Soft times breed soft folks. We've allowed dogooders to absolve people of personal responsibility and lawyers to pursue suits that have lead to a cultural distaste for risk.

Nerf covers everything (real and metaphoric), of course we're a lot doughier than before (also, in a very real and metaphoric sense).

But then, when push comes to shove most people would prefer to be a little too fat, a little too comfortable, and a little too complacent than lean, discomforted and hungry.

(also explains why the warnings of bad things to come out of Muslim lands were aggressively ignored in the 90s)

Thanks for the lead to this book. I will definitely read it.

xwl

Isn't that what we strive for though? We don't want our children to have to deal with roving bands of Indians, short lives, and a uncertain existence. Soft times means you have largely succeeded and can turn your mind to curing diseas, lessening poverty, etc.

The life illustrated usually means a family trying to make a better life for themselves and their offspring and not have to reload or slit throats. Blowing a single adventure tale into a condemnation of an entire people is harder than it looks.

Richard,

I suppose I would support your position if we actually accomplished what we are striving for these days. I mean, if the settlers back then crossed the country in a fashion similar to today's war on pverty, they would still have not left the east coast.

xwl's point is valid in my opinion. What has replaced the pioneer's can-do attitude is one of a complete lack of presonal responsibility.

So sure, would I rather be focusing on curing poverty than avoiding indians? Of course, but the big the difference is they were successful and we are failing.

I wonder why...

No, we don't want our children "to have to deal with roving bands of Indians, short lives, and a uncertain existence," but we'd sure like for them to be able to deal with with those things if they had to.

And yes, the softness is what most of us really strive for. And politics has nothing to do with that basic fact; left softness and right softness are just two different flavors of the same opiate. Seeking ease is pretty fundamental in our culture. Putting yourself out there on the cracked and bleeding edge is something you have to try to do, most of the time, and I bet that's the way most of us would prefer it. I know I would.

Life is easy because we want it to be. And because it can be. That's why a lot of us are probably squishy instead of resilient. But we'll never know which one of those things we are until the Indians come back out to make our lives uncertain.

You can't have tested steel in your spine without the test.

I am glad to know that I, too, have married a great woman. There are some out here still that would readily rise to such a challenge, and we need to remember that the attrition rate among 19th century pioneers was somewhat greater than 0%. While it is true that there is a great deal of softness - sloth, if you will - in our current culture, in times of crisis the strong reappear, do what is necessary, and then return quietly to their homes and families.

The problem, though, is that too many people are using these soft times in order to dedicate their lives to hectoring other people on how they should live their lives. With all these modern discussions of "rights" and such, too many people seem intent on ignoring my right to be left the hell alone.

Most people are not descendants of the pioneers. My family has been in California for 7 generations. We are still all fiercely independent. Also...people who were nuts enough to go West at that time were...well...a little nuts.

"I found myself wondering how so many of their descendants came to evolve into the soft people we've become today."

We don't have a challenge that requires us to not be soft. Were we challenged, I think many of us could / would revert... anyway, btw and IMO, the worst tend to not be people with roots in the west... They showed up after the area was subdued and made prosperous...

GOP4ME

If you have to put yourself out there, there ain't gonna be many people participating. One reasing the Corps manpower requirements are small. My point is that this is the natural point for a prosperous country with no direct threats. Yes there is terrorism but we do not have a North Korea on our border or are surrounded by countries intent on wiping you out. There is no challenge you are forced to rise to only challengers you choose to participate in.

Mark Webster

This is what you get when a large proportion of people turn over their responsibilities to the government. The government will govern you whether you like it or not.

"I found myself wondering how so many of their descendants came to evolve into the soft people we've become today."

The descendants of the ones that made it over the pass aren't that soft, and are a large part of the California Republican party.

Unfortunately they are greatly outnumbered by those who came here later by bus, car, and plane.

IMO, striving for a life of leisure as adults is not a bad thing. To each his own.

However, we should be raised learning personal responsibility. And, we should be physically and mentally challenged during our formative years; somewhere between today's softness and the upbringing of the Spartans.

You don't have to look any further than the MEN & WOMEN in the military !! Also, there were a lot of "softies" who wouldn't leave NY, PA, NJ, etc. at that time also.

Remember that 80% of the people who emigrated west in the 1800's either died or returned home within a very few years. The relative few that survived long enough to procreate wanted something better (softer) for their children.

I believe a Roman general was quoted as saying:
"We must study war, so that our sons may study engineering, so that our grandsons may study poetry."

Look how soft the English nobility became, these descendants of the Normans who conquered England.

It happens every time. I just do not know of any culture or group of people that has survived prosperity.

To my shame I once took a wife who was a borderline personality--who, when I was under attack, would get so excited by the rage of my enemy she would turn and slit my throat. The divorce is final in two weeks. A bad wife.

We work sedentary jobs, only to go nowhere on treadmills. Our culture seeks safety and comfort, then engages in extreme sports to satisfy our need to encounter and overcome odds. Some are content to satisfy that urge mindlessly hand-shaking one-arm bandits. Others pay Disney or other "adventure services" to experience an engineered, faux experience not at all on the edge, but deliving the sentimental equivalent of a "punch."

And now they've figured out that little boys really do develop better when they're left to play with guns.

Go figure.

This is why the Dangerous Book For Boys is such a phenom... Lots of us seem to realize that a world (or at any rate a hemisphere or so) in which "poverty" may include a car and a DVD player but, sadly, no subscription to Netflix, in which "hardship" may include the power going out for a couple of days in a comparatively well-insulated house with plenty of warm clothes on hand (and having to wear more than summer clothes indoors), may not be stressing us enough to prepare us for the real thing. Not that Dangerous really IS dangerous, for the most part, but at least it fosters an attitude that we're still capable of doing more than we actually need to do.

My family tent-camps. My husband loves it because he loves the out-of-doors and the family togetherness; I do it because, in addition to those things, I think it's valuable for our kids to understand that we can not just live but even enjoy ourselves with a whole lot less technology than we normally have handy. (Admittedly, we camp with a lot of technology: our tent doesn't leak, ever; our sleeping bags are very warm; while we always try starting a fire without matches or lighter, just for fun, we pretty much always use the backups because our patience gives out; and yes, we tend to cook more over our stove than over the fire. Maybe this summer we'll try it harder.)

To understand the soft vs hard trend all should read Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fisher--it details the 4 major British migrations to America and how each group was different in its folkways and the cultures they established. And the generalities hold true right up to today. What blows my mind is how the staunch Puritans that founded New England became the irreligious soft underbelly of the nation.