The world has undergone significant change in the last forty years. One of the consequences has been the rise of extreme change. There has been a tendency by some to abandon anything that was traditional & adopt its complete opposite. We live in a world with many views and cultures which vary from resisting all change to promoting change without even considering the issue. 

Some very strange decisions are being promoted as rational actions at times. Dissent can be silenced by peer pressure. We go from one extreme to the other. There seems to be a need by some people who have to have things in black & white that we either have one end of the spectrum action or the opposite end action as if these are the only two choices.

Examples of this phenomena:

Some psychiatric patients should never have been hospitalised so all hospitals get closed & people who need to be in care end up wandering the streets

Some children got hit at school when really they needed help so now some children get no rules established or clear boundaries.

Moving from giving prisoners the death penalty to a slap on the wrist. 

And is this approach kept consistently in all situations to all people or might it in effect be creating an environment where people are so kind and caring in some situations that they are actually more likely to be the opposite in other situations?

Fortunately some of these extreme changes are just part of a process of change. Change often works like a pendulum where people change something to it’s opposite before people realise that a solution may lie somewhere in between. But to many people such extreme changes are hard to fathom. We just look on in disbelief & wonder how some leaders can make such stupid decisions or changes.

Its time to say goodbye to dumbing down & welcome back the phenomenon of thinking about a course of action before embarking on change.

Supernanny is a good example of this(http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/S/supernanny/). Because in the past children got smacked & sometimes treated very badly, the 80s saw the emergence of extreme leniency towards some children by some adults. Teenagers not making room for adults on footpaths or cycle ways and many other nasty unthoughtful behaviours which in a way are all manifestations of children growing up without education or expectations on them to show decent behaviour to others. As true to the pendulum theory however, such behaviour is a nightmare for parents to put up with in a family & not surprisingly we are now seeing shows where parents get shown how to teach their children to behave appropriately.

Teachers can often be the meat in the sandwich especially with parents who indulge their own children and don’t set proper boundaries. Children from such families tend to find classroom situations difficult to adjust to because they are not used to sharing or doing as instructed and consequently don’t relate so well to their teacher or fellow students. It is not uncommon for such parents (in need of skills) to rally against the teacher thinking they have to defend their child. This is one of the reasons that morale has fallen among many teachers especially if they feel unsupported by their superiors and the school authorities.

Have you ever noticed that some of the most aggressive dogs are owned by aggressive people. Dogs often reflect the character of their owners. The increase in savage owners and attacks on people is another indicator of society needing help. Such dogs should never be permitted but unfortunately many leaders have lost their authority to lay down the law. This seems to be where a lot of the problem lies in society losing its authority. While pushing for strong leadership can sound reactionary, lack of leadership can allow thug mentality to reign supreme. So strong leadership that pushes progressive tolerant policies and stamps out violence is essential to making society safe for all.

New South Wales, Australia, has now banned the American Pit Bull Terrier, the Dogo Argentino, the Brazilian Fila, and the Japanese Tosa dogs from importation. But questions should be asked about why these dogs were ever allowed in the first place. And these breeds are the tip of the iceberg. These breeds are the meanest of the mean, and should be just the start. But what about many other breeds? When people affirm that they are safe and don't need agressive dogs for protection and don't need tough dogs to prove they are tough, then this problem will be resolved. All that is really required is for people to affirm that they are fine the way they are and that they don't need to put on some show of bravado.

We see shows like South Park that can be very funny and entertain but which can also be questionable. Maybe the fault lies with the fact that not everyone shares the same level of intelligence. Maybe it is genetic, but my bet is on cultural underpinnings. If people are raised in situations where reading and abstract thinking is undervalued, they tend to emerge as adults in a similar fashion. Watching some programs (eg Simpsons or South Park) & taking them literally rather than seeing them as satire could perpetuate backward views towards many sections of the world’s population and of appropriate behaviour for themselves towards others.