There is one underlying fact in the story of Christine Ford’s accusation of Brett Kavanaugh that is undisputed and that is that in the Washington suburbs of 35 years ago there was a culture of entitlement, excess, and irresponsibility. The parents of the young people engaging in excessive teenage drinking and promiscuous sex were absent, disinterested, and complicit and they were the people governing the country. If you can’t keep your own house in order, how in the heck can you be expected to look after the people’s business?
Does anyone seriously think that things are better today? If anything they’re probably worse.
I’m only a couple years younger than Kavanaugh. A lot of the same themes I see in the archeology of Kavanaugh’s teenage time and place are very similar to my experience in a regular public high school in suburban Denver.
Yes, we had a lot of freedom as teens back then. And, as was the case for Kavanaugh, the drinking age was 18 which meant a lot of HS seniors could buy alcohol.
Is it worse now? I don’t think so, there is too much helicopter parenting going on. And extracurriculars are even more important now, particularly volunteering.
Elite teens today have very tight schedules, closely managed by their parents, to get all the required “checks” necessary to get into elite universities, particularly for those who aren’t legacies. Teens today, IMO, don’t party nearly as much as I did.
It has actually been pretty well documented that teen drinking and sex occur at much lower rates now. They probably peaked in the 80s and 90s, when Kavanaugh was in high school. Of course back then you could get into Harvard or Princeton just by having wealthy and influential parents and going to famous prep school. That has changed a bit. Now there is so much more competition to get into those schools. Kids have study a bit more. Extracurriculars are more important (though they are geared mostly towards stuff that only rich kids can do) also.
However, what I would bet is as bad or worse is the hierarchy in that social structure.
Steve