A community maintains itself by instructing succeeding generations on how to conduct themselves as well as why they should behave in this fashion. This crucial task is the responsibility of parents, for it is their rearing of the child which decides if the progeny will mature into a dutiful, or self-seeking, citizen. Inevitably the instruction of children demands the enforcement of discipline, hence the adage:
"Spare the rod, spoil the child"
Contemporary parents (circa 2000) are unable to resist their instinct to indulge their offspring and interpret this adage as a command not a warning. Not only do they refuse to discipline their children, but they refuse to allow anyone else to repair this omission; which immediately classes them as child worshippers not child rearers. The deterioration in parenting is confirmed by the appearance of infantile school children — five-year-olds unable to do up buttons, use a knife and fork, use a toilet, sit still, talk properly, or know their name — and an epidemic of brats. As well as increasing numbers of older children who treat their parents and their community with blatant contempt.
The nature of modern (circa 2000) parents is revealed by observing a typical indulgent mother or impotent father, and the inevitable result is social decline — see the law of reverse civilisation.