Reply #9: Exactly. Rudeness in society is a result of "me, my, mine"... [View All]

Kids are simply expressing the kinds of behaviors they learn every day in popular culture -- that you're worthless unless you are properly "branded", that instant gratification is to be expected, and that selfishness is a virtue.

The problem isn't a lack of respect for authority. The problem is the lack of a common decency toward others. Rather than living life by the Golden Rule, more and more people (many of whom are adults) live life by the mantra of selfishness for self-gratification. That's what kids are picking up on.

Personally, I've never had much use for "authority" -- even when I was a junior officer in the military. Authority is meant to be challenged in order to prove itself legitimate -- I would never teach kids to simply "accept" it. However, I always have gone out of my way to treat other people with decency and respect, because that's the way my parents taught me to live, and I plan to teach my future children the same.