Are the 60s to blame for all the ills in society now?

I usually dismiss out of hand people who lack the moral courage to identify themselves… but every now and again, I make an exception for a minority with something of value to say.

As regular readers will know, most of my darts aimed at today’s young people are fired more in sorrow than in anger.

I will always be convinced that the social revolutions of the 1960s were a logical conclusion to events set in train after the First World War.

It is one of the great tragedies of social history that the sea changes of the 1960s have imploded to leave a fall-out of broken families, state reliance, selfishness and crime.

Anyway, I received an unsigned letter recently that seemed to neatly sum up the reasons why everything seems to have gone wrong.

The mystery reader wrote that from the 1950s and the muchtrumpeted “we won the war” Britain became convulsed by the ‘me generation’ that continued into the punk era of the 1970s and found its ultimate expression during the Thatcher years.

The author then referred to the lyrics of Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall Part 2, citing them as the perfect encapsulation of the rot, writing: “The lyrics from 1979, from the formative years of the parents of today’s miserable and troubled young people might help to explain why so many still emerge with basic literary skills.

“The old law of unintended consequences seems to have brought about an age of entitlement and it isn’t surprising that some people, of whatever age, express this through selfish and anti-social behaviour.”

I think it’s about time this debate was opened up.

There have never been better opportunities to express a view – you can register your thoughts on our website or write to the letters page.

And it’s high time we heard from our younger readers, too.

Do you think that the 1960s generation was to blame for all our current ills?

Write and let us know… but please, no more anonymity.

Have the courage of your convictions.