Today's Thought for the Day

Those who harshly criticize the latest generation are forgetting who the current youth have as role models.

I figured the inspiration came from here-
http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?65423-Why!!!!-Hipsters!!!-Why!!!!!/page103

Whenever I read the supposed Socrates quote, I have to ask myself:
- If blasting the current generation was just a way for older folk to blow off steam, why has it been taken so seriously in every generation despite the fact that the complaints are always exactly the same?
- What if it turned out to be a kind of generational mass shaming ritual that is necessary to teach the next generation of adults to take care of their own business first before they start trying to better society?

You've got an old generation on the way out, in a world they no longer understand. Perhaps blasting it is their way of consoling themselves that they didn't want it anyway - like not getting invited to a party and telling yourself it's going to stink anyway, and you're actually glad you're not invited. "I'm glad I'm not going to be around when you kids send the world to hell in a hand basket".

This isn't an old generation necessarily. It's the generation that's running things. They're concerned that the ones coming up will make the same mistakes they did, which would be unfortunate. And sometimes that they won't make the same mistakes, which would be unfair.

Bruce Wayne said:

Those who harshly criticize the latest generation are forgetting who the current youth have as role models.

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you mean parents as role models ?

role models often skip a generation; that's why many young 20 somethings are rediscovering the style and culture of their grandparents, and turning their back on what their parents represent.

Many in raw numbers perhaps. In relative terms, vanishingly few.

Most young people will always get their style and culture from their peers and from marketers. In fact the generation running a market society is probably more worried about the ones who can't be marketed to.

What I think kids do get from parents is mores. This too can be a problem. What you want for a child growing up is not always, maybe not ever, what you want for hi/r when grown up. Somewhere along the line, you need to teach them you were wrong. Sometimes your advice was wrong. Sometimes your scolds were wrong. Worst of all, sometimes even your love can be wrong! (Love by itself is not wrong, but in a world where much is wrong and out of our control, that love can lead us to bad places with good intentions.)

For instance, young parents probably often hope their kids' cohort will be the ones to change the world. By the time those same parents are middle-aged, they usually don't want the world changed. Some, especially in times like these, want desperately to tell their grown children to stop trying to fix the broken pieces and just learn to live with them.

Pompidou said:

You've got an old generation on the way out, in a world they no longer understand. Perhaps blasting it is their way of consoling themselves that they didn't want it anyway...

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yes; every generation is egotistical enough to think that it was the last one that represented something important that has now gone for ever.

Fletch said:

This isn't an old generation necessarily. It's the generation that's running things. They're concerned that the ones coming up will make the same mistakes they did, which would be unfortunate. And sometimes that they won't make the same mistakes, which would be unfair.

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That is the "old generation." Think about it this way: when social security was introduced, most people in the U.S. died before age 65, the set "age of retirement." It's only in recent decades that we've lived past that, substantially. Hence the generation in charge now would be the "old generation" of a few generations ago. The "old generations" of today- people in their 70s, 80s, and 90s, simply didn't exist in vast numbers.

Most of the resentment I see about Gen Y, anyway, comes from people in their prime working years. They're deeply skeptical, and often threatened, by the way Gen Y is trying to redefine the work ethic and the work-life balance. They're afraid these kids will fail, and jealous they might succeed.