i see my generation as a total failure. Especially with all this technology for people to hide behind, it's almost as if everything except the people are growing. You always hear people talk about others who are Under-privileged, what about those who are 'over-privileged'?

Over in countries that are 'less developed' people don't worry about the trivial things like Americans do. And in that sense they are far ahead of us.

[Lipp]

Over in countries that are 'less developed' people don't worry about the trivial things like Americans do. And in that sense they are far ahead of us.

In my family we use an term of expression that loosely translates to 'Developed-Country-Problem', and say it out loud whenever someone whinges about something trivial. It's good fun

But yeah, let's all worry about the mongols uniting under one banner, defeating the tartars and getting their hands on catapults, for then we are doomed.

[sookie6]

OP, your observations make me think about my views on education..I'm talking how the kids are brought up. Nowadays parents want to give everything to their children...the children end up not having to struggle for anything which leads to weakness of character in my view...

Then one day the same parents notice that some children are more resistant emotionally, more clued up, determined and independent and they complain about their own kids whom they have made this way...

Often they don't realise that these kids they admire had somehow to fence for themselves and either to become stronger or to 'die' because their own parents did not have the means to spoonfed them...

Anyway..my opinion is a bit extreme on this subject but one struggling nation is always gonna be stronger than a somehow assisted one...it's a law of survival...

[Incognito]

Ask yourself how many vaccines a Japanese child gets? (4)
How may does an American child get? (24)

Yeah.

How does this fit into the equation at all? Vaccines have nothing to do with the character of a person. Take an American's cell phone, facebook access, grocery store, and car away, plop him on an island and he will die..... period. Take someone from a less developed country and drop them on an island and they will probably survive. Like Bo said, when society constantly caters to people the populace become weak. I too believe that, for the most part, my generation and the upcoming generation are both failures. Whiney brats who are so concerned with trivialities that they have no idea what life is really about.

I actually have three cousins who were raised [excuse me.... SPOILED] by parents who could never say "no". They were obnoxious as children (even to me as another child I couldn't stand them). Now that they all grew up where are they? Well the parents paid for all of them to go to college, but both sons still live at home (one looks like a neanderthal with his ridiculous caucasi-locks) and the daughter makes soap and is marrying someone who has money. LOL I think their ages are 28, 25, and 29. Sad, so sad.

[SelflessnHumble]

How does this fit into the equation at all? Vaccines have nothing to do with the character of a person. Take an American's cell phone, facebook access, grocery store, and car away, plop him on an island and he will die..... period. Take someone from a less developed country and drop them on an island and they will probably survive. Like Bo said, when society constantly caters to people the populace become weak. I too believe that, for the most part, my generation and the upcoming generation are both failures. Whiney brats who are so concerned with trivialities that they have no idea what life is really about.

I actually have three cousins who were raised [excuse me.... SPOILED] by parents who could never say "no". They were obnoxious as children (even to me as another child I couldn't stand them). Now that they all grew up where are they? Well the parents paid for all of them to go to college, but both sons still live at home (one looks like a neanderthal with his ridiculous caucasi-locks) and the daughter makes soap and is marrying someone who has money. LOL I think their ages are 28, 25, and 29. Sad, so sad.

I agree on every point here..but it's obvious a child's development can be adversely affected
by being given harmful vaccines the parents only think are mandatory because they are told.

[Incognito]

I have heard that some vaccines may cause some people developmental problems, but I don't think that vaccines have side effects adverse enough to affect the majority of a large population. To put it differently, yes, I do think there are some people who are stupid, arrogant, or otherwise unsavory because of being mentally affected by a vaccine. However I don't think that those people are numerous enough to be representative of America as a whole. The epic fail that we see before us stems from a society that creates undeserving people with a massive sense of entitlement who then raise their children in the same way. I think that people should have to get licenses to have children, seriously. Then maybe we could nip this in the bud. That is another whole thread though. Maybe I'll get started on that.