When I was growing up, I was, I reckon, partly raised by my neighbours. Unlike today, they were not afraid to correct me when I stepped out of line. I remember the local shopkeeper would rush out to stop us when we "dared" to walk on the parapet of the river bridge on our way home from school. Now even decent people are too afraid to intervene in a similar situation. So the force of public opinion is very muted.
Young people are no longer ashamed to behave badly in front of their elders; in fact they revel in their contempt for society. Why has this drastic change come about? One reason may be that we then lived in smaller communities where everyone knew everyone else - seed, breed and generation and word of our misdemeanours got home even before we did. Now our communities have grown so large that sometimes we do not know even our near neighbours and we do not care for each other in the same old way.
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