people disparaging the youth of today. Saying they’re entitled. And callous. And rude. And so I point this out to them: –
“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”
No one is exactly sure who said that. They are pretty sure it was said somewhere in the 4th or 5th century BCE.
My point? Is that the elder always thinks the younger are bad. Or wrong. Or rude. Its a sign of getting old when you see a bunch of kids simply messing around on the street and all you can think is how annoying they are.
I do think people in general are less polite than they used to be. And I do think there are many many parents out there who do not parent. But I do not think the youth of today are any worse, or better, than I was at their age.
It’s generally attributed to Aristotle, who had plenty to say about the youth and education. Sometimes it’s attributed to Socrates/Plato but apparently it was decided it wasn’t them, I forget why though… ask Jadz, she’s the classics chick lol.
Coincidentaly we had a conversation about this subject last night here in China with a 22 year old college senior. ( He initiated the conversation!) His rational for the bad behavior of his generation is that they were never alloweed to “just be” so they never fully developed. When I think about how over-programmed some of m y grandchildren and great nieces and nephews are, I think he has a point. He also blames the ease with which psychotropic drugs were dispensed to his peers (including him) for the problems. He says ADD and ADHD were/are fad issues for his generation. Interesting dialogue overall!
PS Should have said American college senior at University of South Florida