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This is part of a broader phenomena I see: people have less and less trust in any authority, with increasingly good reasons. High social trust is the bedrock o

• slowmovintarget 5y ago
  It's a bit of both, and it began in the 1960s. In Western societies, violent crime increased, poverty and its effects began to increase. One of the few common denominators was the constant narrative drum-beat that "the system is rigged." We even teach it to primary school children now. It's a message designed to foment violent revolution, mostly with the hopes of creating a communist dictatorship as a successor to Western democracy. It's also a message that's been useful for creating mobs. You know, right out of Rules for Radicals and Engels' writings. In the 1940s, Britain had unattended newsstands. People would select a newspaper or periodical, and leave their money in a cup, making correct change. In New York, there were "cafeterias" that did essentially the same where diners selected their food from an open buffet, totaled up their tab, and informed the cashier what they should pay. Both in Britain, and in the U.S. these things disappeared out of necessity in the 1960s. When you make a concerted effort to educate people to think that imposition of Law and a civil society is a "rigged system" designed to "keep them down" the natural reaction will be to disregard social norms for moral behavior. And this is what we've seen. It's just gotten to a fever pitch and become pervasive now.