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Actually,by invoking the changed habits of the constabulary, and the comparative rootlessness of the inhabitants of the town, you too are pointing to moral decline as a factor, although you might speak in more sociological terms. I think that there was too great a trade- off between personal freedom and responsibility in the 60s, when I was a child, and that it has had the most adverse effects on those who are most vulnerable: the "underclass", those who are chronically unemployed, educationally disadvantaged, and most prone to instability, not only African- Americans, but white migrants from Appalachia and the Ozarks, some Hispanics, and others. I also think that it has made the family and social circumstances of even those who are economically more secure a bit more vulnerable, and pushed those who might have been at the edge anyway into crisis........... |
