Aren't some people just plain rotten?

Where did all the bad kids go? When I was a kid, there were generally two categories of behavior, and even good kids could do bad things. And when they did bad things they were -- yes -- punished. They might end up like the fellow on the right, the photo of whom was captioned: "What bad kids get for Christmas." And that was like it was. We had to pay for our transgressions, and pay we did. Maybe the omnipresence of penalties for our transgressions didn't make us better humans, but in a way I suspect it did.

As there was punishment, there were also punchers. They came in the forms of parents, teachers, cops and preachers. Not only that, no parent batted an eye if a neighbor took us to task. Indeed, if a neighbor was driven to such a state of exasperation by our behavior, there was often more punishment to be meted out when we got home. We had, after all, disgraced the family and had cast aspersions on the disciplinary astuteness of our parents.

If we were punished at school, then we kept our traps shut about it. If we didn't, then again there was to be further punishment for bringing about that aforementioned family shame. Oh, by the way. Teachers were always right, so the idea of a parent taking his kid's side against the severity of a teacher or principal's punishment was unheard of. Not only were teachers right. Adults in general were right. Kids were very, very rarely right. About the only time they were was if there had been some sort of misunderstanding about the nature of their sin.

That was the whole point, you see. Children were born in sin and it was up to judicious adults to flail that out of them. Kids categorically did not know anything. Adults, on the other hand, knew all that there was a need to know. Kids were expected to defer.

Nevertheless, there were, even in those days, rotten and dreadful kids. These were the kids that stole, that spat, that fought, that urinated in public places, that sassed, that perpetrated unspeakable transgressions of every nature. The process in dealing with them was straightforward enough. Strap the bejesus out of them during their school years, and look forward to the day when they would drop out -- often at the end of 8th grade -- and then follow their careers through reform school and ultimately prison. I mean, it was all pre-ordained. Of course that was their destiny, for they were 'bad' -- they were bad to the bone.

It seems we don't have a lot of 'bad to the bone-ness' in contemporary society. What we have in lieu is excuses. Kids today, regardless of how atrocious their behavior, are transgressors because:
- they come from dysfunctional families (don't we all?)
- they are ADHD (kids don't do badly in school because they misbehave, they have a condition)
- they are autistic (there seems to have been a quantum increase in autistic kids in society, despite the fact that it is a gravely serious condition afflicting rather limited numbers)
- they are from a minority (works in some cases, but not in many others. There are also hugely successful people from all ethnic minorities)
- they have suffered abuse of a physical, emotional, sexual or even spiritual nature.
- they come from a home where both parents work
- they come from a single-parent home
- they come from an impoverished home
- they come from a home that is too affluent

And so on, and so on. Now, all of the above possibilities are applicable in some cases. They always were. My basic point is that there was a time in which we weren't so quick to exonerate a person for just plain bad behavior. If a child messed up at school, parents weren't so quick to indict the teacher. If the kid messed up in society, parents took ownership, rather than blaming the police, or the lack of sufficient youth facilities or other such fatuous nonsense. Other than a broken down ballpark I don't remember anything resembling a youth facility when I was a kid, nor do I remember any kid or adult being particularly exercised about the lack thereof. The point here being, we were usually too busy to actually worry about such things. We actually did have chores. We were also expected to be home for dinner, and to do our homework on weekday evenings. Not saying we always did. As I suggested, we were sometimes bad, and there were bad kids. But, there was always a price to be paid.

All the aforementioned, that are regularly used as excuses may indeed be 'reasons' in some cases for malefactions. But, a reason doth not an excuse make.