Children

The New Age view has it that children commit anti-social acts not because of congenital spiritual imperfection, but because of either biological imperfections (i.e., bad genes, allergies, bio­chemical imbalances) or socio-familial forces (prime among which is the ubiquitous "dysfunctional family"). In either case, the causative mechanism is beyond the child's control.

The old-fashioned view has it that a child's potential for evil (not all, mind you, but part of every child's nature) can only be contained with liberal amounts of unconditional love and firm discipline. The New Age view posits that love is enough; further, that the misbehaving child needs not discipline, but understanding and "help."

And so, because the New Age view has prevailed (albeit, in many individual instances, unwittingly), American children, by and large, have not been properly disciplined for more than a generation. They've been worshiped; at the least, treated with kid gloves. Instead of subduing the narcissistic impulse, adults have unleashed it. What today's child wants, he thinks he deserves.