No Country for Old Men--or Old Women

Recently, my husband Chet and I watched the movie No Country for Old Men, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin, for the third time, or maybe it was the fourth; I forget, since it’s high on my list of “see-again” movies, and when a movie is high on that list, we tend to see it again and again, thus the rating “see-again.”

Anyway, though there are many memorable lines in the movie, one of them never fails to get me to thinking about how much this world we live in has changed since I was a girl growing up back in rural Georgia. The line to which I am referring occurs when Tommy Lee Jones, who plays the aging sheriff of a small Texas town, is sitting in a diner with another “old timer” and the man says, “I knew this world was in a mess when kids stopped saying, ‘Yes, sir’ and ‘Yes, ma’am.’” 

I don’t know about you, but I have also noticed this phenomenon. With a few exceptions, kids no longer say “Yes, sir” and “Yes, ma’am.” Neither do they say, “No, sir” and “No, ma’am.” What they do say, however, is “Yes,” “No,” Yeah,” “Sure,” “Uh, huh,” “Nope,” or some other word meant to convey the affirmative or the negative; but whatever it is they say, certainly isn’t followed by “sir” or “ma’am.”

I wonder why this is the case? Is it because parents today aren’t teaching their kids manners? Is it because parents have stopped demanding that their kids show them and other adults a little respect by addressing them as “sir” or “ma’am”? Who knows? I certainly don’t. What I do know, however, is that if my siblings and I had addressed our parents without adding “Sir” or “Ma’am” to whatever we were saying at the moment, we would have faced one—or all—of several swift reprisals:

1. Seeing our mother or father go white around the mouth before he or she growled, “Don’t you dare talk to me in that tone, young lady (or young man). What on earth happened to your manners? Were you raised in a barn?”  
2. Having our behinds spanked.
3. Being sent to bed without supper.
4. Having our mouths washed out with Lifebuoy soap.
5. Finding ourselves grounded for a year, with no time off for good behavior. 

Of course, I realize that at least two—maybe even three—of the repercussions listed above would in today’s world result in a child’s parents being accused of child abuse, which is probably one of the reasons why kids today are so ill-mannered, but enough about that. 

In my opinion, that old timer in No Country for Old Men is right; this county is in a mess. Of course, in reality, kids’ lack of respect for their elders is just one of many symptoms of a disease that’s been gnawing away at the fabric of civility in this nation, or what little bit of civility remains, for some time now. And that disease is apathy. That’s right, apathy. Kids today simply do not care. They’re too lazy and indifferent to care. (There are of course exceptions.) But why should kids care? Their parents certainly don’t care. For if they did, those parents would do something to change the situation. They would, in fact, demand that their kids show a little respect for their elders. Then again, I guess the sad reality is that most kids today don’t think their elders deserve any respect; and, of course, that leads to another question: Exactly whose fault is that? And I think we all know the answer.

No Country for Old Men: Google Images

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