“Any idea where this is coming from?”
Oh, that’s an easy one: Parents!
What do we expect from parents who have refused to discipline their children? They grow up with a “You can’t tell me what to do!” attitude. They grow up arrogant and without humility. They have gotten everything they want and have been told what great thinkers they are. It is the typical underachiever complex.
They haven’t accomplished much with their lives but believe they could do anything they wanted so anything anyone else has done is nothing to admire. They haven’t accomplished anything so they haven’t placed their butts on the line. They have nothing to lose but are afraid to try. So, instead of trying, they try to tear down everything else. Simple relativism: They feel better relative to something else if they can just tear it down and bring down to their level. Otherwise, they have their feelings hurt. They exhibit simple childish behavior because no parent has ever challenged them, disciplined them, and they have nothing to show for their lives.
They believe by having gone to an easy liberal college they have accomplished great feats of heroism and daunting thought. Some go to the Army or Marines, do poorly in administrative positions, find themselves puny in comparison to the more accomplished soldiers, and resent the relative position they find themselves. We have on guy who claims “5 combat jumps”. hehe There haven’t been 5 combat jumps since he has been alive.
Some of the common traits I find of these adult children are that they smoke, play video games, are hot headed, and always try to prove what “men” they are., and they lie about everything. Typical underachievers.
Underachievers generally are too apathetic to make the effort to shoot somebody. Not that lack of discipline isn’t a big issue, but I think there’s more to this. Mental illness and demonic possession being part of the equation.
Toad, IMHO, you are right on target with those comments!
God insight.