The weakest generation in history?

[bleeding heart]

Too frickin funny!

If that's how your children and their children behave, whose fault is that?

Mine don't.

Too frickin funny!

It's always a laugh listening to disgruntled old farts being jealous of youth.

If that's how your children and their children behave, whose fault is that?

Mine don't.

Good point. I adored the way my children were polite and civil and generous-hearted. (They atill are, but now they're adults.)

At any rate, since we all have to go on are personal impressions....our house was Teen Central during the early 2000's, lots of coming and going and the damn kids eating all my snacks....but these were really nice kids.

So I'm just not seeing it.

[jacee]

Good point. I adored the way my children were polite and civil and generous-hearted. (They atill are, but now they're adults.)

At any rate, since we all have to go on are personal impressions....our house was Teen Central during the early 2000's, lots of coming and going and the damn kids eating all my snacks....but these were really nice kids.

So I'm just not seeing it.

Me neither.

Though if some cranky old fart got in their face they would be able to stand up to him.

[bleeding heart]

Though if some cranky old fart got in their face they would be able to stand up to him.

Which would then be offered as proof of how rotten today's youth are.......

[jacee]

Which would then be offered as proof of how rotten today's youth are.......

Exactly.

Maybe Argus, Peeves et al will find a soulmate here:

http://crabbyoldfart.wordpress.com/

Surely to God we’ve exhausted this nation’s supply of caterwauling nancy boys and are ready to bring some damned decent singing back to the national stage. Four part harmonies plus straw boaters equals toe-tapping, good clean family fun.

Or

Advances in Cryogenics

But not for the benefit of the elderly. Rather, I’d suggest we flash freeze young people, stuff them away in a meat locker somewhere and refrain from defrosting them until either I’ve died or someone has come up with a cure for dumbassery and sass mouth – whichever comes first.

And the classic ...

Enjoy your New Year’s Eve but keep the damned noise down. I’ll be in bed by 9:30.

And I'll close with this ...

http://bucultureshock.com/?p=20094

People have complained about younger generations since the beginning of language. Either this current generation is the worst in human history or we were all jackasses in our own unique ways at the age of 12. Perhaps both are true.

The cradle will rock. It was meant to.

Edited October 20, 2012 by jacee

[Mighty AC]

Recently, I read an essay by a boomer that made a very compelling case that the boomer gen was/is weak, narcissistic, lazy, demanding, catered too, etc. Basically the same negative charges we hang on our current youth. The author believed the boomer arrogance stemmed from a few factors. Post war parents really working hard to make their life much easier. The largest period of economic growth in human history has made their existence easier than most. The sheer size of their generation has lead to years of ass kissing by business and government. I'll post a link when I find it again.

[Guest Peeves]

and they REFUSE to get OFF our LAWN

Well.....'mow' them down....

[Wayward Son]

I most certainly don't want to make light of trajedy, and am not referencing any single incident. But I'm kind of troubled about the narcisism and victim mentality of so much of today's youth. In fact, I think you could start with the sixties generation to track a gradual downward slide in the level of mental toughness and maturity of the people in the western world. While life has never been better, suicides have never been more common among the young.

Not true. Among teenaged boys suicide rates have been dropping by about 1% per year for a long time. The suicide rate among boys aged 15 - 19 in Canada was 19/100,000 in 1980. It has steadily fallen year by year since. In 2008 the rate was 12.1/100,000. In terms of absolute numbers among young Canadian men the number of suicides has fallen from 249 (1980) to 156 (2008). The rate has increased for young women at the same time, but they commit suicide in much smaller numbers than their male counterparts. The number of 15 - 19 year olds (of both sexes) in Canada who committed suicide was 299 in 1980, and had fallen to 233 by 2008.

And by the way the suicide rate for males as a whole in Canada for 2008 was 17.9/100,000. So teenaged males with a rate of 12.1 were well below most other age groups. The group with the highest rate (ages 40 - 59). And the overall suicide rate among all Canadians is at its lowest since about 1968. Yes the numbers were significantly lower in the 1950s and before, but to be honest I simply do not trust the accuracy of suicide numbers from the 50s or earlier. It was a different culture. A relative of mine committed suicide in the mid-50s, and was a tightly kept family secret. So you can be pretty sure that it was never reported as such.

[cybercoma]

Would you risk your life for a new TV?

Been down to Future Shop on Boxing Day in recent years? haha

[ThePoliticalBouillon]

I think it's essentially because of the lack of drive and passion that kids are becoming complacent. They think that the world owes them a living and once they graduate university, jobs will be offered to them. It's this fantastical world of easiness which is the trouble for North American youth. They've never felt hunger, or what it felt like to earn enough to keep the family afloat. We talk about technological and economical barriers, but rarely do we acknowledge the existence of a social barrier. It's a bubble that's waiting to be popped and I sincerely believe that chaos will insue afterward when they decide to wake up either by not finding a job, or by the needle in the form of stiff competition from third world countries.

[Sleipnir]

Weakest generation in history is a very vague term...I would personally say that the Toba catastrophe that occurred between 69,000 and 77,000 that reduced the entire population of humans to 1,000 breedings - would be the weakest generation in human history. Simply because with only 1,000 breeding pair, humans could have easily been wiped out by another disaster.

[August1991]

And with technology being so integrated into our lives more than ever, the changes are exponentially occurring. You have just got the hang of something current, and yet there has already been another change. That causes stress just in of itself.

I'm not so certain of that.

A person born in 1890 who lived 80 years to 1970 would have been born into a world without cars, telephones, radio, television, airplanes, penicillin, and yet they would have seen a man walk on the moon.

For people born in 1970 and who live 80 years to 2050, will they see so many changes in their lifetime?

Edited October 25, 2012 by August1991

[Bonam]

For people born in 1970 and who live 80 years to 2050, will they see so many changes in their lifetime?

Yes, absolutely. More so if anything. Ubiquitous computing, the internet and instant worldwide communication, huge advances in medical technology, the mapping of the human genome, advances in material science, nanotechnology, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, cloning, genetic engineering, clean energy, etc. And that's just from 1970 to 2010, we still have the other half of those 80 years.

The world is changing faster than ever. It just doesn't feel like it cause you're living it.