Have older people always moaned about the "youth of today"? Are young people getting steadily worse or do we just get less tolerant with age?
by 
lady fuschia
ANSWERS: 8
-
Complaints about "the youth of today" date back at least to Imperial Rome, and probably a lot further. Every generation has to re-learn the lessons that their parents. Sometimes they learn them differently, which is how civilisations change. So there is nothing new about this complaint. Having said that, the pace of change is constantly accelerating. So, while every generation has always been differnt from its predecessor and prompted the complaints you describe, the difference between the generations is probably greater now than it never has been - and hence the opportunity to complain about the youth of today.
-
Yes, young lady and it's particularly your lot that gets us all wound up! Seriously. older ones have been whining about this for thousands of years. Hear is a link to some quotes (and perhaps misquotes) of complaints about youths. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=398104 The young people that I work with are pretty cool. The times that we live in can certainly be challenging, but the human spirit stays strong.
-
Ask Plato.
-
Yes, people are getting steadily worse, because we invest less and less in education, and more and more in selling toys and gizmos manufactured in low-cost countries. This is particularly true in America, where we've decided to allow the private sector to grow without bounds, while keeping the public sector restrained under the mantra "low taxes; small government." The result? Marketing departments of large corporations (including the media) have more impact on the development of our children than primary or secondary school (and parents are pretty much out of the loop). Yet, because of our "keep your filthy socialist hands off my business!" policies, we are not allowed to question the values that underpin the marketing programs that are aimed at childrens. The shareholder is king, and profits are the justification. It's easy to say that this is pure capitalism at work, therefore ultimately efficient, and therefore sacred. But at some point we should question whether all this market efficiency is making the world a better place. I (an MBA) am starting to think that it's not, and that some rethinking is in order.
-
!think as you get older you do get more irritable and you remember hearing about "kids today" when you were kids and think "well we weren't this bad!" about the kids of today when you probably were. However, as a kid of today I would back up the degredation of society and say things are getting worse. In the Wedding singer the old lady said, "when I was your age I slept with 3 people. That's like a hundred by todays standards." This is true. Sex is paraded around, violence is accepted more. It's like the second coming must be somewhere near.
-
I think there is real decline in society.
-
Yes. People have always griped about the younger generation. And yes they usually were right to gripe. ---- However, the majority of kids today. Are in my opinion good. But the bad ones are worse than ever before and the few bad apples are giving the majority a bad name.
-
Both I think. As I get older, I'm saying the same thing. "Damn kids!" I think we get less tolerant, but also, I believe that the kids are getting worse.
Thriftymaid 
Hardcore Conservative RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC