If a kid sees their mom and dad smoking all the time, they’ll probably start to believe that it’s not as dangerous as other people say. “They seem to be fine, so I should be fine too.” I legitimately heard this often while growing up, sadly. If you grow up around a bad smell, you might not think of it as “bad” smell, since you’re already used to it.
If someone is already depressed and hates life, they might not care about the harm that they’re causing themselves 20 years later. I’ve known way too many people who didn’t believe that they would stay alive until adulhood. Some of these people started these bad habits expecting to not have to stick around long enough to deal with the consequences.
Throw in the chaos of the last handful of years, along with the constantly depleting mental health resources, and I can’t say that I’m really all that suprised.
Even today, many countries have certain types of people trying to obliterate what’s left of mental health resources. Then they wonder why their kids are struggling with mental health.
I can only imagine what it’s going to be like for Gen Alpha when they get older, poor kids.
Let’s say there’s a pair of new parents, and that they don’t have family support. This is already a common reality for many new families.
Let’s say that now there’s a mandated enlistment because of a war. Which parent will go? Will they play rock paper scissors, or will they have to trust the government to randonly decide for them? Is it ethical for the government to decide who goes? Is it ethical for them to make new parents make that choice?
If they’re both going, who will care for the young child? I certainly wouldn’t trust strangers to watch babies en masse if the parents would be gone for a very long time at minimum.
Maybe mandated enlistment isn’t where it’s at, and maybe we should also be making sure that we’re giving people a reason to want to fight for their country again. Laws against fleeing will only do so much when we have such a large planet.
Do you do a better job when you’re forced to do something, or do you do a better job when you’re passionate about something?