2 Gen Gap

In the 1960s there was a generation gap - a time when younger people felt differently than the older people. A lot of people were hurt by this.

Parents felt they had lost their relationship with their children. Older people looked back to how things were between them and their parents and said "Yeah, there were a few issues between me and my parents - but nothing like this!"

Young adults and teenagers felt that they could not relate to their parents. The younger Americans had a different culture than the culture their parents had.

The parents of the younger crowd were people whose ideas and beliefs were shaped by WW2, and having come out of the big Depression (time of economic collapse).

The parents had learned to value hard work, dependability, sobriety (prohibition had made even wine & beer illegal), church, chastity, and putting out a good image of themselves.

The parents also respected money, sometimes to the point of being ashamed of not making enough money, and when they started to earn more, they still felt poor - the poorness was in themselves, not their wallet, so no amount of money could make them feel financially comfortable.

The 1950s saw parents obsessed with "keeping up with the Jones". Meaning that the parents felt the need to exhibit their wealth, or at least their lack of poverty. Mad magazine made a lot of jokes about this.

The younger adults and teenagers, felt there was more to life than a job and trying to impress the neighbors.

There was a pop question going around about the time I started dating: "Which would you rather have: A meal that taste good, served in a little cafe, or A flavorless meal, served in a very fancy restaurant?"

To some people dining is all about the tastefulness of the setting, to to other people dining is all about the taste of the food.

The younger crowd valued creativity, self exploration, fun, personal freedom, and the right to do almost anything they pleased. They had pre-marital sex, didn't marry when they got pregnant, and did not put the baby up for adoption - they failed to hide the pregnancy, and by carrying a baby around, openly admitted to having had premarital sex.

And some of them used recreational drugs. Parents were shocked.

It looks like there is somewhat of a generation gap again. It is a widespread, international change in Europe and America. I am told it is more advanced in some parts of Europe than in the US.

But it's NOT about sex or drugs, those revolutions of culture have already been done (in America).

It's about Animal Rights. That animals have rights too. The right to some freedoms.

The right to live free, or if kept captive, then the right to be treated as an employee of the group that is using them.

Chickens are the employees of egg factories. How well does the factory treat it's Avian employees?

Dairy cattle are the employees of the milk industry, and the younger and middle aged generations really want to know (like the commercial says) if the cows are content with their lives.

Beef cattle are the employees of the meat industry. Yes, it's not a job with retirement benefits, but are the cattle happy (or at least "contented" like the cows in the dairy commercial)?

Send a dog into space and it dies? She was your employee. I'm told their actually is a statue to honor dead space dogs, and that a puppy of a space dog was a gift from Russia to President Kennedy.