CB Radio

Those of you who are in your forties or older remember the CB, or Citizen Band, radio craze well.  This band, 11 meters, was designated by the Federal Communications Commission in 1958 as a place for private individuals to have access to radio communications.

Ham, or amateur, radio had been around forever; it was the beginning of radio communications.  CB required a license but it did not require proficiency testing like ham did.  I got involved in CB radio in the late 1960's and wound up with this license.

The licensing requirement was dropped sometime in the early 1970's and CB became so popular that it was a factory option for several years by the auto makers.  Truck drivers had been among the earliest users of these radios and they became the standard way of communicating between drivers.

CB became a place where profanity and filth prevailed.  I think this is what killed it with the average person.  I haven't owned or listened to CB in several years; I don't know whether it is still that way today or not.  I do know that there are an awful lot of former CBers who are hams now.

The Demise of Civility

As I get older, I become more convinced that people are not nearly as kind and thoughtful toward others as they used to be.  Perhaps this is just a natural part of getting older but I really don't think so.  I've thought about ways to quantify this but its one of those things that just cannot be measured.

All I can offer is anecdotal evidence but it does seem that everywhere I look, I see people being uncivil toward others.  Yesterday I was watching the PGA golf tournament on television.  The crowds at golf tournaments used to be famous for their  polite demeanor; not any more.  They yell, they taunt the players, and generally act like asses.

Although I haven't been a ham radio operator all that many years, I'm told by old timers that the airwaves are full of language that would not have been there forty years ago.  In fact, I was quite surprised when I got my amateur license at how much "CB" type discourse is out there.  I had always believed that amateur radio was a "genteel" hobby where everyone respected everyone else - not so!

Politics has always been a nasty business.  If you study historical news events, you find outrageous behavior among politicians from the very beginning of time.  However, it seems that our leaders have gotten to the point where they really do hate their opponents and try their best to "demonize" them.  Has this change in political behavior led to a polarization of our society or is it merely a reflection of it?  I really don't know.

What are the reasons for this loss of civility?  Like many other problems we face today, these values are not being taught at home anymore.  Our children are learning today that aggressive behavior is rewarded and those who are pacifistic are stomped on.  Public education occasionally makes a foray into this area (example: the "campaign" against bullying), but this effort ultimately cannot be successful without support from parents.

As I've told many people, I'm at an awkward stage in my life; I can remember being embarrassed when my Dad said the World was going to hell in a hand basket, but I'm now old enough to believe its true!