Columnist Ruthe Deskin: Modern world is spinning way too fast

Ruthe Deskin

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2000 | 9:18 a.m.

Ruthe Deskin is assistant to the publisher. Her column appears Thursdays. Reach her at deskin@vegas.com.

I have been thinking, and that could be trouble.

But, I believe, after eight decades on this old planet, I have the right to think back or ahead. The choice is mine. In this case, I am doing both.

What put me in this frame of mind was an advertisement on television. I was going about my own business when I heard a voice: "You don't have to worry about E.D., there's help for you." This was something new. I had listened to the touting of hair-growth products, wrinkle removers, plastic surgery and whatever. My curiosity mounting, I paid closer attention and learned that E.D. stood for erectile dysfunction.

Whoops! Wasn't this carrying things a bit too far? Viagra ads were enough, but now, E.D.? As they say, is nothing sacred? We senior citizens have come a long way and it is sometimes difficult to make the transition from the morality of our generation to modern openness and freedom from censorship.

It was tough for me to accept advertising touting the virtues of different brands of sanitary napkins. That's understandable if you come from a generation of women who disliked having to go to the drug store and purchase these necessities. You did it as unobtrusively as possible, blushing if a clerk exposed the box too prominently when bagging your purchase.

And what about the guys who bought condoms? There were no such things as open displays. Usually a bashful fellow would sidle up to the druggist and let his wishes be known. The druggist would reach under the counter and slip the purchase into a bag. All done with the utmost decorum.

As for birth control education itself -- well, the old stork story sufficed for several generations until one reached an age where the idea of a stork flying around with a diapered baby in its beak proved to be what it always was -- absolutely ridiculous.

Come to think of it, after the stork fable became obsolete, we learned of a new method of creating babies in a saucer. And who knows what will be next after surrogate parenting, artificial insemination, fertility treatments and cloning? A kinder Dr. Frankenstein in modern apparel?

Today almost everything we do or say has a sexual connotation. They sell used cars, soap, vacations, food products, cosmetics, clothes and you name it, all using the undertones of sexual satisfaction.

I would never advocate the return to a Victorian approach to living, but I do believe that some of the byproducts of the new morality are injurious to society. Incest, sexual molestation, serial killers, date rape, crimes against children, pedophiles and social diseases were rare and certainly not everyday occurrences.

The answer to that, given by modern sociologists, is that we just didn't hear about these crimes.

I don't believe it. My own transition from a home in the old Huntridge area -- where house keys were something to be lost and never used -- to a gated and guarded community is living proof that life was much safer and saner back then.

Teenagers having babies is much too common today. Young girls seem to think of pregnancy as "no big deal." Years back it was sinful and shameful and pity the poor girl who had to be shunted off to a home to have her baby so no one would know. Maybe if there was a stigma attached to teenage pregnancies there would be a lot less heartache for mother, infant and family.

All over the country today, people demand their rights. We were taught that with our rights came responsibilities. The family unit was important in our society, and religion, no matter what the philosophy, was part of living.

Year 2000 prognosticators are saying there are indications people are beginning to search for a new spiritual awareness and that's a good sign. Was it a better world in my youth? Not necessarily, but I would hope, as science moves us into even greater miracles to insure happiness and more productive lives, that we don't forget that greed, intolerance, hatred and bigotry can destroy all that is good.

In recent correspondence, good friend and longtime resident Bob McNutt put it this way: "I am personally concerned about the moral declines we are experiencing ... we have developed the morals of a rutting mink. This nation sorely needs a GREAT AWAKENING."

Perhaps a little bit of the old days stirred into modern mores could produce a world that is palatable to us all.