In a time of the distant past where the days were filled with less complexity and the nights dragged on in joyous camaraderie is forever ingrained in my mind. It was a time when worldly existence was full of courtesies.
Now, after much soul searching, I can remember that it was the summer of ’68. What a wild summer that was, especially in Chicago. Having finished the summer courses at the university, I stayed the rest of the summer at our families’ house on Lake Geneva. There, on a late summer night, while visiting college camp, of course, there was a girl. We enjoyed those late summer days until Labor Day, when each of us went our separate ways.
I will always remember how the news of the world seems to suddenly change the perception that societies have of the world. Perhaps the lost incense of the last decade is now inexplicably linked to the onslaught of sociological changes that were beginning to invade the nation.
Since then I have traveled the world and seen firsthand the dire consequences of the sociological changes that began that summer of ’68. We have now tolerated more vulgarity as we condemn Dr. Seuss. Where Mr. Potato Head is no longer a Mr. These and other parodies on the realignment of society are some of the ways that really perplex my generation. Once again, I wonder if today these are the end results of those sociological changes that began so long ago.
The sociological changes that are taking place have actually created more complexities in trying to reorganize society. Where will it end? This is what is so puzzling. When gender reassignment is imposed and when standards from decades ago are no longer acceptable, it is an important reason to sound the alarm bells. Although they may be outdated, abandoning them entirely in the name of advancing society is nothing more than a crime.
Who would have thought 60 years ago that the norms of the society of that time would almost completely disappear? The transformation of those days of innocence to one of more discretion of the viewer, if you will, where the music almost dictated how society would change from one norm to another and when the government applies certain procedures, changes in the curricula have made that society, I would not say, evolve. but change to a point now of no return. A return to those norms that society had so long ago. In a way, some would say it’s a good thing. But, I really wonder how far it will go.