Make Fear Fiction Again (OF V3)

[Shannon]

I can remember the 1980's and even the late 1970's. Let me tell you... we have come to be drowning in fear as a society compered to even back then. I remember as a 4 year old boy being allowed to go play without parental supervision until mom called me for dinner. I was told how far I could go, and she let me go. And I would go a good block or two away sometimes, and nobody bothered me and I never had any issues.

My mother and uncles tell me stories about them doing a lot more than that. It was expected that you were not going to do stupid shit back then, and you were responsible for yourself even at a young age. They used to do things routinely like spend entire days out at the lake alone playing on the rope swings and swimming without (close) adult supervision, all summer long, every summer as kids. Stuff that now would get parents thrown in prison, when really, it's just about how they used to actually teach kids to take responsibility for themselves and their choices, own the consequences, and not do stupid shit. If the kid wants to swim at the lake, make sure they know how to swim, how to stay safe, how to watch other kids and help keep them safe and how to deal with someone having trouble in the water.
And they did all that by age 4-5-6 back then. Long gone are the days of society expecting and teaching personal responsibility for anyone under 30 now. Sometimes, even older.

And now everyone is so afraid and distrustful, and often for good reason. Given how messed up people are these days in how they think and what they do, I wouldn't for a split second let any 4 year old I have, have the level of freedom I had. Not because I don't trust the kid, who I can teach and train, but because I don't trust the whackos out there. People don't seem to have common sense or any understanding of anyone else having any value, rights, etc. anymore. It's all about themselves and whatever they can get at whatever expense to anyone else.