Rhetorically speaking you're off the charts, Appaloosa Lady. Start sorting instead of lumping all of the mishmash of stuff you're blaming for a world gone wrong and maybe you'll "get it."

"Society is composed of individuals."

No. That is where you are wrong. There is now a dwindling number of 'individuals' in this 1984 society, where so very many no longer think for themselves.

You're detecting the absence of critical thinking skills. But they're absent in your assessment also. Stand back and look at where you can make the difference, and it's clear.

It starts with parents. How much simpler can I make it? If parents don't set the example, buy the good toys, watch the good programs, read to their children, pay attention to the kids at playtime, and participate in their children's education and school, then problems erupt. No one's perfect, but you can do a darned good job if you learn to put your children first.

A woman in Dallas last week threw her two boys off of a freeway overpass, then jumped herself. Astonishingly, all survived. She blamed her boys for her inability to keep a boyfriend, and was so depressed she tried to kill them all.

What's wrong with this picture? She doesn't have much education or self-esteem, a byproduct of her upbringing, no doubt. She doesn't understand that the boyfriend isn't the most important thing in her life, those boys are. Were. She'll be in prison and they'll be in foster care.

It comes down to parents. And learning to be a good parent.

Our corporate, for-profit world makes it very difficult. And the trash we buy and subject ourselves to is part of the problem. There's a declutter thread going where a lot of us are trying to streamline our lives after amassing too much stuff, even if it is good quality stuff. Only in our modern society do we give "personhood" to corporations (giving them a great deal of leeway to continue to do harm with few if any consequences), but we can't abdicate our parental roles to the marketplace.

Prostitution is a business transaction between consenting adults. If it happens between minors and adults, it is a crime and isn't called prostitution. Self-esteem is just one issue of many contributing to this profession. Between minors, sex is often a crime, usually in which the boy is charged. There are problems with this outcome, because in the American society sexual frankness is not a long suit. (Think Cathy Trask in East of Eden). Other Western cultures do a much better job of teaching their young people about sexual behavior and responsibility.

SRS