As this article points out, smacking needs to be administered by a loving parent. There’s a big difference between disciplining a child out of love and being mean to your children all the time.
I was occasionally smacked as a child, and I certainly think it did some good. It taught me a basic sense of justice. And oddly enough, the few times I was spanked for something I didn’t do also taught me an acceptable lesson. I understood that the “injustice” was not purposely inflicted on me but was meant for the best, and I also came to understand, “that’s life.”
Besides, as someone once pointed out, if you didn’t do THAT, you certainly did something else!
Yes, I think the problem in many cases is that there’s no communication at all going on, and in addition, the parents for some reason seem to see virtually any normal child behavior that annoys them as something that requires the parental equivalent of a nuclear bomb. This could be because in many cases, there’s only one parent (the mother or sometimes even the grandmother) and she’s tired and burned out.
Of course, parenting styles are learned, so once the pattern is set, it’s very hard to move to a different one.