Children cry. There are many reasons for their crying, and their parents are there to help them in need. This is how it has been since the appearance of the human species. Things are changing, though. Now children cry much more loudly and much more often than ever before. On their own, bereft of relatives and neighbors whose children are past childhood, parents are not sure what to do about their crying children. Facing ever-stricter social norms about parental behavior, they are ever more ill at ease, as well. What should they do? How should they behave? Their needs unattended by their parents, children cry ever more loudly and ever more often. Which is why their crying is ever more annoying, for it is an ever-clearer indictment of their incompetent parents and their bewildering social surroundings. Indeed, the way children cry at this day and age amounts to an indictment of the entire social order to which they belong together with their parents. For proof of this proposition, it is enough to visit any village in the boondocks. The farther from civilization, the better. There, children also cry, but they cry entirely differently. In addition to their parents and relatives, the entire village is there to help them in need. And the needs of the crying children are attended to without delay.